Trunkin said: Mr Puggsly said: I think its the 4 player split screens. Little content is okay eith more screens. Same thing with Smash Bros. Lots of players, little depth or value, great scores. I think they have great gameplay though. It just seems they lack what is expected of most games. Smash has a lot of content compared to every other fighter on the market. I guess I can understand how you'd say there's little depth, if all you've played of smash is 4-player matches with items and stage hazards, but the games presence at EVO is pretty much all the proof you need that it has a great deal of depth.  I'd recommend you take a look at the Smash boards and My Smash Corner on YouTube. Things can can pretty complex if you really wanna be good.

I think Smash has about as much depth as a typical arcade fighter... maybe less. A game doesn't need to have significant depth for players to be really good at it.

Frankly, they kinda nailed the gameplay of Smash Bros on the N64. I've spent time with all of them and it feels like more of the same game with tweaks.

The most enjoyable experience I've had with the series was doing 4 player on N64 when it was still something fresh. I also really enjoyed the campaign of the Wii game.

I've seen some people overreact to this game's Metascore. 61 is by no means a score that a shit game usually gets.

Trunkin said: Goodnightmoon said: Is the definition of MEH made videogame. You cannot say that is bad because the mechanics look as efective as previous Mario Tennis, but is so shallow and unexciting that is criminal. Dissapointed. I wasn't very interested on it on the first place but this and Crapmiibo Festival shows the worst face of Nintendo and I hope they don't repeat this. This is absolutely a bad game. The mechanics are not as effective as previous Mario Tennis games. At all. It's weird that I seem to be the only one who's noticed this. No review I have read on either the 3DS or Wii U title have mentioned how they effectively stripped 80% of your control over shot placement  out of the game. That, and those damn marks telling you where yo stand and which shot to make -- it's barely even a game at all! It's insulting! I feel like I need to tell the world. Maybe I'll make a thread. -_-

You do realise there is a standard tennis mode, that takes away the items and chance shots, which leaves you with a standard tennis simulation. A review I've read says that this is a throwback to Mario Tennis 64 glory days. The visuals are crisp, its 60fps, and has online play, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the mechanics, the lack of single player content is what's hurt the review scores. Maybe Nintendo are adding content later, there was update data when I downloaded it last night, not to mention a free download for Mario Tennis 64.

I have this feeling Nintendo shifted all of its development focus to NX. Thus, we get rushed games and fillers. Too many games recently look like Nintendo just wants to fill release gaps (this, Amiibo, Starfox). They probably cut development cycles short because NX will launch a year earlier than initially planned.

Nem said: Why didnt they make a new Golden Sun or Shining Force instead? Camelot is still beeing wasted on these shovelware series. The time of Mario sports is over. No one cares anymore.

Simple. Shining Force is with Sega. And, Golden Sun still performs around the million range.

Other than that, this is simply a case of games being made for the wrong platform. Mario sports games shouldn't be on handheld in the first place.

zippy said: Trunkin said: This is absolutely a bad game. The mechanics are not as effective as previous Mario Tennis games. At all. It's weird that I seem to be the only one who's noticed this. No review I have read on either the 3DS or Wii U title have mentioned how they effectively stripped 80% of your control over shot placement  out of the game. That, and those damn marks telling you where yo stand and which shot to make -- it's barely even a game at all! It's insulting! I feel like I need to tell the world. Maybe I'll make a thread. -_- You do realise there is a standard tennis mode, that takes away the items and chance shots, which leaves you with a standard tennis simulation. A review I've read says that this is a throwback to Mario Tennis 64 glory days. The visuals are crisp, its 60fps, and has online play, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the mechanics, the lack of single player content is what's hurt the review scores. Maybe Nintendo are adding content later, there was update data when I downloaded it last night, not to mention a free download for Mario Tennis 64.

Really? That's neat, I guess, but even then, they've stripped core mechanics from the game. Firstly, in previous Mario Tennis games, you had to double-tap your shot button to hit a powerful shot(red/blue/purple trail behind it). If you only tapped once, your character would hit a slower shot(no trail) -- BUT, if you were in a good position, with a single tap, you'd get a lot more angle on your shot, and still a good bit of pace. For characters like Boo, it also allowed you to reduce the ridiculous amount of spin he had on his shots, if you so desired. Doesn't really matter against the pathetically easy CPU's, but against other skilled players it added another level of depth and strategy to the gameplay. Gone.

What's more, in Mario Tennis Power Tour, you could control the depth of your shot by using your d-pad's diagonals. It's been too long since I played Mario Power Tennis, but I'm pretty sure you could do it there as well. This is pretty much a standard in all Tennis games I've played, going back to the SNES. For some reason Nintendo decided to remove it from Mario Tennis Open, and -- from what I've seen -- Ultra Smash as well. That, combined with the lack of single-tap shots, makes shot selection practically non existent. So damned frustrating. With Mario Tennis ruined, and Virtua tennis and Top Spin missing, there are no good Tennis games on the horizon. Bleak times indeed.

DevilRising said: I very seriously doubt that it's a bad game by any measure whatever. It's made by Camelot, and they are known for good games, with very solid game mechanics. I just think people are giving it mediocre review scores because they expect the game to "do more" or "be more" than it is. And they're attacking it for not being a "AAA" holiday release. I'm not really sure what the fuck they would expect though. It's Mario. And it's Tennis.

I figured it was more like a mediocre game, thus it's getting mediocre scores, but eh, I suppose unfair reviews always works as a good reason!

So I bought the game today and I can say.. it's kinda meh. The BIGGEST problem that's affecting review scores is the little to no replay value Ultra Smash has to offer for solo players. Unless you have family or friends locally that like playing Mario Tennis every now and then, this game will be collecting dust.

I think this game was clearly rushed to shore up the Wii U's poor holiday lineup.

Mr Puggsly said: Trunkin said: Mr Puggsly said: I think its the 4 player split screens. Little content is okay eith more screens. Same thing with Smash Bros. Lots of players, little depth or value, great scores. I think they have great gameplay though. It just seems they lack what is expected of most games. Smash has a lot of content compared to every other fighter on the market. I guess I can understand how you'd say there's little depth, if all you've played of smash is 4-player matches with items and stage hazards, but the games presence at EVO is pretty much all the proof you need that it has a great deal of depth.  I'd recommend you take a look at the Smash boards and My Smash Corner on YouTube. Things can can pretty complex if you really wanna be good. I think Smash has about as much depth as a typical arcade fighter... maybe less. A game doesn't need to have significant depth for players to be really good at it. Frankly, they kinda nailed the gameplay of Smash Bros on the N64. I've spent time with all of them and it feels like more of the same game with tweaks. The most enjoyable experience I've had with the series was doing 4 player on N64 when it was still something fresh. I also really enjoyed the campaign of the Wii game.

I'd say your typical arcade fighting game has about as much depth, mechanically, as a game could have. Far more than the vast majority of all other titles. What would you describe as a "deep" game?

Smash is, at it's core, the same game it's always been since 64, but they've made major adjustments to balance and the speed of the game with each iteration. I don't see how it's all that different from something like Halo in that regard.

I didn't enjoy the Wii campaign mode all that much -- didn't even finish it. Although the cutscenes were cool. The most fun I've had with Smash was with Melee, 4-players, on Hyrule Temple. Pure joy. Actually, I thought Melee was a huge improvement over 64 in every way, and, though I still enjoy it, I doubt the series will ever reach that height for me again. There's really no other game like Smash on the market that's anywhere near as good as it is, though, so as long as Nintendo keeps making them, I'll keep buying 'em.