My boys are all big fans of the classic Nintendo characters like Mario, Yoshi and Bowser so they were really excited to see all of their favourites here in this new Wii U game Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash.
The game lets you play as your favourite characters (16 included) in singles or doubles tennis matches, with various power ups and different modes.
The mode we’ve mostly been playing is the mega battle mode, where you can use the mushroom that appears on the tennis court to size up into a huge sized player. You can also look out for the opportunity to use ultra smash move when that comes on to the pitch.
There’s also a knock back challenge allowing the player to face 4 opponents at once, or you can play classic tennis or online mode. You can play as single player with your opponent being automated by the game, or play against other family members. My boys mostly like to play doubles with four family members involved (two on each team) to make it the most exciting and let everyone get involved.
The game is rated for 3+ and all of my children do enjoy it a lot (ages 4-7) but the youngest finds it a bit frustrating in places – particularly if he keeps losing! There is more skill needed for this game, so we find that often the oldest children playing will win, whereas with some of the other Wii U games like the board game style ones like Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival, it’s more of an even playing field.
That said, for my 7 year old and almost 6 year old it’s a really fun game, that fits their gaming abilities well and grabbed their interest well. It’s great to have all the Mario characters in a sports game like this, which adds variety to their game collection and uses different skills from the platform based games and my older boys really like the competitive element of going head to head.
If your kids are fans of the Mario characters, or into sports, then it would be an ideal choice for them.
Download from the Nintendo E-Store or buy online from Amazon for around 34.93
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
Wow the graphics are so clear.
I totally love mario it takes me back,he’s the best character going!
This looks really good, both my boys are dyspraxic but I think they weoulkd enjoy the challenge especially with Mario!