This is a very boring and bad game, and the worst sporting spinoff in the Mario franchise. The features are boring, and not even the Mega Mushroom gimmick is fun. Plus, many characters we love, such as Diddy Kong or Bowser Jr., aren’t on here. At least it does have Dry Bowser, but still. I’d rather play Mario Power Tennis on the GameCube or Mario Tennis Aces on the Switch instead.

This is pretty much an E3 demo that was $50 when this game came out. The modes are pretty much the exact same thing with the only change being that you either get Mega Mushrooms or you have to rally a big tennis ball back and forth. Plus, the stadium also have no unique gimmicks or themes since it’s pretty much the same court but with the textures changed. It’s one of the most lazy Mario sports games Nintendo has ever put out and I would not recommend this game at all.

Mario Tennis Ultra Smash is a visually stunning game, but its immediately noticeable lack of content left me wondering “Is this it?” If you’ve played any of the previous versions like Mario Tennis on Nintendo 64, the RPG lite Mario Tennis on GameBoy Color, or even the quirky Mario Power Tennis for the Gamecube, you’ll come in expecting something new and interesting that builds on top of the already compelling franchise. Unfortunately, other than the brilliant colors and cool effects we come to expect from Nintendo, Ultra Smash lacks enough playable characters, modes, or a rewarding progression to justify playing over older versions. Mega Battle is the only new mode where Toad randomly throws Mega Mushrooms onto the court. These oversized mushrooms cause your character to get bigger and minimally increase their stats for longer than you’d expect. It’s an interesting idea on the surface that fits the Mario theme, but ultimately it was more annoying than I expected it to be. The larger character blocks the view of the court and the short animation sequence caused me to lose track of the ball more times than I’d like to admit. You’ll earn some coins at the end of each activity much like Mario Kart 8, but these coins can only be used to bypass unlock conditions for any of the 25 generic rewards. If Mega Battle isn’t your thing, there's still Singles or Doubles in Classic Tennis which is just basic tennis without the mushrooms. Knockout Challenge lets you train an AI amiibo partner by increasing their stats every 5 matches, though I couldn’t tell any difference in their performance. The AI character still regularly missed volleys or hit me in the back with the ball. If you don’t have an amiibo of each character, the only point here is to win 15 consecutive matches to unlock a Star version of a character. Or, you can just buy the unlock for 5,000 coins. Star characters felt identical to non-star and I couldn’t find any in-game information that explained what made Star Mario different from base Mario. Mega Ball Rally is the only other new minigame and is centered solely around how long you can volley a beach ball back and forth until someone makes a mistake. The ball gets smaller every 30 volleys and exponentially increases your coin reward the longer the game goes on — and that’s it. Online servers were shut down for the Wii U in April of 2024 so I couldn’t give matchmaking a shot, but it appears that the only options were causal or ranked. You couldn’t even set up an online match with a friend which is pretty disappointing. One of the few positives here, the Wii U GamePad continues to prove its worth as the best part of this console. I chose the GamePad as the main play screen while the TV showed camera angles akin to watching a real tennis match on ESPN. This worked great for streaming and I would think it would be fun to play a few matches with multiple GamePads while onlookers enjoyed the dynamic camera shots on the main screen. Final Verdict Omitting a story mode and a lackluster rewards system gave me little reason to come back and play more. The Mega Battle and Mega Ball Rally lost their shine quickly and I’ve played enough Classic Tennis in the past. Online mode may have been fun for a bit, and without servers to host games, I don’t feel like I’m missing much either way. Knockout mode is probably the most captivating to me as it briefly reminded me of grinding levels for Nina and Alex in the GBC Mario Tennis. Needing every amiibo to get the most of it or just buying the rewards hobbles the replayability quickly. Sadly, Ultra Smash is an uninspired step backward for Mario Tennis and worth skipping over or simply returning to previous versions. Rating 5/10 Mediocore Review by Thomas Bisom | @darkshadows61