Plumbers are sore losers. Something to remember when
you're playing New Mario Tennis only on M60. 4.
Welcome to Remember 64, where this week we're making a racket.
Welcome to the show, everyone. My name is David Pitrangelo and
I am the tall, slender purple, wearing moustache twirling,
evildoer hell bent on winning this particular tennis
tournament against my rivals. And apparently I'm the new arch
nemesis of my guests today. I I see ours line up because I
am Luigi's apartment and I am not afraid.
Oh, you should be, Sir. You should be.
You know what time has borne out that no, I should not have been.
You should. You should not have been.
Yeah, yeah, I know, right? I can't.
Wait to talk about this? I cannot, cannot wait to talk
about this too, if any of that makes any sense to you.
You might have guessed that we have played Mario Tennis for the
Nintendo 64. And of course, that lovely voice
you hear is Luigi's apartment. Back to remember 64.
This this is awesome. I'm so happy that we're doing
this together. Hey, me too.
Yeah, Great, man. Great.
Hey, as long as we're both happy, who cares what else
happens? That's all that matters.
Yeah, you know, it's just, you know, let's just play some
tennis. Let's just play some tennis.
I I wrote down some notes about how the game was made.
Couple of ideas that the team came up with as they were making
it. This game came out in 2000,
August of 2000. But there's quite a bit of I
would say history with this game as far as like for me growing up
friends of mine that played this game or one person had it and
everybody came over and played it.
Things like that. It it's one of those we, I think
we've talked about when we talked about whether we talked
about Star Wars or or Pokémon Snap or Majora's Mask and all
the episodes that we've done together and stuff and even
other ones where I've played sort of like more obscure games.
I've always sort of mentioned there's always like the staple
Mario games, like the Nintendo titles that seems like everybody
had or at least one friend had at least one of those.
This was one of those titles. Is that the same for you?
Did you have like it yourself or like a friend or a family member
of yours had this and it was like a go to?
It was weirdly enough, it like you you wouldn't take a tennis
game, would be a go to game. But yeah, we played this game a
lot. Yeah, I was very excited for
this game. The, you know, up to looking at
Nintendo's like online promotion for it, like the website they
had, you could, you know interact with the website much
like a lot of old Flash sites. And so yeah, I was like, you
know, I was hyped. Nintendo had me hyped up for
this game. I I think like because it came
out in 2000, they had some time to figure that out, I guess in a
way for some of these Mario games.
I think that's part of it. Like, it's a pretty late game
because about a a year later I know, so did I I thought it was
like I because I played this so much and because I remembered it
so fondly, I thought, Oh yeah, this is, you know, 98, let's say
or something like that. That's what I would have pegged
at. Yeah, exactly.
And and I think the 2000 Ness of it, if that's the right way to
say it, we'll get into how it plays.
But I think the, the age of it and and how late it is in the
console's life cycle sort of lends to the fact that it it
plays pretty well. And I think that's one of the
reasons why it's kind of stuck and it's like you never feel
like you're being ripped off when you played against other
people and never really felt unfair.
I don't think so. I I I wish I'd Yeah, maybe.
I don't know. That's that's my memory.
Oh, no, no, I'm agreeing. OK, yeah, I'd say yeah, you're
you're not wrong. Yeah.
And that's and that's testament to them, to them making the
game, right. So Speaking of that, it was made
by Camelot Software. Yeah.
So we've we've definitely had experience with Camelot in the
past. Mario Golf was was one that I we
did in on the show already and that's one of my favorite
franchises of all time. I've said it before and I'll say
it again Mario on, Mario Golf on both Game Boy Color and Game Boy
Advance are some of my favorite sports games ever.
I. See, They just hit I.
Did. I did and I I played.
I played a little bit of golf, but I had never played the Mario
Tennis one I the game. Boy Killer 1.
Yeah, I didn't know I I had. I I mean, I knew it was out
there. But I It's so weird to me that
the golf games were so popular for me and loved them so much
and I still love them to this day.
And this particular game, Mario Tennis, was so big for me too,
that I can't believe I never played it and never I honestly,
I'm I'm disappointed in myself. I I had the the Gameboy Color
one and got like way way way into it.
Nice. You know, like the G1, it's an
RPG, like a, you know, sports RPG and you know you're you're
trying to get different rackets, headbands, dues to level your
player up. And I was playing it in like a
health class, PE class. Our our health PE teacher was
the tennis coach and he caught me playing it and confiscated
it, but not because he was mad because he would usually let me
play video games, but because it was a tennis game.
He had to play it. No way.
So he took it away and played it for the rest of class.
Yeah, why did shit? You had the cool teachers, man.
What the? Hell yeah, He was all right.
We liked. It sounds sounds cool enough
that that at that age an adult would be like, hey, hey I need
to play this game. Give it to me.
You know one of those. Yeah.
It's it's so I I played a boat. I'm going to say it plays game.
Yeah. Tennis game.
Yeah. I'm.
I'll take it. I'll.
Yeah, give me, give me that. That was like me with my uncle
we had, we had an NHLPA game. This is before the NHL rights as
we had that for Super Nintendo back in the day.
And my it was like the first sports game, one of the first
games I had for the console when I was younger.
My uncle who is 12 years, 13 years younger than my dad, so he
felt kind of like young and cool at all, you know, all the time.
I have an aunt like that. Right.
He played that game and as like a 7 year old, I was like, my
uncle is playing video games. Like they never grew up with
them, 'cause they were of the age where they never would have,
and in a household that probably couldn't afford it at the time
or anything. So it was like the coolest thing
ever. Yeah, I was like, Oh my God.
And you had a teacher that did that.
I would have been like, Oh my God.
Yeah, my aunt taught me a lot. My uncle came to visit us in
California one time, and he and his friend just played my NES
constantly. That's that's yeah my my family
is very much not the video game people.
It's me, my brother growing up and mostly my friends and and
that was that family, was not, was not the video game people.
So I sort of am the the black sheep or or maybe I'm the I'm
I'm just the sheep, you know. I'm just the person that's
that's following the cool trends, 'cause I'm a cool kid.
You know one of those. Digital sheep.
Digital The digital cool sheep, yeah.
So, so tell me more about how Camelot made this game.
OK, so as. A wonderful place.
Yeah, it is. And actually as of this
recording we are in mid mid to late March of 2023.
It is just a couple days removed from the 25th anniversary of
this company being founded which is really cool.
At least this this version of the of the company.
Sorry not 20 not 25353525 would would be like just before this
game came out. Right.
That makes a little bit more sense.
Yeah. So it is this version of the
company. I you know, I had a couple
iterations leading up to this and stuff, but.
They made the games before that. Yes, 100% they did.
This is the 6th Mario game for the N64.
Mario Tennis brought 11 new characters or not new
characters, 11 characters to it, including of course Waluigi and
where he was introduced. That is.
That is the biggest thing out of all of the of the the
information and everything that I looked up to try to figure
out, you know, how how is this game made and whatever.
I think it was really just Camelot made golf.
They had a plan to make tennis, the next tennis Nintendo game
and it was just sort of like one after the other.
It was just sort of like their next task after golf.
So it's not like this overly complicated or complex way that
they kind of got to this. It's it's tennis Use the same
sort of attitude that you had from golf.
I would say that's that's how I would sort of describe what this
is. And and then they chose to
create, Nintendo chose to introduce and create Luigi's
arch nemesis, which is Waluigi. And that is the number one thing
that pops up every time you bring this game up is this is
how Waluigi was introduced. It was the ad campaign, yeah.
Right. He he was it.
He was the ad campaign for this game.
Yeah, that's like to to to go back to 2000, that is what they
were doing was shoving him the, the, like when you would type in
the URL and like the landing page was like him like behind a
brick wall or something, right. Breaking through it and I was
hyped. I was like cool new guy.
He plays unfairly well and yeah, it's pretty great.
It it's cool to have like I guess, you know, Wario was
introduced in a Game Boy game in in the Mario Land series and he
was sort of like very obvious as as the bad guy, 'cause he's
like, you know, sort of ruling everything in in that game and
every and then he has his own games and stuff.
Actually, is it Wario Land? I think when he had his first,
His first? Solo game.
You know Wario Land, Mario Land 3 Wario Land I believe.
Yeah, that game like. That I love having a complicated
title like that. I know, it's so weird, but I
love that game. I have that game too, and and
fell in love with it as a kid too.
Played a ton, yeah. By the time like or by the time
Wario was was huge, like say Mario Kart 64, Yeah, I was a
huge fan of Wario and Luigi. But like, Oh yeah, like I was on
the Wario train. I thought he was great.
I started out that way with this purple thing too.
What? What?
Happened. He just makes no sense to me.
Well, OK, why explain? Find him illogical because you
know in in this narrative, Wario is a greedy guy, right?
Why would he one? He wouldn't have a partner.
He would have to share money with them.
Like this makes no sense. And and Luigi already has a
rival. It's Mario.
Oh, I see. He's barely in the games.
He's got to fight his way to get into them.
He doesn't need a rival, and Nintendo has also never really
acknowledged the existence of this thing.
I I was gonna say, I feel like. I feel like the man is what's is
the the enemy of Luigi. Yeah, which is, you know, just
Nintendo. So I was like, he doesn't need a
rival. He's already like like, I'm not
a huge Mario fan. I think Mario sucks.
Yeah, it's. It's just like he's kind of
boring, right? He's just kind of like he's
Mario. He's Mario.
That's that's it. Yeah.
I he can't jump that high. Come on, he's.
A scrub but but, but while Luigi doesn't need to jump, he can
just reach. He's so tall and.
And good Lord, the reach on that character, It's insane.
It's. Crazy.
He's like he's tall. He's the tallest character you
could possibly. It's not fair.
It's really not fair. I want to actually talk about
just because if anyone's watching the video version that
we had like the the intro up of the game, I don't know.
I don't know about you, but I don't know if I ever watched, or
at least I definitely don't remember watching the full intro
video of this and. It's so it's.
So I don't know. I I just don't recall it I guess
is really what it is. But it's hilarious because yes,
while Luigi comes in and Wario and they're like, oh, I
challenge you Mario and Luigi, cause OK, typical whatever,
right? Yeah, whatever.
And then, OK, Bowser comes in and it seems like they're all
buddy, buddy, we're just gonna have a tournament, you know,
without actually using words, just noises.
And then? These are the the FMV cutscenes
that everybody wants. Right, right, right.
That's what everyone wants, yeah.
And then a bomb comes in and just kind of strolls in and
blows everybody up. Is that what happens 'cause
that's what it looks like like? Mayhap's or it's just like, hey,
we're I'm gonna, I'm gonna be the guy who decides who's the
real. Look at this, everyone's like,
Oh no, it's a bomb. And then?
It is a bomb. Literally boom and then it goes
to the menu screen. Tennis explosion.
Tennis. That's how tennis happens.
You didn't you? Have you never watched the
tennis match before? Clearly.
I haven't watched enough to realize.
Andre Agassi like lights, the little walking bomb or, you
know, or John McEnroe, you know, someone old.
You know what, even. Kids, yeah, you know, it
explodes and the kids play tennis.
Matt McEnroe actually tracks. That actually tracks.
I think. I think that's right.
If anyone would do it, it would hang up.
Mom, yeah. I just thought that was
hilarious. I was like, this is, they
literally just blow everybody up and they're like boom, tennis.
You know, like sort of like a like a, a smoke bomb tennis.
I mean cause like the Mario Party games do that.
The like all the Camelot sports games do that.
Like you know, the game cube ones.
There's just some dumb crap at the beginning.
That's really what it is. Yeah, it is just dumb.
Yeah. Oh, like they're all mad, you
know? Like they they like to make
Wario and Waluigi, like scheming in the bushes, like trying to
trying to, you know, screw up their golf game or something.
Yeah, yeah, just just, they're just bad guys doing the bad
thing, you know, that's that's kind of.
That's kind of what they're. Yeah.
That's pretty. Let them.
Let them have that, if that's what they want.
I like Wario better. You know, the R&D one Wario
where he he's, you know, trying to get gold and he's weird and
greedy and bald. Yeah, he wears his funny spiked
hats and, you know, things like that.
Yeah, yeah. When he gets injured, he looks
stupid. Yeah, it's, it's great.
And I'm I'm playing. I played one of my first RE
pickups of this game have the actual cartridge that I decided
to play and I decided to we'll talk about characters and sort
of what we choose in a bit. But part of the the the choice
of why certain characters are in this not just, well, Luigi, but
Daisy is one of them, right. And for me growing growing up
and not even, I don't even know, maybe not even that recently I
just assumed Daisy was also introduced in this game.
Like I didn't never really thought too much of it or maybe
she was in Mario Party or something.
I was like, oh OK, yeah, like that's where I first saw her and
that's just where she was introduced.
Whatever. Right.
But it's not. And I don't know that I really
realized where she came from, so.
Just the reference to to Mario Land one Speaking of Mario
lands. Yeah, yeah, so yeah.
So at Nintendo's suggestion is what what I have here at
Nintendo's suggestion, Princess Daisy was brought back from
obscurity after only ever appearing in Super Mario Land
and NES Open Tournament Golf. This was in order to give Luigi
a Double S partner and have that the same as Marion Peach.
So you know the Open Tournament Golf is sort of like the
predecessor to Mario Golf in 64. And then the same thing with the
tennis Game. This is sort of like the quote
UN quote sequel to what they had at that time.
So I didn't realize that. They're both very competent
tennis games. Yes, 100%.
Yeah. I I didn't.
I didn't really realize that. I don't know.
I don't know why I didn't. I don't know if I just never
really paid attention to it and stuff, but I thought that was
interesting. I was more, I mean like as a kid
I was more confused about it. I was like, is that is that what
this is supposed to be? Is it?
Are they saying Daisy's been
here the whole time? Right.
Like, OK, Daisy's here. Still fine, I guess, although
it's Canon that they that they're they're a couple.
So there you go. Right.
I get, Yeah. I mean, if you're a double S
partner online, if you're a double S partner, you have to be
a couple, right. Is that just the?
Right, Yeah, that's The thing is you have to consummate the
relationship before the match. After the explosion, right first
couple. Yeah, yeah.
Or is that what causes the explosion maybe?
The explosion? No, they are unrelated, but they
happen around the same time. OK.
Well, hey kids, Science.
There you go. We learn.
We learn something. Science.
Sports. Sports.
Science. Sports science, that's why you
come to the show for sports sciences, everybody and and
we've been learned. There we go.
And very competent tennis games 'cause this is one of those.
Yes, yes, it really is. Yeah.
So go, go for it. It it's it, it plays, it plays
nicely, right. Like how?
How did it? How does it feel to you when you
when you're able to play this 'cause I think you said either
before we hit record or just beginning that you you you were
playing this on Switch, I think on the on the Switch service,
How did how did it feels playing on that?
Yeah. Oh it it feels great.
This is the this was the first game I booted up when the Switch
N64 channel was launched. I went right for this.
Just the the the realization I had David playing it.
It was like, Oh well, I have to unlock star character.
Luigi, of course. And that means playing through
all of the tournaments. You know, there's like an easy
medium and a hard tournament. And very quickly the the, the
slow grin that came over my face and I was like, oh, I'm going to
have to do this for every single character the way I did on the
cartridge back in the day. It's not just one.
This is gonna be great. So yeah, every now and then I go
back and and make, you know, put a dent in it.
I've been working on Daisy lately.
Oh, OK. How, How's the progress on it
going? How many have you done?
Not many. It's very hard 'cause I don't go
back to it often and you have to be like you have to be on your
game, so. Especially on the tougher
matches 100% man this is it's it's rough sometimes it it's I
if anyone's watching it at the moment I'm I'm playing the
really the easiest mushroom tournament or whatever you know
you might you might lose a game but but that's that's kind of it
it's it's pretty easy and the matches are quick but.
But the but the final match on the Star Cup against Berto.
Like get out. I I didn't make it that far.
I went and played all the other modes.
But I'm I'm, I'm scared to do it.
I'm scared. It's it's tough.
I thought I would, you know, be up and running in no time and
and I couldn't. I could not get past Berto.
It's the it's, it's it's us as olds.
I I guess that's just sort of sort of what it is, right?
I mean it's true too though. Like if this is one of those
games where I think you sort of have, if you're playing it off
and on fairly consistently, you'll probably have some muscle
memory for it and be able to, you know, read the play a little
bit more, a little bit differently.
But, but they do play better. Like the AI is just better as
you go along. It's not like they're it's not
like, Oh well, I'm playing the character that is faster or the
character that has more power. No, they they just, they're just
smarter and they hit better shots and that and that's it.
And. And I I think I if I were
playing as Luigi, I would be doing better because I'm just
very used to how that character works, no matter, you know,
whatever it is. And so is Daisy is who I was
playing as is a technique and I don't.
I don't, I don't know what that is.
I don't know how to take advantage of any of the
technique stuff. I don't.
Know what the technique means? Either cause so is Waluigi.
Well, Luigi is a technique as well, so.
I just stick. I stick with my my all rounder
and and I know how to make that work.
I played mostly. I think I remember mostly
playing as the Koopa growing up. They have, they have the tricky
shots where like I think it's, I think it's the backspin one or
something Curves. On that.
Yeah, you get the curves. I think that's why I did it,
'cause it's like, I'm so good. But really, it was just the
mechanic of the game. Like it.
It's unwieldy, but it it works. The other thing I don't know if
Cuba does this, Boo does this. Where when you start to charge
up your like your hit because you can if you can be in place
to where the ball is gonna go, you can start your hit early and
start gaining power and Boo will just keep sliding.
Oh, OK. So I don't know if I have it on
the on my on the video that I recorded of me playing, I played
as Boo just randomly. I'm like, oh, I'm gonna pick Boo
on the one of the the piranha mode where they just shoot a
bunch of balls at you and you just have to yeah, it's kind of
like survive as long as you can. And I kept missing because he
just kept going and I was like what?
What is happening? I don't what am I doing wrong?
Is something wrong with my controller?
I'm not playing an emulator like nothing's like what's happening
here. No, it's Boo, so Boo is with
that. Boo is a dangerous weapon.
I've never been good at it, but I had a friend who one of the
people I played this like the most with cause 'cause like a
lot of 64 games. I played this a lot like in my
20s, too, where, like, people would be over for band practice.
Or like, waiting for one of the other bands to get done with
practice and like, oh, Mario Tennis.
Like, yeah, like, let's, let's play.
I had AI had a roommate who got obsessed with Mario Tennis.
Yeah, let's do it right. It's like you fire it up.
It's a it's a great game that just kind of fire up and play,
play with someone, yeah. But but when one of those times
happened my friend, an old you know, an old friend of mine came
over and I was like hey we need lots of Mario.
Tennis has been happening. You need to come over.
We need to shut everybody in the house down because he plays as
Boo. I play as Luigi and we are like
an unstoppable double S team just like we like we cover each
other's like weaknesses pretty well.
And he's, he got really good at. You can start Boo's shot early
and slide. So if you know where you want
Boo to end his slide at, yeah, it's it's I've seen.
I've seen that man do insane things with that character.
Yeah. On a tennis court, it's it's
ridiculous. He is.
He is unsafe while he controls that character.
No, it's it's wrong. The things that Boo can do in
this game are very wrong, OK? So, so that's part of what it
is, is is it. It is specifically a mechanic
for that character. OK, that's that's cool.
It's very tricky. So yeah, so if you can, it
literally holds the tricky name and it runs with that kind of
thing. OK, that that's pretty cool.
I mean, I I think that. It's pretty great.
Yeah, it's it's great. But it also I feel like is the
sort of cheat code if you can, if you can figure it out you
know. It's it's like learning spin in
Wii Tennis. Like eventually if you messed
around with it long enough, you could turn the the Wii Mote in
such a way that you would get top spin or backspin on it and
you know. Game over.
Your friend or your aunt who just plays it whenever they hang
out with you, doesn't know how to do that.
But you don't tell them I right? Like why would you tell them?
Yeah, no way. No way.
It's easy. Look.
It's like this. Look.
Look what I'm doing. Do what I'm doing.
It's just like that. See.
I mean you. You almost got it.
Boom, I went.
Oh, sorry, Oops. Well, you know, just get good.
That's. That's what is it about tennis
video games. They're really good.
They are really good. I I think you know what?
Like I I really like watching tennis.
I find the athleticism of it. I find the competition of it to
be obviously very impressive. I mean these people are just
crazy good athletes. But I I find it to be really
interesting like because it's it's there's enough going on in
tennis, whether it's real life or in a game, but it's still
simple enough. It's back and forth.
You know, it's ping pong. Everybody knows what ping pong
is. Everyone knows what pong is.
You know, that's why pong works. So I think like, I think that's
part of it maybe and and and if you have mechanics to to back it
up, which I, you know, I think we both agree that this game
largely does, then there's just enough under the surface for it
to feel like there's more going on than just press A or press B
and walk back and forth and that's it.
Yeah, I don't. Know because you know it is kind
of about leverage almost. It's like, you know, getting the
the getting your opponent off balance or getting them, like
you know on a certain place of the court that you want them to
be at, you can take advantage of something else.
And but in order to do that, you have to not fall to their trick,
'cause they're gonna be trying to mess with you.
And so yeah. The the thinking, like thinking
two or three moves ahead potentially, is really fun.
A little bit. I I like that part of it.
Like, it's a little bit of a mind game in a way.
Like you're saying, like, I think that's it feels rewarding,
right? Because if you are doing that
and you are, let's say, whether you're playing, you know, you
know, solo or playing with people, if you do that, it feels
like, Oh yeah, yeah, that works. Hell yeah.
But we've unlocked something, yeah.
Yeah, look, what I just did. Suck it Like, you know, like one
of those. You know, eventually you can get
the computer to do what you want it to do, right?
Just like tuck one in the corner and then and then split them
down the, you know, down the middle.
Yeah, yeah. I think this, this has the has
the, I think it's it's double tap A or double tap B, right?
Where you get a little extra spin.
Is it spin a certain way? I think if you just I just I
just start mashing the button. Basically whatever button I want
like A is top spin, B is slice. That's what it is, yeah.
That's what it is. Yeah.
And then both of them together is the power shot.
Yeah, the the purple or pink stream, that's that's behind it.
That's how you know what the shots gonna be.
So I actually think that's interesting too, that, that the
game, I mean, yeah, makes it a little bit more cartoony, I
guess, 'cause there's more colors flashing around.
But it also lets your opponent know at the same time, like, oh,
this could be one of those shots that's gonna be a back spin or.
Or a forward spin. Yeah.
And I think that that helps a little bit to create, like, more
of a chance of a rally, which is what's happening in the game
that I'm playing right now, that I'm showing where I'm just like,
oh crap, yeah, just go on like this insane.
Yeah, these insane rallies in this game I find to be so fun,
especially in these ring modes where you have to.
Ring mode's pretty good, I. Love the ring mode, man.
I love it. To me, it's my favorite part.
It's my favorite. I was playing earlier and you
always get to the 4th, 1:00, and it's with Wario.
And Wario doesn't like, he, like, wants to play tennis.
Donkey Kong does too. Donkey Kong always return it.
Yeah, dude, come on, just just give me a back.
Like, no, no, I'm going to, I'm going to like, you know, just
dunk on you. Like nobody can hear these
rings. Yeah, yeah.
Isn't that why we're both? Don't you see these rings?
Aren't we both here for the same reason, like?
What are you doing? Well, like they, they hit the
net and the computer, like, takes that out on me and I'm
like, come on. It's true.
I ran into, I ran into Warrior on Donkey Kong a few times.
I was like, dude, stop. Yeah, wait.
Just. I like how you you faulted right
there, like, egregiously, just to, like, pick up a couple rings
just to grab a couple rings there again.
Yeah, like that was pretty good. Yeah, I like that.
I'm, I'm playing I'm playing the game.
You know I gotta you gotta you gotta milk the game a little
bit. It it's it's so interesting too.
Who? Cares the default.
It doesn't matter the fault the only, but you have to win.
You have to win the point in order to keep the rings that you
hit, which I think is also an interesting way of doing it too.
So you don't just hit the ball through the rings, You have to
make sure that you don't lose that point.
So there was a couple points where I was playing that, I
don't know, maybe it was one of the ones that had like 70 or 100
rings you have to get. And I'm sitting, I'm sitting at
most of them in one long rally and then I miss it and I'm like,
fuck, like, God damn it, and it doesn't end the game, but it's
kind of frustrating. Oh, here, now I'm gonna play
Donkey Kong. Here we go.
Now he he's gonna show up and try and beat me.
Yeah. I really like the ring thing.
I I think because I really like the way that the rallies feel in
this. And I think that the AI, despite
Wario and Donkey Kong, kind of like feeling like they just
really want to beat you instead of helping you other than.
That right now. This one's not bad.
Yeah, it's not too bad. Or maybe Or maybe I'm just
really good. Maybe that.
And then and then there's like the the battle mode in here,
which is always kind of kind of weird.
Yeah, I like. I wish you could do the battle
mode. Like not on the rickety
structure. Yeah, the like keep.
The items but not have that like nonsense happening, yeah.
It's so it's you're on like the I think it's the Bowser mode or
Bowser stage or something like. Bowser's cat.
Yeah. Bowser's Castle.
Yeah, they're hanging from chains.
Yeah, you're. Floating above the lava like,
yeah, this game's violent bands. Like, you know, I wanna kill
them, yes, but like, I wanna. I wanna see what I'm doing.
Yeah. So it I, I yeah, it's a little
bit difficult sometimes to see what's happening.
If it feels like a little bit too busy.
I get the idea. I think.
I think it's it's fine, but I agree.
I think without the sort. Of funny.
Tilting weird thing. Just picking up items like you
do in Mario Kart isn't, I think is enough.
You know, like I don't. Yeah, like you don't have to do
any more than that. Be good.
I mean, 'cause that's basically what it is.
It's just a bunch of Mario Kart items in in this game.
Yeah, in tennis. You leave, you leave nanners on
the ground like you attach a banana to the ball and wherever
it bounces, it stays there on the other.
Side yeah, yeah, the key. The key is to also milk that
mode a little bit too, and put the banana on before your serve
or as you're serving and then it'll half.
It has to hit the the ground first, it has to hit the court
before it actually gets to the person.
So it automatically is. I love.
'Cause they can't, like, smack it back on you.
Yeah, exactly. So it's only when it hits the
ground that it actually sits. You know it can be on.
If you're just rallying back and forth, back and forth against
each other, then it actually doesn't doesn't work that way.
But yeah, I, I, oh, I guess I played it a little bit.
I didn't even realize it's it's it's it's it's OK.
It's OK. It's, yeah.
It's fine. I prefer the I.
Prefer the ring one. And I think, yeah, you're right
that the items are enough. I mean, I remember there being a
not to like compare the GameCube Camelot Mario sports games, the
64 Camelot Mario sports games. I remember there being a lot
more side stuff in the game Cube One, but I don't like the game
Cube ones like gameplay, like the tennis aspect.
Oh, the actual gameplay. OK.
Yeah, like like the superpowers. I I I think it just like it.
It it leads to the same things happening over and over again
and I think you just just get rid of it.
I don't, I don't like it. Just play tennis.
Yeah, if you overload it, it feels like that.
That's one of the things that I mentioned when I was when I did
the Mario Golf Episode 2 is like, it's just it's very
simple. The set up of Mario Golf, and
most of this game too, is pretty simple.
Just play the sport, just go and play it and do a tournament
that's better. I think.
Feel like they're a little bit too short in my opinion, but
they're still fine. Mario Golf's the same thing.
Play the tournament, pick your character, get a few like coins,
unlock some stuff. You maybe have to go back and
win the tournament again to get more coins or points or whatever
to get the next. Cool, fine, no problem, right?
But when you when you put a little too much into it, then it
feels like now you're not playing that.
Now you're just playing some arcade thing with an overloaded
sort of crowding of of items and.
Where where is the, the Switch one that came out the Mario
Tennis Aces. Yeah, I never played.
I liked, I didn't play it. I liked that one.
The balance of the superpowers they give you.
But like you have a meter that you're trying to fill up and you
can use that meter to like save yourself.
Like it creates this back and forth of like, you know you have
choices and and what are you going to do with that?
Where is where is with the game cube.
One you use your superpower and then they use their super save
and then you use the superpower and they use their super save or
like whatever, it just keep it's the same thing over and over.
Like you said, it's a little bit boring, a little bit repetitive
of of a cycle kind. Of thing.
Yeah, like it should be cool. And like, you know, when Luigi's
using his mansion vacuum to suck the ball up and everything,
like, that's cool? Yeah, yeah.
But it just gets after a while, it's like, OK, it's it just kind
of gets boring again. Let's just play tennis at this
point. I mean because.
Because again, it's. Turned it off.
Because again if if like the the mechanic of tennis or of golf or
of the soccer games or baseball games that they've done.
If that plays well you you just don't need the other stuff as
much and and that's fine. And I think that's why this is a
good game to kind of always go back to and stuff too because it
still has that. It always feels like it's always
a core set of mechanics that that work I think and just
enough different types of of characters where some are speed
some are the the technical, which I I agree with you, I
don't really know what they do I.
I don't either I. Don't I?
Maybe. Maybe the spin and stuff is
stronger. Maybe that's what it is.
I should look it up. But that would be that would be
my guess. I'm gonna.
I'm gonna look it up. Actually, Mario, I should have.
Whatever it is, I don't jive with it.
Yeah, I don't. I don't.
I don't like it. Mario Tennis Technical technical
specifications No, that's probably not it.
Yeah, I don't. I don't.
We don't need the specs for this game.
Technical characters. Technique.
Oh yeah, Technique characters, yeah.
Oh, they're able to pinpoint parts of the court a little bit
more so you can pick your corners.
So a little bit better accuracy, I guess.
And in later games they have better footwork.
So whatever that means for better footwork and stuff, so.
The accuracy I could see 'cause I was like whenever I would get
my purple shots in, they were just hitting the corners, so
that's cool. OK.
So it's that's something, I mean I think, I think that matters, I
mean it's going to matter in tennis, especially if you want
to hit it across court and stuff.
So OK. I wasn't hitting it out of
bounds as much as I probably would have as Ouija.
Sure, exactly. Wailing on it.
Or of the power characters who just pretty much, you know,
Wario and and Donkey Kong and Bowser, just I I like playing as
them, but they also feel a little bit slow, like they
should, I think. I like that.
I like playing against them. You'd like playing against them.
Because they're slow. Oh, because they're slow.
Yeah, as long as you can get. As long as you can get back from
the the serve, you got a chance. That's the key, 'cause they have
a a significantly stronger serve which which is tough to serve in
this. If you if you get against a
power character and and you can't return that serve, well
you're you're it's it's hard to recover.
It takes you a few hits to kind of recover back from that.
So I I I think it's I like, I like the balance of the
characters the the technical or technique characters.
I guess that makes sense and more accurate.
That works. Let's.
Let that one go out of bounds, buddy.
I know, I saw that too. You just, yeah, I mean, I won
anyway, 'cause like, suck it while Luigi.
But was gonna say, oh, that's the other thing.
Since we're talking about some of some of the characters, I
have a a list of different names for the characters in the
Japanese version of this game and also the.
Characters right here. Yeah, and also the audio
recording of what each of what Mario says and the characters
say in the game when it's like when you choose them.
So I have to. So so is is Don junior in this?
No, I don't. I don't.
Not as far as I know. Is he not one of the lockables?
Who are the 2 unlockables? Unlockable.
I thought it was. Oh my God, no.
Why is it? I don't know.
Why am I losing? I didn't unlock them.
Oh, it's a shy guy. And Otis.
Otis, it is Junior. You're right.
It is Junior. Yeah.
Yeah, you're right.
I was thinking of something else for some reason.
Yeah. Might be his last game.
Oh. Until like very recently, like
in the last few years. Right, Yeah.
He just wasn't around for like 2 decades.
Yeah, which it's so weird. So weird.
Also, what's cool about this too.
Speaking of the Game Boy Color and other characters versions is
just like in Mario Golf you can import if you had the the
adapter for six. Freaking import your characters
from the Game Boy game into this.
Love that I I modern. Technology, modern, modern
technology kits. I know I 100% did that in Mario
Golf, 'cause I also own that for 64.
So I I definitely did that with the Gameboy Colour version, not
with Advance, cause Advance was past this this time, but or at
least it wasn't able to read it in in the adapter.
But I I I love that idea. I think that is such a great
idea. Not only 'cause it gives you an
extra reason to have both games, and I'm sure that works out for
them financially, but. It it is fun.
It's fun to do that. I mean, it's just a created
character. It's not anything too special or
whatever, but. No, it's cool.
I wish I could do it. I know.
I wish I could do it too. I I I need that adapter because
I have the actual Mario Tennis that I need.
I need Mario Tennis for. I got a character on there.
There you go exactly. I have probably created 70
different characters in Mario Golf on Gameboy, So one of them
over the years. Gotta make it one of them's.
Gotta make it in, right? OK, where's the?
I'm gonna find the characters thing here.
I have to switch my screen so we can both hear it.
Change the windows. I think now should work.
You can see it. I do like how at the beginning
of the game, in that cutscene, Donkey Kong's just kind of like
there, you know, he's like, oh, oh, this is oh, this is scary, I
guess. Or something.
Like, he's not really. He's nonplussed about all this.
Like, you know, he's not really a member of the family.
He hasn't been around since Mario Tzaki.
Kong Junior. Really so.
He's bringing and bringing the boy back and stuff too, right?
For for one last time, apparently.
Or one. I mean, that's like, that's it
that they haven't been around really, other than like sports
games and party games like. That's it, man.
They. Donkey Kong 94, One of the best
games ever made, yes? Also, so maybe that was the last
time. Yes, that's true.
That's true. There's there's a lot of missed
opportunities. I think with with a wide variety
of Donkey Kong characters. I would say Dixie is number one
in my book. Where the hell has Dixie Been?
Don't by Microsoft. I I mean, maybe, maybe, I, I
don't know for sure. But the I'm pretty sure the last
time she was in a game, like as a playable character or even at
all, is Diddy Kong Racing for DS or 3DS, whichever one it was.
Yeah, DSDS. That's that's it.
So that's 20 years ago. Like, come on, come on.
Goodness. Come on, what are you gonna do?
There are a number of names on here.
So the international versions, which are considered, you know,
North America and Europe and everything, will be the names
that we recognize. Berto, Boo, Bowser, Paratroopa,
Shy Guy and Toad. But they have corresponding
Japanese names that are not anywhere close to that.
So Berto is actually called Catherine Catherine.
Catherine. Catherine.
Yeah, Boo is Teresa. Teresa or Teresa?
Teresa, I guess. Bowser.
Is the idea comes from, you know, someone's wife nagging
them for like, you know, working their entire existence at
Nintendo, developing a game. Is that where it comes from?
I did not know that. Yeah, I think it's it's, oh, oh,
why am I blanking on my favorite Tzuka.
Tzuka.
Not Tzuka. Tzuka.
So yeah, Tzuka's wife was like, you.
You work entirely too much. Which she's right.
Well, probably, yeah. And they like, slept there, so
but yeah, that's where that comes from.
I did not know that. Oh, yeah.
OK, I see it now. Yeah.
Yeah, so. Oh yeah, What?
I didn't know that. So Teresa, I guess, is was her
name maybe Teresa? I don't know if that's her name.
I don't know. Maybe.
But I know that's where booze come from, so that makes sense.
I would have a have. A human name for it.
Yeah, Bowser, They. Still call Bowser.
Kupa Bowser simply. Just call him Bowser.
I know. I mean, Bowser's a cool name
until the guy that now runs Nintendo is named Bowser, which
is a little weird. It's funny, It is.
It's so funny. It's it was like it was meant to
be. How did this not happen yet?
What was taking this guy so long?
Like, yeah, so he's just Koopa. Paratroopa is Pata.
Pata. Pata Pata.
Pata, Pata. I like the way he says.
It. It's a nice I.
It's weird but it's fine unless I guess it has a meaning.
We just don't know. Shy guy is hey Ho hey.
Ho, I love that. Like.
I want to call him that. I I think, I think what's funny
is like, it's funny that they're different names, but the way
that they're voiced in Mario Tennis, like Hey Ho and Pata
Pata, like they sound pretty good.
Like, I like the voice over of it better than Shy Guy, you
know? Good job, Charles.
Yeah, right, exactly. Yeah.
He's, he's got a sound good. Yeah.
And then Toad is Pinnopio I think.
Pinnopio. Pinnopio.
It's like it's like Pinocchio but Keynopio.
But Keynopio, I thought that was.
I thought that was really fun and funny.
I think I think it's kind of cool that that that's actually a
thing and is able for me to find.
So I'm gonna give myself a pat on the back.
I think it's funny that they just like recycled the voices
from the Japanese voices from Mario Kart 64.
Yeah. For Mario Party One, So they
like it was like, ah, just throw those in there, just it's fine.
It's it's OK. It's enough.
We also we don't have the apparently we don't have the
time and space to to make something new.
So just. Oh, I missed.
Yeah, it's OK. When it really comes down to it,
Mario Tennis is a fantastic game.
I think it's really great. I I think it's one of the best
or better sports games, at least so far.
I know I've, I've sort of haven't played all of them or
replayed all of them since starting the show and
everything. But so far this and Mario Golf
are really damn good, man. Like they're just they're just
sharp. They're just fun.
They're easy to pick up. It's Arcadie but but also kind
of SIM. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yeah, I do wish, and I think I said this about Mario Golf as
well. I do really wish that these
games had the RPG Ish stuff of the Gameboy titles.
I think if if they could have pulled that off, I really like
these would have been the best games of all time like these
would have. Just that's where that's why you
play the Gameboy one. Yeah, the The Golf, The Switch
Golf. That was supposed to be.
The point was that they were adding in like the RPG aspect of
it and it and it was OK, but it it didn't really.
It was just nothing to do in that game, man.
It was just let down. I was disappointed too, because
because I was so in love with the previous ones.
I was like this this is going to be.
It's awesome that there's like RPG thing is in there and
everything. I totally agree.
I totally agree with you. They're doing the console and
the handheld all in one package. It's going to be great.
No, no, no, it wasn't. Yeah.
It it was, I think the golf part of it, you know, felt OK and
everything but. Yeah, it's a fine golf game,
yeah. But just a fine golf game.
Like just. All I wanted was, yeah, all I
wanted was Gamecube's Toadstool tour online.
That's all I want. You mean that I'm happy because
I like Toadstool Tour better? Oh, do you?
OK. I have so little experience with
that one that I can't say like, oh, that's the one I want.
There there's more quality of life features in it and I really
love it. And that's all I need in my life
is online Toadstool Tour, so I'm sure there's some way to do it
with Dolphin. I just don't know.
There's probably a way, yeah. I was just going to say there's
there's got to be a way somewhere, yeah.
Nintendo would just give us the damn GameCube channel.
Oh my God. Just like just make it happen.
I have so little experience with GameCube.
I would absolutely love that. Yeah, just like, I don't care.
Even if it's just like five games and that's all we get.
And one of them's Geist. I don't care.
As long as one of them is that, yeah.
Oh, well, I don't. I don't need one of them to be
Geist. But I won't care when Geist
shows up. Like, that's fine.
Whatever. We finally got our thing.
At least we got what we need otherwise.
Yeah. Like, yeah, People I know who do
not care about tennis got real into this game.
Sure. In a serious way, yeah.
And which speaks to the testament of It's just solid.
You can pick it up, you can play it, you know, tell people like,
hey, tap the button a little earlier to get your power shot
and them both at the same time to get your power shot.
But that's really all you need to know.
That's that's fine. That's totally fine, you know,
and and I think like you said, you're, you're picking up, oh,
here's my little boob play that I could not figure out.
Oh God, I guess the piranhas. Yeah, I guess the Piranhas too.
Yeah, I I was missing shots all over the place.
I think. What's good about this too, like
you mentioned earlier, picking up and and playing it at at
random times or picking up and yeah, see, I was just like going
right through the ball. Hey, I got one.
So bad it It really is tough to. It looks it looks like I am just
I have never played a sports game in my life watching this
replay, right? Now, but if you like, if you
like really back up what like a the slice, the B button.
But you can get that thing to hook like around Wario.
I think that's why I played those characters growing up,
because I was like, oh man, I I can, I can do these shots now.
I just couldn't figure it out but.
Yeah, but you'll get there. I'll I'll get there.
So that and, and that's what's great too.
Like, honestly, this is one of those games that I think it's
great that this is one that they put on Switch, 'cause it's
definitely a game where you could just play a tournament for
15 minutes, play one of these Piranha matches for 10 minutes.
You know you can do that with games.
Like this? Exactly.
I think, I think it's it's definitely one of those games
that benefits from that and and that's great.
I I think that's one of the one of the few I I have.
I have some issues with the choices of what they have on
Switch Online between this and especially Game Boy.
It's just not enough. There's not enough.
I I know it's not that simple, but come on.
But at least. This is on there, at least
there's not. It's like like more please, more
like. Yeah, add more stuff to your
service, please. Especially Game Boy Advance.
What are they doing? Gosh, Donkey Kong 94 is not even
on the Game Boy. Like, like DK 94 needs to be on
that. Whatever.
I don't. Let's not.
Let's not get into.
It. But yeah, I like this game a
lot, as do I. You know, just sometimes it's
just one of those things where like, like, Oh my God, I'm like,
I've gotten really good at this game again.
I don't know why, Like, like my friends and I just happened to
be around and like all of a sudden we're doing tournaments
of this game. Yes, yes.
And it's fun. It is.
It's a lot of fun overall. If you haven't played it before
or haven't played it for a very long time.
Play Mario Tennis people. I I, you know if it's if you're
sort of on the fence about it. We've kind of been raving about
it here and there and at some points but like just just play
this game it is. It is a recommended play whether
you have Switch online or where they have another way of playing
it. I think you're just gonna have a
good time, plain and simple. I think you're just going to
have a good time with this. Yeah, it is good.
So it's. Exactly what you want out of a
tennis game. In a lot of ways, what you'd
expect, but not in a bad way. You know it, it doesn't doesn't
necessarily surprise you, but that's OK.
It does what it needs to do and does it well.
And I think that's really the the best way.
It doesn't do too much, which like I said, maybe some more
side game features. But for the most part, you know,
there's a lot here. You can just keep playing tennis
with your friends. That's cool.
Yeah, yeah, especially with other people.
It is a perfect game for that. So I agree, Mario Tennis now
behind us on Remember 64, but more Mario games and sports
titles coming, lots of them. We have lots of them.
We have sport I I guess, I guess you could call racing games,
sport games, but. Racing is sport.
Racing is a sport, but is San Francisco Rush a sport?
Sir is San. Francisco, San Francisco.
Rush is life, Rush's life. Rush's life.
So the reason why I'm mentioning that is because no matter when
we end up doing it or how we end up doing it, Luigi has always
raved about the Rush games, especially two, and we are 100%
going to be doing that together. I am very excited because one of
the games that you said way back when that you really wanted to
play were the Kengriff Junior games.
I had a great time with those. I fully expect to be loving the,
or at least very much enjoying myself playing the Rush game.
So I I'm excited for that, so. Rush is a good another example
of a good arcade. Slash SIM combo.
Yeah, yeah. But what you really want to be
doing is playing Rush 2 Stunt mode and just like trying to
spin those cars as many times as you can while landing all four
tires on the ground and not blowing up.
OK, OK. Yeah, go go find stunt mode on
two and just let that become your new religion 'cause it's
great. Well, I've I fully.
I am. I am all in on trying this.
We're not gonna put an exact date on it yet for everybody
that's listening, but we will. But we will be doing it.
And there is no way anyone else is going to be doing that
episode but you, Sir. Because hell yeah, not only is
it always a joy to be talking to you about games and have you
with me on the show, but but to play games that, that, that a
guest or anyone else brings that really has a passion for it,
that I've never played. That's what I love about doing
this is being able to experience those.
So very excited, very excited to tease ahead to that.
Yeah, I I want to make you play Ogre Battle, but I don't want to
make you play Ogre Battle. That's the other one.
So that's going to be you know what it is we'll we'll also
queue that up. But it's going to have to be
like this long term, like, hey, we planned for it and six months
later, we've got it behind now we're now we're ready.
Like even back back, way back when I was like this, this has
to be like a multi like we have to, yeah.
Multi step. Process.
It would be a check in sort of thing.
That's totally fine with me. I'm down with that.
So it's going to be an Ogre battle series almost.
Almost because that's that's always what I've always wanted
to do with that game is have a very you know long play series
with it because it is it's a lot that's.
OK. A lot is OK.
But it's it's a lot of good stuff so and and I I was playing
that a lot this year because I was getting really excited for
Unicorn Overlord and now Unicorn Overlord is here.
That has arrived. It's very Ogre Battle 64.
It's it's what I wanted. So I'm happy with that.
Excellent, excellent. OK, everyone.
So that's that's a little tease ahead for what we're going to
work on together. But until that time, of course,
you can always find Remember 64 online at Remember 64 show,
including on Patreon where you can support the show for as
little as a buck a month, get episodes early, get extra
content that I'm making. I'm doing like mini reviews.
I'm starting to do some free stuff as well, like polls and
stuff. I'm opening up for things that
will you know, if anyone wants to hear me talk about a game
that I'm playing away for the N64, that I'll either, you know,
write a mini review down or record it.
It'll be available to everybody, but I want to know what people
want to hear about. I don't want to just do some
random things. So patreon.com/remember 64 Show
is where you can find that. And yeah, check it out.
I mean, if if you don't want to or can't support, no problem,
check out the free stuff anyways.
But it's always up there, and you'll always get a chance to
get episodes early if you do support the show for as little
as a buck a month. So yeah, that's it, man.
That's all of it. Thank you everyone for
listening, Luigi, as always a pleasure to speak with you, Sir.
Oh yeah, it's great. So this is this is awesome to
get back into it together and to continue to do more more awesome
stuff on the show. Ogre Battle and and the Rush
series are happening. Whether people, yeah.
Whether people like it or not, we're.
On your calendar. Put it in the calendar.
We'll let you know when in the calendar.
But where? Yeah, we'll just just let you
know. It's in the.
It should be in your calendar somewhere.
Yeah, it's so you know. Put it in there and and whether
you've done it or we've done it for you, it will be there.
Yeah. All right, everyone.
Thanks for listening. Luigi.
Thanks for being here. And we will see everybody next
time on Remember 64. Farewell.