10 Greatest Super Mario Spin-Offs Of All Time

Tennis is one of Mario’s more widely explored sporting ventures, appearing across most console generations. It first occurred on Nintendo’s ill-fated Virtual Boy, selling poorly alongside the console but its N64 follow up was what truly kicked off our red plumber’s new hobby.

Developed by Camelot Software Planning, it released back in 2000 and became notable for introducing Waluigi, Luigi’s own arch-rival.

Featuring a wide variety of different courts, Tennis didn’t feature a story mode like portable entries but focused on Tournament gameplay instead, providing some special challenge modes on the side.

Whilst light in story content, what Camelot instead brought us was a highly polished sports game, brigning a surprising level of depth to its Tennis mechanics and despite its more cartoony nature, became one of the best Tennis games going.

This sub-series recently re-appeared on Switch as Mario Tennis Aces but since the N64, each major release has brought in power shots, feeling very gimmicky by comparison. So for players after a more refined experience, you’d do well to revisit this entry.