Today, "Mario Tennis Open" goes online, offering fierce on-the-go 3D tennis matches by way of the Nintendo 3DS. Electronic tennis dates as far back as video games themselves, starting with "Pong" on the Atari 5000 back in 1972. So how has the electronic sport changed in 40 years?
Nintendo has been here before, on the Virtual Boy back in 1995. Hands down the best title released for the short-lived system, Mario's Tennis was one player … and one color, red. Playing against a computer was fun, but lacked the unpredictable excitement of facing off with a friend. Given that even Pong was for two players, it's clear to see why even a decent entry like Mario Tennis couldn't save Nintendo's pioneering system.
In 2000, Nintendo took another crack at tennis, on the glorious, polygon-heavy Nintendo 64. Mario Tennis was beloved among my college friends, which may or may not have been because my buddies turned it into a drinking game. The controls were tight enough to make tennis a competitive and addictive multiplayer challenge for the first time on a Nintendo system. With the title's success, Nintendo officially had a character-branded sport worth revisiting on their hands, akin to Mario Golf or Mario Kart.
Read Full Story....
No comments:
Post a Comment