Mario Tennis Open Announced, Arrives In May

Inevitably, Nintendo has revealed a 3DS iteration of its popular Mario Tennis franchise.

Though not as popular as Mario's platforming adventures or his kart racing excursions, Nintendo's Mario Tennis titles have been quite successful since the series' debut on the Nintendo 64 over a decade ago. Generally speaking, the games adhere to standard tennis rules, except that players are able to grab Nintendo-trademarked power-ups and every character has his or her own distinctive playing style. Bowser is slow but strong, Mario is well-balanced and, as in Mario Kart, Yoshi is better than everyone at everything, always.

This latest iteration of the game is scheduled to hit the Nintendo 3DS on May 20, and to celebrate this new-found release date, Nintendo offered up a gameplay-heavy trailer to demonstrate the title.

New to this version are touch-screen shot controls and 3D graphics, but that's more or less what any of us would expect from a 3DS game at this point. Sadly, beyond that the game looks like any other Mario Tennis title. Which is great news for fans of the series, and anyone with a pathological fear of change.

I won't judge the game based solely on a single video (and Nintendo makes good money by following its standard formulas), but I really hope the final game has some new tricks up its sleeve. Online multiplayer, maybe? Dynamic and interesting Mii support? Cameo appearances by John McEnroe and, inexplicably, Charles Barkley?

One can only hope.