MARIO'S TENNIS for the Nintendo Virtual Boy Walkthrough/FAQ Version: 1.1 by brak2000 Last Updated: July 12, 2001 Status: Complete (for now) ------------------- Table of Contents ------------------- 1. Introduction 2. Version 3. Adjusting the Virtual Boy a. IPD Adjustment b. Focus Adjustment c. Automatic Pause Function 4. Game Overview 5. Controls a. Basic Controls b. Moving Your Character c. Serving d. Advanced Shots e. Shot Placement f. Other Controls 6. Results Display 7. Modes a. Singles b. Doubles c. Difficulty Chart 8. Characters a. Mario b. Luigi c. Princess Toadstool d. Yoshi e. Toad f. Koopa g. Donkey Kong Jr. 9. Strategies a. Singles b. Doubles 10. Cheats 11. Frequently Asked Questions 12. Contact Me 13. Legal Stuff ----------------- 1. INTRODUCTION ----------------- I'm writing this FAQ for many reasons. First of all, I love Virtual Boy and I'm not afraid to say it. Secondly, I'm writing this out of lack of Virtual Boy FAQs at any site online. I'm guessing this is because of the popularity with Virtual Boy which never did exist. Overall, this is my 5th FAQ ever made while this is my first Virtual Boy FAQ and I am planning many more to come. I hope by the end of 2001 to have a FAQ made for every Virtual Boy game I own. I hope you enjoy it! ------------- 2. VERSIONS ------------- 7/12/01 V1.1 - FAQ is complete for now, first submission made to GameFAQs 7/09/01 V1.0 - The beginning of this FAQ. Not bad of a start at all. ------------------------------ 3. ADJUSTING THE VIRTUAL BOY ------------------------------ I can never stress enough that proper Virtual Boy adjustments need to be made to truly enjoy any game. That is why I am including this in all my Virtual Boy FAQs. This is from the Mario's Tennis Instruction Book slightly edited to remove any references to pictures: When using the Virtual Boy, several adjustments must be made before starting the game. For your health and safety, be certain to perform these adjustments each time you play. If you wear glasses or contact lenses, be sure to wear them while using the Virtual Boy. Insert the Game Pak into the Virtual Boy, then turn the POWER switch located on the front of the conroller to the ON position. When the first screen appears, continue with the IPD and FOCUS adjustments. Press the START button to display the "IPD and FOCUS adjustments screen." Both adjustments are made using this screen. A. IPD Adjustment - This adjustment sets Virual Boy to the distance between your eyes (the Inter Pupil Distance). While looking at the adjustment screen, turn the IPD dial located on top of the Virtual Boy until you can see a mark in all four corners of the screen. The best adjustment may allow you to see only three of the four marks. When you have completed the IPD adjustment, proceed with the FOCUS adjustment. B. Focus Adjustment - This adjustment makes sure that you see the game image in the Virtual Boy display clearly. Move the FOCUS slider to the CENTER POSITION as on the housing. For most people, the center position should give you the clearest image. If the image is still fuzzy, then adjust the FOCUS slider right or left until the image is sharp and clear. C. Automatic Pause Function - All Virtual Boy Game Paks contain an automatic pause function. After completing the IPD and FOCUS adjustments, press the START button and the screen pictured at right will appear. The automatic pause is preset to the ON position. Nintendo recommends that you ALWAYS set the automatic pause to ON. To override the setting, use Left or Right on the L + Control Pad, then press the START button to begin the game. ------------------ 4. GAME OVERVIEW ------------------ The Nintendo Virtal Boy - one of the greatest disasters of our time. I never did understand why Nintendo made a system that hurt your eyes and introduced the color red to the gaming world, but man did I love it! Topping the Virtual Boy charts would have to be Mario's Tennis, which was basically packed in with most newly bought systems. Even though I believe Wario Land was the greatest Virtual Boy game ever made, Mario's Tennis introduced some groundbreaking 3D effects. If not directly related, a Nintendo 64 version of Mario's Tennis was released without the 3D. It was a big hit and a much better game, but the 3D graphics of the Virtual Boy version made the replay so much higher in my honest opinion. ------------- 5. CONTROLS ------------- A. Basic Controls ------------------ Here are some basic controls for Mario's Tennis. Left button (back) - None, see cheat section for a use Right button (back) - None, see cheat section for a use Left Control Pad - The left control pad moves your character while allowing you to control your shot placement. Also used in manuevering through game menus. Right Control Pad - None Select - Hit this while the game is paused to bring up the IPD and Focus adjustment screen Start - Pauses and resumes the game after auto-pause feature. A button - Hits a solid hit, throws the ball up when serving, registers/advances the menus when navigating, and allows you to move to next point. B button - Hits a soft shot or a lob shot, also throws the ball up when serving. B. Moving your character ------------------------- During gameplay, moving your character is extremely basic. Up on the control pad is moving forward, left is moving to the left, right is moving to the right, and back moves you backwards. The diagonal directions will move you in a diagonal direction. Simple enough. C. Serving ----------- When you have the ball to serve, first you will need to move left and right on the serving line. Once your character is positioned, hit A or B to throw the ball in to the air. After it is at the distance/height you want, hit A or B again to hit the ball. If you time the serve right, you will get a good serve. Make sure the serve has enough height, or you will get a foul. Get two fouls and the other team gets a point. D. Advanced Shots ------------------ The first advanced shot is the overhead smash. If the ball is over your head, hit A to automatically smash the ball at the other team. This is one of the best ways to catch your opponents off guard and score easy points. Another advanced shot is the volley shot. If the ball is coming at you when you are standing at the net, hit A and you should volley it to the other side. If your opponent is standing near the back, this should guarantee you 15 points if done right. The diving shot is really only avaliable with the small speedy characters. If a ball seems impossible to hit, run sideways at it and swing anyways. This will usually allow you to dive sideways at the ball and may allow you to get a quick and easy save and keep you in the game. E. Shot Placement ----------------- Placing shots where you want is easier than it may seem. When hitting the ball, use the left control pad to help you place your shot. Press the following direction(s) at the same time as your swing. +-----------+------------------+ | DIRECTION | COURT LOCATION | +-----------+------------------+ | Up | Long Backcourt | +-----------+------------------+ | Left | Left Sideline | +-----------+------------------+ | Right | Right Sideline | +-----------+------------------+ | Down | Short Frontcourt | +-----------+------------------+ F. Other Controls ------------------ Here are some basic controls that dont really effect the gameplay itself. - To speed up the animations between points, press and hold the A button while the animation goes to speed it up and get in more gameplay. If the A button is hit, point information will NOT be displayed. Only do this if you are looking for more gameplay and less statistics. - To pause the game, press START at any time. When the game is paused, you can adjust the IPD and Focus displays by pressing SELECT when the game has been paused. To resume the game, press START to go back to the game. - To reset the system without switching the power on and off, press START, SELECT, A, B, L, R buttons simultaneously. Remember that reseting the game means you lose any progress made since you switched on the system. -------------------- 6. RESULTS DISPLAY -------------------- Here is a chart that should help explain what each statistic means. +---------------+---------------------------------+ | STATISTIC | EXPLANATION | +---------------+---------------------------------+ | Total Pts. | Total of points won | +---------------+---------------------------------+ | Baseline Pts. | Points won from the backcourt | +---------------+---------------------------------+ | Net Pts. | Points won at the net | +---------------+---------------------------------+ | Errors | Total of unforced errors | +---------------+---------------------------------+ | Service Ace | Total aces served | +---------------+---------------------------------+ | 1st Serve % | Percentage of good first serves | +---------------+---------------------------------+ | Double Fault | Number of double faults | +---------------+---------------------------------+ ---------- 7. MODES ---------- A. Singles ---------- Singles is a 1-on-1 competition to see who truly is the best. You can set around the options for a single match or you can enter a tournament. If you do not enter options, the default will be you as Mario against Donkey Kong, Jr. The tournament is a bracket type tourney where you see who truly is the greatest tennis player! Beat your opponents and become champion to win this mode. B. Doubles ---------- Doubles is a 2-on-2 competition to see who truly is the best. You can set around the options just like in singles mode to be a single match or a tournament once again. If you do not enter options, the default will be you as Mario with your partner Yoshi against Donkey Kong Jr. and Toad. C. Difficulty Chart ------------------- When playing these modes, the difficulty will determine what happens. Here is a table that was in the instruction manual that most of you will probably make use of. +--------------------------------+-------+--------+----------+ | | Easy | Normal | Hard | +--------------------------------+-------+--------+----------+ | Ball Speed | Slow | Slow | Standard | +--------------------------------+-------+--------+----------+ | Racquet contact area | Large | Large | Strong | +--------------------------------+-------+--------+----------+ | Opponent power | Weak | Strong | Strong | +--------------------------------+-------+--------+----------+ | Player's body can obscure ball | No | No | Yes | +--------------------------------+-------+--------+----------+ | Player speed | Slow | Slow | Fast | +--------------------------------+-------+--------+----------+ --------------- 8. CHARACTERS --------------- (Character descriptions are taken directly from the instruction manual) A. Mario -------- He is an average player whose court speed and leg strength are solid. His racquet contact area is average, and he relies on his skillful groundstrokes, though he will approach the net occasionally. B. Luigi -------- His skill level and court strategy are similar to Mario's. He has better court coverage, though, due to being faster than Mario. C. Princess Toadstool --------------------- The princess is slow, but her racquet contact area is large. She doesn't like to approach the net, preferring to instead rally from the baseline. D. Yoshi -------- He is the fastest of all the players, but his racquet contact area is small. He plays an aggresive type of game by rushing the net at every opportunity. E. Toad ------- Toad is quite quick on the court, but his racquet contact area is not very large. Like Yoshi, he tries to approach the net often. Though he is strong, he has great court coverage because he can lunge at tough shots. F. Koopa -------- Being a turtle, basically, his court speed suffers. He has a large racquet contact area, though. He likes to rally from the baseline, and he also can lunge at tough shots like Toad. G. Donkey Kong Jr. ------------------ He is sower than all the other players, and also has a smaller racquet contact area. He is, however, understandably the most powerful of all the players. His strong groundstrokes allow him to win many points from the baseline. --------------- 9. STRATEGIES --------------- A. Singles ---------- - Make sure to cover your whole court! Stay in the middle of the court and you should be able to run all directions to hit the ball. If you stay on the left side and your opponent hits it to the right side, you'll never make it over there on time (unless you are Koopa or Toad..then its possible) This strategy also works vice versa in that you can use this against your opponent to fake them out. - When serving, take a look at your opponents location. If your opponent is sort of walking around on the back line and being careless, drop it near the front. Also works vice versa. - Practice slamming the ball down at your opponents. This is one of the most useful moves in the game if you hit the ball *AWAY* from your opponents. - Never ever hit the ball directly to your opponent! This may allow them to slam it down on you and make your life a lot harder. - Play carefully when you are on a Deuce. You need to win 2 in a row remember to win the deuce! B. Doubles ---------- - If your partner is covering the front, you cover the back. If your partner is covering the left, you cover the right. Never be on the same sides as your partner or your opponents will most likely beat you. - Follow the Singles strategies, but remember that your partner is there to help. - Drop the ball wherever an opening is. Its better than hitting the ball directly to your opponents. ------------ 10. CHEATS ------------ Extra Hard Mode - To get this cheat, beat the game and you'll see it after the end credits. Of course, you don't NEED to beat the game to enter it. When you are on the screen where you select between doubles and singles, hit L, L, R, L, R, Select. Now, the L/R are the back buttons on the controller. -------------------------------- 11. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS -------------------------------- Got a good question? Submit it to ------------------------- 12. CONTRIBUTORS/THANKS ------------------------- Right now, I don't have any contributors. But still I would like to thank Nintendo for making this game. I also thank Nintendo for ending the system so they could work more on the Nintendo 64. Even though I loved the system, I loved the "real" systems better. ---------------- 13. CONTACT ME ---------------- I'm online a lot and theres plenty ways to contact me! Website - www.brak2000.com Email - brak2000@hotmail.com MSN - brak2000@hotmail.com AIM - braktheman Yahoo - brak_2k ICQ - 52483244 When It Comes To EMAILING me I will Accept/Ignore the following I WILL Accept: Questions not covered in the FAQ Suggestions Email Saying my FAQ sucks/rocks (yes, I do also enjoy critique) Emails with good grammar and spelling (I accept crappy ones if I can read it) Emails asking to post my FAQ on their site I WILL NOT Accept: Questions covered in the FAQ Hate Mail Spam Mail Emails saying to respond if I would not like my FAQ on their site. That's just rude and an insult to anyone who writes FAQs! ----------------- 14. LEGAL STUFF ----------------- You know the deal. Please do not use this FAQ without my permission! If you email me with a request, I will usually say yes so PLEASE email me before posting this on your site or problems will occur! You may not sell this FAQ. It may be distributed as long as nothing is changed and it is not being sold in any shape, way, or form. I am in no way affiliated with Sonic Team or Sega. They get complete credit for making this wonderful game.