Alex & Nina

After golf, tennis was the next easy fit. A tennis game was produced and released in 2000, starring the Mario characters competing with each other. Although no generic human characters would appear in that game, Nintendo would follow its strategy with Mario Golf, releasing a handheld version alongside it, complete with an RPG mode following a young rookie as they work their way up through the ranks.

These are Alex or Nina, students of Princess Peach’s royal tennis academy. On their first day, they are paired up with a doubles partner, Harry for Alex and Kate for Nina. Alex and Nina would again reappear in a cameo in Mario Tennis: Power Tour, congratulating their successors who we will touch on later.

As a playable character, they will have two modes: Singles or Doubles. Alex and Nina will switch color swaps, with Harry and Kate acting as their doubles partner. In singles, they will be light and fast, able to move around a bit more freely. With their doubles partner activated, they will be a bit slower, but will have the added power and defense of their partner to rely on. Their moves will pull from all across the Mario Tennis series, changing slightly depending on whether they are in Singles or Doubles mode.

Likelihood rating: Probably not

Super Mario Series Roster, Updated

 SUPER SMASH BROS. UNIVERSE

SUPER MARIO BROS.

Here's our next update. This time we add in the protagonists from the handheld Mario Tennis games, Alex & Nina and Ace & Clay.

1. Mario
2. Fursuit Mario
3. F.L.U.D.D. Mario
4. Luigi
5. Vacuum Luigi
5e. Professor E. Gadd
6. Princess Peach

6e. Peachette
7. Princess Daisy
8. Rosalina and Luma
9. Pauline
10. Cappy
11. Toad

11e. Toadsworth

12. Captain Toad
12e. Toadette
13. Bowser
13e. Dry Bowser
14. Bowser Jr.
15. Shadow Mario
16. The Koopalings
17. Wart
18. Tatanga

19. Mario Kart

20. Robo Mario
21. Wanda

22. Alex & Nina

22e. Ace & Clay
23. Perry
24. Sprixie Princess
25. Koopa Troopa
25e. Dry Bones
26. Goomba
27. Piranha Plant
28. Boo

29. Buzzy Beetle

30. Bob-Omb

30e. King Bob-Omb
31. Cheep Cheep
32. Blooper

33. Pokey

34. Lakitu and Spinies

35. Ninji
36. Monty Mole

37. Spike

38. Hammer Bro
39. Chargin' Chuck
40. Wiggler
41. Chain Chomp

42. Thwomp

42e. Whomp

43. Mechakoopa

44. Ghost
45. Honeybee

46. Nabbit
47. Boom Boom
47e. Pom Pom
48. Birdo

49. Mouser
50. Petey Piranha
51. King Boo
52. The Broodals

There we go! Next up, we begin the Mario Golf series. See you then!

Character Sheet: Alex & Nina

ALEX & NINA

Now, we have two new characters to cover from the Tennis games, both being gimmick reps for the tennis gameplay, but also echo fighters of one another. The first represents the first RPG mode for the GBC game, the second represents the RPG mode for the Advanced game. Technically speaking, they could be merged into one character, and if you prefer to think of them that way, this is fine, but this is the way it made sense to me. They are:

1. Alex & Nina

2. Ace & Clay

Alex and Nina are the protagonists of Mario Tennis for the Game Boy Color. They are students of Peach's Royal Tennis Academy, working their way up through the rankings to become the ultimate tennis champion in the Mushroom Kingdom. At the school, they are paired up with a doubles partner, Harry for Alex and Kate for Nina, and both of them will be part of the moveset too. I think it makes sense for them to be able to swap between Singles and Doubles mode, one with just the main player character, one with a partner Ice Climbers-style. Their color swaps will be two with Alex as the lead and Nina as the partner, two with their roles flipped, two with Alex and Harry, and two with Nina and Kate.

So, for these characters, their tennis moves are pretty basic, using things like serve, lob, topspin, slice, drop shot, flat shot, and other shots that are probably very familiar terms to most who really know tennis all that well. For me, I have a basic relative knowledge of what it all means, but that's mostly from doing this blog specifically. There's a few things here that I'm pretty sure aren't real-world tennis shots, like charge shots, special shots, chance shots, trick shots, and zone shots. I imagine a lot of the real-world tennis maneuvers would make up their standard moves, with the more game specific stuff probably being tied to the specials. Either way, I think most moves should have an offensive version and a defensive version depending on if an attack is coming their way or not (so, basically tons of counters). It makes sense based on what I've seen.

Here's the moveset I came up with:

Standard B: Serve or Counter

It seems fitting that this should be the one that gets the ball in play. As an offensive move, Alex/Nina will toss a ball into the air and smack it across the stage as a projectile. It can also be charged. As a defense, it will be a basic counter.

Side B: Chance Shot or Chance Defense

This one will have a bit of a random element to it. Using it will give you a chance of smacking a ball at an opponent, but it adds a special effect to it, just as the chance shots work in game. Chance Defense will work the same but by deflecting an opponents' projectiles.

Up B: Special Shot or Special Defense

For this one, I chose the specials because many of them tend to have upward mobility to them (Waluigi's Showtime or Mario's Wall Jump, that kind of thing). It's also one plus to having these characters as echoes, is that you can have Alex & Nina perform one of the favorite specials (Waluigi's maybe), and Ace & Clay might use one of the others, thus giving more representation across the board. The defense would be a defensive version, maybe representing other moves as well.

Down B: Singles or Doubles

This move will call your doubles partner onto the stage, or send them away, depending on which mode you're currently in. The doubles partner will add a possible extra hit with every attack, though I imagine it would have to have some drawback that makes it so Doubles wouldn't just be everyone's default version for being stronger.

Final Smash: Great Fairy of Victory

The pond at the rear of the Academy will appear in the background, as Alex/Nina swings their racquet rapidly for ten seconds. The sky will darken and the fairy will rise from the pond, turning their racquet to gold and doing damage to the other characters. This new gold racquet will persist for a short time after and do more damage than normal.

Entrance: The player will come onto the stage doing warmups.

Taunts: Up, the player will toss a ball into the air and catch it. Side, the player's doubles partner will come out and rub their shoulders and give them a pep talk. Down, the character will sweep their racquet back and forth as practice.

Thanks for reading! Next up, we'll cover Ace and Clay from the Advanced game.

Mario Tennis: Power Tour

 MARIO TENNIS: POWER TOUR

Just like the 64 and GBC versions before it, Mario Power Tennis came with its own handheld counterpart, this one named Mario Tennis: Power Tour. And, much like the GBC version before it, this one also came with a rudimentary RPG mode featuring a couple of kids attending the Royal Tennis Academy to work their way up to challenging Mario himself. The game's tennis mechanics are once again pretty much a more rudimentary version of its console counterparts, complete with special power shots, the same as they appear there.

Ace and Clay are the game's RPG protagonists, female and male respectively. They are each other's doubles partner this time around instead of each having a separate doubles partners. Alex, Nina, Harry, and Kate all make special cameos in the game, and we have a number of other challengers, though once again, most of them could basically be renamed generic tennis challenger no. ??? with no change to anything important. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Waluigi, Donkey Kong, and Bowser all appear as our main Mario roster (Waluigi but no Wario, what? Is that allowed?).

Our stages are once again our basics of hard, clay, grass, and composite courts, and the Peach Dome, with the Royal Academy returning in all its glory. The RPG does have a few, um, minigame elements you can play here and there, so I might as well make note of them. This includes practice against a wall, practice with a ball-shooting machine, running on a treadmill, pumping a mace to pop balloons, jumping over obstacles, spinning screws upward, following a path filled with electrified panels, climbing ropes, playing Rock Paper Scissors, crossing a tightrope, tackling a robot, and playing a memory game.

That's about it for now. Let's see what we've got!

Characters:

Alex/Nina/Harry/Kate: serve, lob, top-spin, singles, doubles, slice, drop shot, flat shot, smash shot, charge shot, Banana, Mushroom, Lightning Bolt, Star, Green Shell, Red Shell, offensive special shot, defensive special shot

Ace/Clay: same as above, wall practice, ball machine, treadmill, balloon pump, jump, spin screw, duck walk, rope climb, Rock Paper Scissors, tightrope, tacklebot, memory game

Mario: Iron Hammer, Spin Jump Return

Luigi: Squeaky Mallet, Poltergust Return

Princess Peach: Super Peach Spin, Sweet Kiss Return

Toad

Yoshi: Rainbow Flutter, Rolling Egg Return

Koopa Troopa: Water Bomb, Water Shell Dash

Donkey Kong Jr.

Daisy: Wonder Flower, Flowerbed Return

Baby Mario

Birdo

Donkey Kong: Barrel Cannon Blast, Boomerang Banana Return

Wario: Thunder Cast Shot, Ultra Hand Return

Waluigi: Whirluigi, Swimming Return

Bowser: Fire Breath, Spinning Shell Dash

Boo: Boo Blast, Boo Brigade Return

Shy Guy: Lightning Spear, Spear Dance Return

Paratroopa: Energy Ball, Sky Dive

Diddy Kong: Acrobatic Banana, Barrel Jet

Bowser Jr.: Magic Paint, Rolling Brush Return

Fly Guy: Tornado Twist, Tornado Return

Wiggler: Anger Management, Flutter Return

Petey Piranha: Sludge Racket, Piranha Swingback

Piranha Plant

Lakitu

Stages:

Tennis Court

Open Court

Hard Court

Clay Court

Grass Court

Composition Court

Bowser's Stage

Royal Academy

Castle Court

Tropics Court

Jungle Court

Star Court

Warehouse Court

Peach Dome

Luigi's Mansion Court

Delfino Plaza Court

Wario Factory Court

Gooper Blooper Court

DK Jungle Court

Bowser's Castle Court

Mario Classic Court

Thanks for reading! Next up, let's cover Mario Tennis Open!

Mario Tennis (GBC)

 MARIO TENNIS

Today, let's cover the 64 version's handheld counterpart. They're not exactly the same game, for several reasons we will get into, but there is a lot of overlap. The tennis mechanics are more or less a simplified version of the mechanics in the console game, with none of the items available. Our "Mario" playable characters include Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Wario, Waluigi, Baby Mario, and Bowser, all of whom appear in the console version, but with several noticeably missing.

The biggest difference between this game and the console version is the RPG elements. Seeing as playing multiplayer was a bit difficult with handhelds back then, the game designers felt players needed something to do, so they made an RPG mode, where you played as a generic human protagonist attending Peach's Royal Tennis Academy, working your way up through a series of tennis matches until you are ready to face the grand champion (Mario). It's interesting. But if we're looking for a gimmick rep . . . Alex is the name of the male protagonist, while Nina is the name of the female protagonist. Each gains a doubles partner at the beginning of the game, Alex's being Harry, and Nina's being Kate.

There are a lot of other students and challengers, each with their own names, but really you could just call most of them generic tennis challenger no. 1, 2, 3, on and on and on without changing much, with only a few standing out like your teacher Emily, the quirky headmaster, and the great fairy that rises from the pond behind the school at a certain point in time, but none of them really warrant anything either.

As for stages, we have the grass, hard, clay, and composition courts returning, as well as a Castle Court, Tropics Court, Jungle Court, Star Court, and Warehouse Court. The differences in most of these are largely cosmetic. Another major location is the Royal Academy itself, which is honestly a really cool design I would consider for a stage, and a few other general locations you visit as part of the tournament.

Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Alex/Nina/Harry/Kate: serve, lob, top-spin, singles, doubles, slice, drop shot, flat shot, smash shot, charge shot, Banana, Mushroom, Lightning Bolt, Star, Green Shell, Red Shell

Mario

Luigi

Princess Peach

Toad

Yoshi

Koopa Troopa

Donkey Kong Jr.

Daisy

Baby Mario

Birdo

Donkey Kong

Wario

Waluigi

Bowser

Boo

Shy Guy

Paratroopa

Piranha Plant

Stages:

Tennis Court

Open Court

Hard Court

Clay Court

Grass Court

Composition Court

Bowser's Stage

Royal Academy

Castle Court

Tropics Court

Jungle Court

Star Court

Warehouse Court

Thanks for reading! Next up, let's cover the Game Cube entry: Mario Power Tennis!