GoNintendo 'End of Day' thought - Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash impressions from NintenDaan

Daan has finally had some time to recover from his E3 trip and now he's ready to share some hands-on impressions with us! He's put together his thoughts on Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, which you can read below. You enjoy that and I'm going to call it a night! See you in a few, short hours.

Mario Tennis has brought enjoyable sports action to various Nintendo platforms for ages now. While the Nintendo 3DS version could have been better, it was still the enjoyable venture that I play every so often. Now it is time for a Wii U version of this madness and it's looking to deliver something special yet again. Did the E3 demo make me a believer?

The demo for Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash was incredibly simple. You could play a quick match alone, with two players or four players and experience the action right away. This roster included Mario, Bowser, Toad and Peach. All of the characters had a good weight to them and each performed slightly different from one another. You use the left stick of the Wii U GamePad or Pro Controller to move about and used face buttons for various shots. These range from lobs, top-spins and drop shots.

This is what Mario Tennis is already well known for and this doesn't change in Ultra Smash. Sadly, not every single thing was sound in the experience, starting with charge attacks. Previously the characters did special moves and tricks to keep the experience lively, but they were completely gone in this demo. The only thing to make it different from regular tennis were the Mega Mushrooms, which were thrown onto the court at certain intervals. They add little to the overall excitement and only make your character grow somewhat in size.

Also worth noting, the court used in the demo was way too standard. There were no random events and the focus was, once again, solely on classic tennis. This is only a piece of the full game mind you, but as far as first impressions are concerned, this felt like standard fair. The game was lovely to look at though, even if it all felt a bit safe.

Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash left me with many questions and I really hope that Nintendo can answer them. What exciting stuff will be included in the final product? Where are the special attacks? Will this Wii U version be unique in some fashion? Let us hope that all will be discussed and that an interesting product is waiting for us when all is said and done.