Retro Game Friday: Mario Tennis 64

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m back with another Mario game. It’s Mario Tennis 64!

Plot Synopsis: There’s a competition with plenty of familiar faces from various Mario games.

Gameplay: The game was pretty fun, and the physics was actually really well done for it’s time. There were plenty of ways to trick your opponents and it got really hectic when you played with some friends. I remember trying to trick my friends by constantly switching between the different returns and them getting more than a bit pissed off about that.

Art: The art sadly has aged really poorly, but that’s to be expected when it’s an N64 game.

Music: Classic Mario, no more need be said.

Overall: A fun game, but definitely not a must play.

For those who like: Sports, Tennis, Mario, Multiplayer.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Retro Game Friday: Mario Golf

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m covering a Mario sub-series that is fairly obscure. It’s Mario Golf!

Plot Synopsis: Wait you’re expecting a plot to a game about Golf? Seriously?

Gameplay: The gameplay is pretty boring, in fact this is a pretty lame game. The game was all about hitting the “sweet spot” by tapping the A button at the correct time while aiming towards the hole. If you could do that successfully and repeatedly, the game quickly devolved into a really boring repetition of that single “mini-game”. Now that isn’t to say this was a terrible game, by all accounts it was great for multiplayer, although I never did convince my friends to play the game with me, because “Golf is boring”, so I can’t confirm or deny that.

Art: The art is quite a bit like it came out of Mario 64, which shouldn’t be a surprise to be honest. That means it’s aged incredibly poorly, and the game looks like crap now a days.

Music: It’s Mario music, but toned down because you’re playing “Golf”.

Overall: Skip this game, it’s really, really not worth going out of your way to even bother playing it.

For those who like: Golf, Sports, Mario, Repetitive Minigames.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Retro Game Friday: Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m covering an obscure title in the Mario series. It’s Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga!

Plot Synopsis: The setting of the game begins in the Mushroom Kingdom, but progresses to the Beanbean Kingdom for the majority of the game. In the game, Mario and Luigi combat Cackletta, the primary antagonist. The quest begins when Cackletta, with the aid of her assistant Fawful, steals Princess Peach’s voice after adopting the guise of an ambassador from the Beanbean Kingdom.

Plot: It’s so cliche that it hurts. So the plot wasn’t amazing. The gameplay was the real draw of this particular entry in the Mario series.

Gameplay:It’s a turn based RPG with some time based button press inputs to increase damage. It’s not amazing, and it’s not the best RPG battle system I’ve played. That said it wasn’t the worst either.

Art: Pixel based so it still stands up today, although it has aged.

Music: Pretty standard Mario music.

Overall: Skippable unless you are really bored and need and RPG to play.

For those who like: Mario Games, RPGs, Slapstick Humor.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Retro Game Friday: Super Smash Bros.

This week I’m covering the original casual fighting game. It’s Super Smash Bros.

Plot Synopsis: Wait you were expecting a fighting game to have a plot?

Plot: See above.

Gameplay: The gameplay was good, although some characters were ridiculously overpowered, like Fox or Samus or Ness. Having only 12 characters was the only downside to this game, but at the time it was a lot of characters.

Music: It took music from the various series represented in the game, as well as some original music. Nothing amazing though.

Art: It shows it’s age now, but back in the day it looked pretty freaking good.

Overall: If you’ve never played it you should give it a whirl, just don’t pay more than a few dollars for it.

For those who like: Nintendo games, Fighters, Casual fighting games.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above, or fighting games with a shallow learning curve.