Overview

Mario Tennis, known in Japan as Mario Tennis 64, is the Nintendo 64 sports game that arguably defined Camelot Software Planning's Mario sports legacy. It's the first direct entry in the Mario Tennis series and a follow-up to Mario's Tennis on the Virtual Boy.

This is the game that introduced Waluigi — Wario's lanky purple rival, designed specifically as a doubles partner so Wario wouldn't feel left out. It also brought Princess Daisy back into the Mario fold (her first appearance since Super Mario Land, 1989) and re-introduced Birdo after years of absence. Waluigi, Daisy, Birdo, Koopa Paratroopa, Boo and Shy Guy all make their playable debuts here.

The game is also famously Transfer Pak compatible with its Game Boy Color counterpart — link up a GBC Mario Tennis cart to unlock the four Camelot original characters (Alex, Harry, Nina, Kate) and six bonus Transfer Pak courts. (Note: these characters and courts are unavailable on Virtual Console and Nintendo Switch Online releases because no equivalent Transfer Pak exists for those platforms.)

It has been re-released on the Wii Virtual Console (2010), Wii U Virtual Console (2015) and the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack's Nintendo 64 – Nintendo Classics service (October 2021).

Opening Cutscene

The game opens with the launch of the Mario Star Tournament. Mario and a prominent cast (including newcomers Daisy and Birdo) walk out onto the field. The camera switches to a walk-through of more playable characters, then a quick zoom-in on two shadowed figures — foreshadowing the chaos to come.

The opening matches play out:

• Mario defeats DK
• Yoshi defeats Daisy
• Princess Peach defeats Birdo
• Luigi defeats Paratroopa

In the semi-finals, Mario defeats Yoshi and Luigi defeats Peach. The finals start with the brothers looking for the tennis ball — when suddenly Wario and his new side-kick Waluigi bust in to challenge them.

As Waluigi enjoys his big introduction, Luigi exclaims he is not impressed with this new character. Waluigi, now angered, challenges Luigi directly. Mario tries to calm the two down when Wario confronts him. The four are about to have-it-out, when a gloaming spotlight shines down upon them.

As Toad (the tournament announcer) points and shouts “What's that?!”, Bowser and a hovering Boo drop onto the court, knocking Wario and Waluigi backwards. Everyone appears disgusted that Bowser would try to ruin a tennis match — until, to everyone's surprise, the pair announce they have come to play a friendly game of tennis.

As everyone is baffled, Mario breaks the silence by exclaiming “Let's all play!”. Peach and Daisy look to each other and agree, and everyone, including Wario and Waluigi, follows suit. Out of nowhere, a Bob-omb rolls onto the field. Without time to act, everyone is caught in the blast — and the game begins.

Gameplay

Tennis as it should be — familiar to anyone who's played the real sport, but accessible enough for kids new to the game. Camelot built Mario Tennis on the philosophy that a true tennis game with a Mario coat of paint would outshine an arcadey kart-tennis fantasy — and most reviewers agreed.

Serving

Every point begins with a serve. Players alternate serving every game. To serve, the player presses A or B once to toss the ball, then A or B again while aiming with the control stick.

The right timing on the second press results in a “Nice” serve — slightly more powerful and quicker than a normal serve.

• Topspin serve: double-tap A
• Slice serve: double-tap B
• Smash serve: hold A + B together
• Fault rules: miss the service box and you fault. Two faults in a row is a double fault — you lose the point.

Types of Shots

Five distinct shot types form the core of the game, executed with specific combinations of A and B, with direction controlled via the control stick.

Top Spin

Input: A · double-tap A for power

The basic shot — high arch, predictable bounce. Double-tap A and the shot gains an orange trail and more power, harder for the opponent to handle.

Slice

Input: B · double-tap B for power

Lower trajectory and less bounce. Double-tap B and the shot gets an even flatter trajectory with a blue trail — tough to lift back into play.

Lob

Input: A → B

An even higher arc than top spin. Especially effective against weaker, quicker players who come to the net. When you lob, a star-shaped smash point appears where the ball will fall.

Drop Shot (no screenshot)

Drop Shot

Input: B → A

A weak shot with a low trajectory that drops the ball very close to the net. If an opponent is deep on the back court, they have to sprint forward to make a play — often leading to mis-hits.

Smash Shot (Flat)

Input: A + B together

A very fast flat shot with pink sparks bursting from the racket and a unique sound effect. Most effective at the net. If a star-shaped smash point appears (after a lob or weak return), executing a smash on the star makes it an even more powerful smash with a pink trail.

Charge & Charging Stances

To charge a shot, hold A, B, or both — sparks appear around the player. A charged-up shot is more powerful and easier to control. While charging, the character automatically hits the ball if it's within reach, leaping if needed.

However, charging slows you down — unless you're a Tricky character. Cancel a misaligned charge by pressing Z.

Depending on where the ball is and what trajectory it's on when you start the charge, your character assumes one of three stances. Each stance influences which way you can leap, the speed and direction of your follow-up shot, and (for Flat shots) the actual type of shot produced.

The Three Stances (Right-handed & Left-handed)

Forehand (R)

Skewed toward the side of the non-dominant hand. Can leap in the direction of the dominant hand.

Backhand (R)

Skewed toward the side of the dominant hand. Can leap in the direction of the non-dominant hand.

Overhead (R)

Hits with racket above the head. The only stance that allows vertical leaps to reach balls flying above the head, plus leaps in either direction.

Forehand (L)

Same as right-handed, mirrored for left-handed characters. (Toggle handedness with Z or L on the character select.)

Backhand (L)

The left-handed mirror of the standard backhand stance.

Overhead (L)

Left-handed overhead. Still your go-to stance for any ball above head height.

Doubles

In doubles matches, the side alleys of the court are in play — whereas in singles they're treated as out. When receiving a service, only the player closer to the back of the court is allowed to return it — if the player closer to the net returns the serve, they lose the point.

Doubles is where the chemistry of pre-set partners really matters — see the full Doubles Partners table below for who teams up with whom in tournament mode.

Game Modes

Five main play modes — three of which (Exhibition, Ring Shot, Bowser Stage) support up to four players, while Tournament and Piranha Challenge are single-player only.

Exhibition

1–4 player free matches in singles or doubles. Customise:

• Sets: 1, 3 or 5 sets of 2 or 6 games each
• Difficulty: Easy, Normal, Hard, Intense, MAX
• MAX difficulty: unlocked by beating every cup in both singles tournaments with every character (except the four Transfer Pak GBC characters)
• Courts: all 16 available, once each is unlocked

Tournament (Single Player)

An 8-player singles bracket (or 5 doubles pairings in the doubles version). Initially only the Mushroom Cup is available; beat it to unlock the Flower Cup, then the Star Cup.

Cup	Court	R1	R2	Final
Mushroom Cup	Hard	1 Set (Easy)	1 Set (Easy)	3 Sets (Normal)
Flower Cup	Clay	1 Set (Easy)	1 Set (Normal)	3 Sets (Normal)
Star Cup	Grass	1 Set (Normal)	1 Set (Hard)	3 Sets (Hard)

Special Tournament (Single Player)

After beating the Star Cup with a character, that character is awarded a star. Star every default character (excluding the four Transfer Pak GBC ones) to unlock the Special Tournament. During character select, hold R while selecting to enter as the starred version of that character.

Three Special Tournament cups, each tougher than the last:

Beating all singles special cups with all 16 characters unlocks MAX difficulty for CPU opponents.

Ring Shot (1–4 Players)

Players attempt to hit a set number of rings while playing against an opponent. Four challenge variants:

• Game: “Clear the set number of rings before the game ends.”
• Time: “Clear the set number of rings before time runs out.”
• Ball: “Continue a rally to clear the set number of rings.”
• Points: “Clear rings for points within the time limit.”

Bowser Stage

Mario Tennis goes Mario Kart. Bowser Stage is played on a floating court suspended by chains above a lake of lava. The court pitches and shifts throughout the match — you have to contend with weird gravity. Running up an inclined surface takes more time; the downslope pulls you toward the lava. The ball reacts differently depending on the surface angle.

The other major change: power-ups. They hover in glowing cubes near the centre of the net — just like in Mario Kart. When a player sends the ball through one, the power-up appears in the corner of the screen, ready to use with R.

Power-Ups

Piranha Challenge

A minigame where the player must return balls spit by three Piranha Plants on the other side of the court. For each ball you must hit it past an opponent in order to score a point. A total of 50 balls are spit randomly between the three plants. The opponent CPU stays mostly in the centre of the net.

Five courts are available for the challenge: Hard, Clay, Grass, Composition, and the Open Court. Achieve a perfect score of 50/50 to unlock the secret Piranha Court.

Records System

Each character × opponent combination is tracked on a Results Screen grid. Different shapes mark the difficulty you beat them on, and different colours mark how you beat them:

Shape (Difficulty)

• Easy: Triangle
• Normal: Circle
• Hard: Two concentric circles
• Intense / MAX: Star

Colour (How you beat them)

• Silver: Won after continuing from a saved match (all difficulties)
• Gold: Won without saving or continuing (all difficulties)
• Rainbow: Played as a non-starred character and won against a starred CPU opponent without saving or continuing (Intense/MAX only)

Collect every shape and colour combination across the full character roster and you've genuinely mastered the game.

Ring Tournament Codes

In Special Games > Ring Tournament mode, players could enter codes from the official Mario Tennis website (active 2000–2004) to challenge specific scenarios and submit scores to an online leaderboard. The leaderboard service ended in 2004 — but the codes still work on Wii U Virtual Console and Nintendo 64 – Nintendo Classics releases.

All 11 known codes, preserved here for posterity:

Trivia: this mode is visible but unselectable on the Wii Virtual Console version (cursor skips past it). Fully re-implemented on Wii U VC and N64-NSO.

Playable Characters

The roster: 14 default + 2 unlockable + 4 Transfer Pak characters, divided into five play styles. Quotes below are taken from the official US instruction booklet, verbatim.

Default Roster (14)

Mario

All-Around

“His fancy footwork lets him cover the court easily.”

Luigi

All-Around

“His height lets him hit even the balls that look like they're out of reach.”

Princess Peach

Technique

“She can blast the ball right down the line.”

Princess Daisy

Technique

“She rarely misses when playing close to the net.”

Toad

Technique

“His speed gives him more time to plan his shots.”

Wario

Power

“Watch out for his forceful baseline stroke.”

Waluigi

Technique

“His long arms and legs let him return any type of shot.”

Bowser

Power

“His impressive serve may be too strong to handle.”

Donkey Kong

Power

“He can return even high balls with incredible force.”

Yoshi

Speed

“Not only is he fast, but also he's pretty accurate, too.”

Birdo

Speed

“Her speed lets her move around the court with ease.”

Baby Mario

Speed

“His small size lets him zip all over the court.”

Koopa Paratroopa

Tricky

“With his ability to react quickly to any type of shot, he can return the ball anywhere he wants.”

Boo

Tricky

“He uses his spin shot to manipulate the ball however he likes.”

Unlockable (2)

Donkey Kong Jr.

Power

Unlock: Win the Star Cup in doubles

Shy Guy

Technique

Unlock: Win the Star Cup in singles

Transfer Pak Exclusive (4)

Camelot's four original characters from the Mario Tennis Game Boy Color companion title. Transferred over via the N64's Transfer Pak after meeting GBC unlock criteria. Not available on Wii VC, Wii U VC, or Nintendo Switch Online — none of those platforms have a Transfer Pak equivalent.

Alex

—

Unlock: Transfer Pak from GBC Mario Tennis

Harry

—

Unlock: Transfer Pak from GBC Mario Tennis

Nina

—

Unlock: Transfer Pak from GBC Mario Tennis

Kate

—

Unlock: Transfer Pak from GBC Mario Tennis

Non-playable Characters

Cameos and supporting roles that appear in cutscenes, announcer duty, or as set dressing on the courts:

• Toad — the tournament announcer (and the most detailed character model in any N64 Mario game; see Trivia)
• Lakitu — line judge / referee
• Koopa Troopa — ball-fetcher
• Bob-omb — the explosive party-crasher from the opening cutscene
• Bob-omb Buddy — cameo
• Piranha Plant — the three ball-spitting menaces of the Piranha Challenge

Tournament Doubles Partners

In doubles tournament mode, every character is paired with a fixed CPU partner. Per the original game manual, here's who teams up with whom:

Courts

Sixteen main courts + the Open Court + the secret Piranha Court. Speed and bounce vary — players who pick the right court for their playstyle have a clear advantage. Unlock criteria range from simple Mushroom Cup wins to the now-impossible Transfer Pak link-ups with the GBC version.

Default Courts

Hard Court

Speed: Normal · Bounce: Strong

“A standard composite court with average ball speed.”

Unlock: Available from start

Clay Court

Speed: Slow · Bounce: Weak

“A clay court with slow ball speed.”

Unlock: Available from start

Grass Court

Speed: Fast · Bounce: Weak

“A grass court with fast ball speed.”

Unlock: Available from start

Composition Court

Speed: Fastest · Bounce: Normal

“A court of artificial turf with very fast ball speed.”

Unlock: Available from start

Open Court

Speed: Normal · Bounce: Normal

“A special court for a special game.”

Unlock: Available from start. Special Games only.

In-Game Unlock Courts

Unlocked by winning singles or doubles cups with specific characters:

Mario Bros. Court

Speed: Fast · Bounce: Weak

“Mario and Luigi's Mario Bros. Court.”

Unlock: Win the Mushroom Cup with Mario (singles)

Baby Mario & Yoshi Court

Speed: Fastest · Bounce: Weak

“The private court of longtime pals, Baby Mario and Yoshi.”

Unlock: Win the Mushroom Cup with Yoshi (singles)

Donkey Kong Court

Speed: Fast · Bounce: Strongest

“Donkey Kong's own court, set deep in the jungle.”

Unlock: Win the Mushroom Cup with DK (singles)

Wario & Waluigi Court

Speed: Slow · Bounce: Strongest

“Power and cunning unite on Wario and Waluigi's court.”

Unlock: Win the Star Cup with Wario (doubles)

Mario & Luigi Court

Speed: Fast · Bounce: Normal

“Mario and Luigi's private court at Peach's Castle.”

Unlock: Win the Star Cup with Mario (doubles)

Birdo & Yoshi Court

Speed: Slow · Bounce: Strong

“Yoshi and Birdo share this court on Yoshi's Island.”

Unlock: Win the Star Cup with Birdo (doubles)

Transfer Pak Courts

Six bonus courts only accessible if you connected a Game Boy Color Mario Tennis cart via the N64 Transfer Pak. Each requires winning Round 3 of a specific GBC minigame. Like the Transfer Pak characters, these are permanently unavailable on Virtual Console and Switch Online.

Super Mario Court

Speed: Normal · Bounce: Strong

“A court in the sky that features a picture of Mario.”

Unlock: GBC Mario Tennis: clear all Clear Status challenges + win round 3 of Boo Blast

Peach Court

Speed: Normal · Bounce: Normal

“A secret court built inside Peach's Castle.”

Unlock: GBC Mario Tennis: clear all Clear Status challenges + win round 3 of Perfect Shot

Wario Court

Speed: Slow · Bounce: Weak

“Wario built this mysterious court.”

Unlock: GBC Mario Tennis: win round 3 of Treasure Box

Yoshi Court

Speed: Fast · Bounce: Strong

“A court located on Yoshi's Island.”

Unlock: GBC Mario Tennis: win round 3 of Fruit Fantasy

Waluigi Court

Speed: Fastest · Bounce: Strongest

“Waluigi customized this court himself.”

Unlock: GBC Mario Tennis: win round 3 of Medallion Match

Bowser Court

Speed: Normal · Bounce: Strongest

“Bowser's personal court hidden in his dark world.”

Unlock: GBC Mario Tennis: win round 3 of Two-on-One

Special Court

Piranha Court

Speed: Normal · Bounce: Normal

“A special court for the Piranha Challenge.”

Unlock: Achieve a perfect score (50/50) on the Piranha Challenge

Trophy Celebrations

Every character has a unique trophy-podium skit when you win a cup. Twenty distinct vignettes, all reproduced verbatim:

• Mario: Mario jumps around happily with the trophy until a pipe sprouts out of the platform. Wario emerges from the pipe and takes the trophy before slowly descending into the pipe. Mario attempts to retrieve the trophy.
• Luigi: Luigi, trophy in hand, runs around in circles, but falls down, leaving the trophy on the ground. A nearby Lakitu takes the trophy while a disappointed Luigi stands and watches.
• Peach: The trophy levitates around Peach. She spins around with it, and reaches out to grab it.
• Daisy: Daisy begins celebrating and thanking the crowd before stepping on the edge of the platform, losing her balance and falling off. She lands on her bottom and gives a slightly embarrassed look to the camera.
• Toad: Toad, after throwing the trophy in the air and catching it two times, attempts it a third time, only for it to fall on his head, causing bright red sparkles to fall everywhere. To Toad's surprise, the platform now has little mushrooms on it.
• Baby Mario: Baby Mario attempts to drag the trophy, but can barely get it to budge. Seeing the issue, Yoshi walks in, puts the trophy in his mouth, and signals for him to get on. However, Baby Mario makes the mistake of Ground Pounding onto Yoshi, causing him to spit the trophy out.
• Yoshi: The trophy falls in front of Yoshi. He eats it and turns it into an egg. Yoshi turns around and, to his shock, sees he laid a golden egg.
• Birdo: Birdo celebrates with her trophy, then puts it down to fire victory eggs. One of the eggs deflects off of something, causing it to head back to the platform and explode.
• Wario: Wario, chanting to himself, runs around waiting for his trophy. He becomes bored and runs so fast that he falls off the platform. When he looks back at the platform, he sees that the trophy has fallen and looks at the camera.
• Waluigi: Waluigi is hopping around on the platform and talking about how happy he is. A disinterested Luigi watching Waluigi decides to walk away, causing Waluigi to growl in anger. Waluigi uses the same growl that Wario uses when he charges a shot or serves.
• DK: DK beats his chest while holding the trophy up. However, seeing some bananas next to him, he throws the trophy away and goes after them instead.
• DK Jr.: DK Jr. hops from leg to leg holding the trophy up. DK walks in, and DK Jr. jumps into his arms and holds the trophy up.
• Bowser: Boos can be seen circling the trophy, but Bowser drops down and gets rid of them with his fire breath. He takes a step forward, snatches the trophy, and holds it up for the crowd to see.
• Paratroopa: Four other Koopa Troopas watch the Paratroopa juggle the trophy. He lands and catches the trophy and poses, while the Koopa Troopas applaud.
• Boo: Boo along with some Boo Buddies float along the platform. The Boo Buddies pick Boo up and throw him into the air, only to be confused when only the trophy comes down. It turns out Boo turned invisible, so he reappears, scaring the Boo Buddies.
• Shy Guy: An excited Shy Guy jumps around. A rotor comes out from him, turning him into Fly Guy, as he flies around.
• Alex: Alex steps onto the platform and Mario gives him the trophy, with Alex shaking hands with him afterwards. Peach, Luigi, and Mario applaud Alex as he thanks the audience and jumps triumphantly.
• Harry: Harry tries to pick up the trophy but it is too heavy. He lifts it only a short distance off the ground before grinning sheepishly.
• Nina: Nina and Kate share a hug and slap hands. Kate pinches Nina's cheeks before Peach and Daisy present the trophy, which Kate encourages Nina to accept.
• Kate: Kate happily shows off the trophy until Harry appears. Much to Kate's shock, Harry confesses an apparent love for her. With Kate unsure what to do, Nina tells her to reject him, which she does and leaves with Nina.

Pre-Release & Unused Content

Camelot suggested Goomba, Bullet Bill, and Whomp as potential playable characters, but all three were rejected for design reasons:

• Goomba — no hands to hold a racket. (Goomba would finally get his playable debut in Mario Tennis Fever, 2026.)
• Bullet Bill (the Super Mario 64 version) — no hands either.
• Whomp — too rigid in posture to convincingly play tennis.

The Walpeach Saga

Camelot also proposed a bad-Peach rival character to complete a Wario…Waluigi…? trio — a princess equivalent of Wario's mischievous counterpart. Internally nicknamed “Walpeach” (Japanese: ワルピーチ, Warupīchi). The character was rejected by Nintendo for “not being cute enough” — with Birdo and Daisy suggested in her place.

A “Walpeach” had previously appeared in the Kodansha manga adaptation of Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, but it was Peach temporarily consumed by her minor mischievousness — not a separate character.

A 2008 interview with Camelot vice president Shugo Takahashi revealed the real reason Walpeach was rejected by Shigeru Miyamoto: to avoid visual similarity to the Doronbo gang from the Yatterman anime — specifically Doronjo, Tonzura, and Boyacky, the latter of whom bears a striking resemblance to Waluigi. Nintendo wanted no public connection drawn between Camelot's new villains and the classic 1970s anime trio.

Designs for “Walpeach” were eventually posted on Instagram by Fumihide Aoki in December 2023. They had been proposed and rejected again for Mario Power Tennis (2004) on the GameCube. To this day, no Walpeach character has ever made it into a released game.

Version Differences & Re-Releases

The LodgeNet Hotel Version

Mario Tennis was distributed to hotel rooms via LodgeNet, a pay-per-play hotel gaming service. The LodgeNet build removed four of the seven main-menu mode options — only 1 Player, Continue, and Settings remained available.

Quirk worth noting: if a LodgeNet installation didn't internally delete save data after a session, the game version itself would delete save data on the next startup — incorrectly presenting the deletion as “corruption or damage”.

Re-Release Timeline

• Wii Virtual Console — EU 18 Jun 2010 · US 28 Jun 2010 · JP 31 Aug 2010
• Wii U Virtual Console (promotional) — EU 20 Nov 2015 · AU 21 Nov 2015
• Wii U Virtual Console (full) — US 9 Jul 2015 · EU 17 Dec 2015 · AU 17 Dec 2015 · JP 20 Jul 2016
• Nintendo 64 – Nintendo Classics (Switch Online + Expansion Pack) — US 25 Oct 2021 · JP/EU/AU/HK/SK 26 Oct 2021

On all the Virtual Console and Switch Online re-releases, the four Transfer Pak Game Boy Color characters (Alex, Harry, Nina, Kate) and the six Transfer Pak courts (Super Mario, Peach, Wario, Yoshi, Waluigi, Bowser) are permanently inaccessible — no Transfer Pak equivalent exists on the Wii, Wii U, or Nintendo Switch. The Ring Tournament mode was also broken on Wii VC (cursor skipped past the option), but is fully implemented on Wii U VC and N64-NSO.

Reception

Mario Tennis was a critical hit. Electronic Gaming Monthly awarded it a Gold Award — meaning the average score of its three reviewers was 9.0 or higher. Reviewers consistently praised the solid gameplay, the variety of game modes, and the depth that rewarded skilled play.

Trivia

• The Toad on the main menu is the most detailed character model in any Nintendo 64 Mario game. At 1,948 triangles, the Toad menu model has more polygons than a full set of four characters in a doubles match. Camelot really went all-in on him.
• If you launch the game with no controllers plugged in, a scene plays of Luigi holding an N64 controller and chasing Waluigi, who is flying away with the entire console (pictured).
• In tiebreakers, the score “0” is pronounced as “oh”, whereas later Mario Tennis titles pronounce it as “zero”.
• The music was composed by Motoi Sakuraba — the same composer behind Mario Golf 64 (1999) and a household name in Japanese RPG soundtracks (Tales of, Star Ocean, Dark Souls).
• All of the returning Mario Golf 64 cast members retain their palette swaps from that game, keeping visual continuity between the two Camelot N64 sports games.
• The Short Game and Tiebreaker modes are the only modes where two players can pick the same character. The second player to pick gets a palette swap — e.g. the second Mario appears in his Fire Mario outfit.
• The doubles partners pairings table is taken directly from the original game manual.
• The Mario Bros. Court music is an arrangement of the Ground BGM from the original Super Mario Bros.
• The Baby Mario & Yoshi Court music is an arrangement of “Yoshi's Song” from Yoshi's Story.
• The Donkey Kong Court music is an arrangement of the Title BGM from the original 1981 arcade Donkey Kong.
• The Yoshi Trophy Ceremony music is also an arrangement of “Yoshi's Song” from Yoshi's Story.
• The Super Star power-up's music is an arrangement of the Invincibility BGM from Super Mario Bros.
• Japanese serial code: NUS-NM8J-JPN. Japanese name: マリオテニス64 (Mario Tenisu Rokujūyon).
• Tagline: “Mario & friends serve up another ace!”
• Always verify a YouTube embed before saving a post — many old N64 videos vanish without warning.

Videos

Gallery

A selection of additional rendered artwork from the official Mario Tennis 64 promotional material:

Mario

Waluigi

Bowser

Yoshi (Diving)

Koopa Paratroopa

DK & Baby Mario

Reference, Information & External Links