Welcome to VC Weekly, N-Europe's guide to the wonderful world of Nintendo's download service. Written by Sam C Gittins.

Anyone for Tennis? If so then you'll be no doubt please by the release that's up for download this time around, especially if you just can't get enough of a certain portly plumber. Anyway enough from me and on with the game!

Available for download this week we have...

• Mario Tennis

Points: 1000
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Camelot
Released: 2000
System: N64

Sports titles and Mario seem to go hand-in-hand these days but a decade ago there was less than a handful of titles that fell into this category rather than the double fist-full that we seem to have today. Shortly after Mario Golf was released it was revealed that Camelot were working on another sports title and much to everyone's surprise and delight this turned out to be Mario Tennis which many still consider to be one of the finest sports games starring the portly plumber and his pals to this date; read on to find out why.

From the start most of the character roster is unlocked making it easy for you to just go straight in there and pick your favourite player and basically start having a blast from the off which gives the game great 'pick up and play' accessibility that many conventional sports games seem to lack in stark contrast. Mario is of course the general best 'all-rounder' character which many will use first but there are other characters like Yoshi which take a bit more time to master and are more rewarding to play as in the long-term; overall though most fans of the Mario universe will be happy with the character roster, well with the exception of Waluigi perhaps who debuted in this very game.

As you'd expect from a tennis title you get a standard tournament mode where you battle it out against each character in the game which is all well and good but as you'd expect from a Mario game there are also other fun and distracting modes including 'Ring-Shot' where rings appear over the court and you have to get the ball through to score points. The fantastic yet frustrating 'Piranha Challenge' sees you hitting balls fired at you from one of three piranha plants which you have to hit past your opponent on the other side, good luck because you'll need it if you want to successfully hit all fifty balls past as it's a real test of skill.

Perhaps the best bit of the game is the Bowser Stage though which is a court set inside Bowser's Castle which is suspended by chains over a pit of lava and moves as you play, you also get item boxes that reward you with items that will hinder your opponent. For its time of release the game features some rather nice graphics and effects not to mention a solid soundtrack; the only thing that fans who played the game the first time around will miss is the unlockable courts and characters that were available by linking up to the GBC version of the game and it'sfrankly baffling that Nintendo couldn't or wouldn't find a way to somehow include these in some form.

Overall however this is still a rather solid package even by todays standards as it's still the best in the series with the somewhat 'cheap' Mario Power Tennis on the Gamecube coming a close second due to the power moves which many seemed to dislike at the time and indeed proves that in some cases less is more. So if you're itching to get into playing a bit of tennis - it is the season for it after all - then look no further as you won't find another tennis title quite like this.

Verdict : Mario serves up a top tennis title.

That's it for another installment of VC Weekly which will return again soon. So until then, enjoy the rest of the week and Game On!

Sam Gittins
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