Mario Tennis Open's GDC Debut

The Game Developer's Conference often brings about at least a handful of unexpected announcements or surprises - and GDC 2012 is no exception. I came upon one such surprise as I was strolling the showfloor between panels, where I found a fully playable demo of Mario Tennis Open for 3DS. This was my first time to actually get my hands on Mario Tennis Open, which was just named and dated for a May 20 release two weeks ago. Although my demo was brief, my time with the Singles exhibition mode leads me to believe we can all expect the same caliber of gameplay Mario Tennis titles always bring to the court. A couple of interesting things that should set Open apart from its predecessors are a few of the 3DS-specific control options. Under normal circumstances, the game provides a top-down perspective of the court, one that allows you to clearly see what's happening on either side of the net. However, if the player lifts the system upward a little the camera shifts to over-the-shoulder, which gives you a better view of the ball as it approaches you. While in over-the-shoulder view you're also able to use gyroscope to aim by moving the system side to side. It'll be interesting to see if this proves useful and is quick enough to pull of to truly effect gameplay and strategy - but my small taste of this option has me eager to test it out more completely. The game also lets players to either execute different tennis moves using the face buttons, the touch screen, or a combination of the two. I was told Open also allows players to somehow upgrade their racket, though the specifics of this feature haven't been revealed at this time. Considering Mario Tennis Open is just two months away from its Stateside release, expect more on Mario's latest foray into the world of tennis soon. For now, all I can say is that it appears the developers at Camelot - who have been bringing excellent Mario-themed tennis and golf games to the masses for more than a decade - haven't lost their touch.