Mario Tennis GBC FAQ
By: Ikillkenny (ikillkenny@chesco.com)
Version: 1.1 (J)

=================
Table Of Contents
=================
Chapter 1:  Introduction To Mario Tennis GBC
Chapter 2:  Gameplay/Controls
Chapter 3:  Regular Tennis Strategies
Chapter 4:  Common Questions
Chapter 5:  Credits/Comming Soon

============================================
Chapter 1:  Introduction To Mario Tennis GBC
============================================

Section 1: History

	Mario Tennis has been around for quite a while.  Nintendo made many versions
of the game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, none of them with great
sucess.  There was also a Mario's Tennis game produced for the failed Virtual
Boy console.  More recently Camelot released a 3D version of Mario Tennis for
the Nitnendo 64, with many 3D Nintendo mascot characters and all sorts of other
goodies.  Much like what Camelot did for Mario Golf, they decided to create a
handheld version of the game on Game Boy Color.  The Game Boy Color version of
the game is what version this FAQ covers.

	Mario Tennis GBC has not yet (as of the writing of this document) been
released in North America or Europe yet.  However, for those of you who could
not wait to play the great game, like myself, this guide offers tips and tricks
for the Japanese version of Mario Tennis GBC.  Once the English version of the
game is released, this guide will transform into an English version FAQ. 
However, that won't be unitl around January 2001 when Mario Tennis GBC is
released.  But the information contained in this document is still pretty
accurate, although some of it is a guess because I do not read or even speak
Japanese.  Not to worry, as this guide should cover most of what you need to
get atleast started in the Japanese version.

Section 2: FAQ History

	Here is the current history and list of changes in the different versions of
this FAQ:
-Version 1.1 (J)
Started: November 19th, 2000
Released: November
--Added Some of the Story Section.
--Added More Common Questions.

-Version 1.0 (J)
Started: November 18th, 2000
Released: November 19th, 2000
First version of the FAQ.

Section 3: Please Contribute To This FAQ!

	If you've found something that you know is wrong, or new information about the
game please feel free to email me at ikillkenny@chesco.com.  Everyone who
emails me with what I consider important information, I'll add to this FAQ and
give you credit.

Section 3: Tennis Terms, Gameboy Terms, etc.

	This FAQ uses many tennis terms that those who have never played tennis before
may get confused from.  Here is a list of the tennis court's basic terms:

=============================================== Baseline
|                     |                       |
|               (Nintendo)                    |
|                                             |
|                                             |
|                                             |
|                                             |
|                                             | Service Line
|||
|                     |                       |
|                     |                       |
|  Service Box        |     Service Box       |
|                     |                       |
|                     |                       |
|                     |                       |
=============================================== Net

Other Tennis Terms (not in alphabetical order for some strange reason...):
Ball: Duh.
Fault: When the ball goes out of bands on a serve.  If a player gets 2 faults,
he or she loses the point.
Let: When the ball hits the net on a serve, goes over, and still goes in the
service box.
Have any questions on more terms?  Ask me @ ikillkenny@chesco.com.

Gameboy:

Infared Port
_________________________________
|                                |
| ______________________________ | Power
| |                            | |
| |                            | |
| |                            | |
| |                            | |
| |     Screen                 | |
| |                            | |
| |                            | |
| |                            | |
| |                            | |
|  |
|   ||                     (A)  |
| |   |                 (B)    |
|  | |     ---  ---            |
|          Start Select         |
|   D-Pad                        |
|                                |


============================
Chapter 2: Gampelay/Controls
============================

Section 1: Story Mode Controls

	The controls in the story mode of Mario Tennis GBC are rather simple.  They're
your standard walk and talk gameboy controls (think Pokemon) and they're not
very complicated at all.
 Use the D-Pad to move your character around.  It also will also allow you to
toggle your selection when someone asks you a question and you must respond
with yes or no.
 Press the A Button when you're next to and facing a character to talk with
that character.  Also press the A Button to choose "Yes" (top) or "No" (bottem)
when it's selected.
 Pressing the B Button when asked a question will automaticly select "No."
 Hold down the B button to run.
 Holding the A or B button during a conversation speeds up the text.
 Pressing the Start button will bring you to the start menu, which allows you
to save your game, change around options, and view the stars you've earned.
 The select button seems to do nothing in the story mode.

Section 2: Tennis Controls

	The controls in the acutal tennis match of the game are exactly the same as on
the N64 version.  However, incase you're not aware of the controls, here they
are.
 Use the D-Pad to move yoru character around.  Also use the D-Pad to direct
shots as you're charging up.
 Pressing the A button once while a shot is comming will hit a regular shot. 
Holding the A button before the the ball arrives will charge up your character.
 Tapping the A button once, and then holding it again will hit a more powerful
(orange trailed) shot.
 Pressing the B button once while a shot is comming will hit a slice.  Holding
the B button before the ball arrives will charge up your character.  Tapping
the B button once, and then holding it again will hit a powerful slice (blue
trailed) shot.
 Tapping the A button then pressing the B button when the ball arrives will
hit a lob shot which will launch the ball high in the air, but not very
powerfully.
 Tapping the B button then pressing the A button when the ball arrives will
hit a drop shot which will barely get over the net.
 Tapping either A or B and then pressing A and B at the same time when the
ball arrives will hit a very powerful (purple trailed shot) if the ball is over
your head (resulting in a slam.)

Section 3: Serving Controls

	The controls while serving are very basic.
 Pressing the A button will hit a regular power shot (orange trailed.)
 Pressing the B button will hit a powerful slice shot (blue trailed.)
 Pressing both A and B at the same time will hit a very powerful shot (purple
trailed.)

====================================
Chapter 3: Regular Tennis Strategies
====================================

Section 1: Serving

	Serving in the Gameboy Color version of this game seems to be a little less
important than in the N64 version.  The N64 version of the game had characters
such as Boo and Paratrooper changing the angle of their shots, and players like
Bowser and Wario hitting monstor shots to the corner and downt he line.  In the
GBC version, however, many serves are very easy to hit, even perfect shots. 
Nevertheless, a good serve is always a nice thing to have, so this section will
explain to you how to get a good serve.

	The fastest shots will usually occur when you hit the ball when it's at its
highest point.  If you can get it right on there will be a message displayed
that probally says "Nice Shot!" in Japanese.  Also, if you're going for a power
shot, make sure to hit purple shots (A+B) because they are the fastest.  IF
you're lucky, the other player will hit an unintentional lob shot back which
will allow you to smash it into the corner for an easy win (or another lob shot
;-] .)

	Another way to get a nice serve is to place the ball well.  Keep hitting it
down the center slowy for a few shots, and then blast it into the corner on a
power shot.  If you're really lucky you'll get an ace (a serve without the
other player hitting it) or if you're unlucky you'll get a fault (the ball
doesn't hit the service box, and if you fault again you'll lose the point.)

Section 2: Net Play

	An effective way to quickly win against easier opponents is to play close to
the net.  This allows for great smashes and angles on the ball that will
probally make your opponent miss.  However, as your competition gets tougher,
you'll have a harder time playing the net.  You can still do it effectively
against harder opponents, you just have to develop more advanced strategies.

	Net Play is not the hardest strategy to execute.  Simply rush up to the net
after serving or getting served to.  Hit the ball on the service line right
after getting the first shot back, and then get up to about 1/2 up the service
box and stay there.  Move laterally and forward and backwards when it is
needed.

	There's only really 1 powerful shot that you'll be able to hit when you're
playing net.  That shot is the A+B smash hit that you'll only be able to get if
the other player lobs the ball to you.  Make sure to capitolize on these shots!
 They don't come that often later in the game.  There are some different
strategies for netplay while playing doubles, but that will come later.

Section 3: Baseline Play

	Baseline Play is a very conservative way of playing the game.  As long as you
don't get faked out, you should be able to return all of the balls that come to
you.  All you really have to do is not make mistakes and wait for your opponent
to make some.  Just hit slices and occasionally top spin power shots to the
corners to eventually force a lob shot from your opponent.

	When playing Baseline, you should be about halfway between the end of the
service box and the baseline.  Continually hit top spin shots and slice shots
into the same corner a few times, and then quickly hit it to the other corner. 
This will usually get easy opponents, or atleast force them into a lob shot.

	Make sure not to charge up your shots too early!  More often than not you'll
get little drop shots that barely make it over the net (or even hit the net)
that wouldn't even make it to you rolling!

==========
Story Mode
==========

Section 1: Introduction

	The Story Mode of Mario Tennis GBC is very similar to the story mode in Mario
Golf GBC.  You are a character from a small and local country club that must
play other players, talk with people around the clubs, and complete objectives
and tournaments before beating the club.  You also have a certain level of
expierence that dictates your stats.  Beating other players and doing
objectives (such as beating the robot in the training lounge) will give you
expierence points.  The more expierence points you get, the higher your level
will be, and the higher your stats will be.

Section 2: Starting Story Mode

	To start the Story Mode, goto the "1", "2", or "3" icon on the main screen. 
After selecting this, you will have the option of choosing either a boy or a
girl.  There is no significant difference between the two, so it does not
matter who you choose.  After choosing your character, and hitting ok (the
option on top) you then get a doubles character.  The boy doubles character
will get a guy as a doubles partner, and the girl will get a another girl as
her partner.  You'll have the option of naming both the characters.  If you're
playing the Japanese version, you should probally name your character something
recognizable like "00000" or ">>>>>."  This will help, as you'll know if you're
being talked to.  Right after that, you'll get a nice old fashioned 7 minute
Japanese lecture and tour of the place.

	After the woman stops talking with you, you'll end up in your partner's house.
 From here you'll want to head right and go past one pathway, and go up at the
one after that.  You'll enter a place with many people practicing on blue
(presumeably indoor courts) courts.  Talk with the man directly in front of you
with black hair and in a blue sports jacket.  He'll have you battling others in
no time (just as long as you answer yes to all of his questions.)

	This will be your introduction to match playing.  While it shouldn't be too
hard, it's good practice (and exp) for later matches.  You must win 2 out of 3
6-Game sets to win the match.  This will take a good while (grrr...) so make
sure you have time to do this!  Once you win the match you'll get a funky
Japanese screen in red and yellow saying "Win!" and then you'll be brought to
the level up screen.  You'll get various ammounts of Expierence Points as you
play opponents of varying difficulty.  Anyways, take your expierence and hold
down A to give it to your main character.  You may want to save the bottem 1/4
of it to give to your double's partner (hit down to switch to that play) so you
don't end up with a really suck doubles partner.  Once you've distributed the
expierence, a input box will appear asking you if this is ok.  Choose the top
option (yes) and you'll proceed to the Level Up screen.  For each level your
character gained you will be able to improve one attribute.  Here are the
different attributes (thank you VERY much to Astroblue and Shdwrlm3's
translation guide for this information [see credits to find where to get this
translation guide]):

______________ _______________
|  Spin      | |  Control     |
|   Top ---- | |   Angle ---- |
|   Slice ---| |   Place ---- |
  
_____________  ________________
| Power      | |  Speed        |
|  Stroke ---| |    Speed ---- |
|  Serve ----| |    Dash ----  |
|  Volley----| |    Smart ---- |
  |    Break ---- |
               

	Next, talk with the guy in the blue sports jacket again to face another
challenger.  After beating him/her, once again talk with the man in the sweat
jacket.  You'll then face your another nameless competetor and after that a
judge who was sitting down to your right.  Once you beat him (it will be a
little challenging), the man in the blue sportsjacket comes up to you and has a
nice little chat.

	Next, take a little time to beef up your skills by heading out of the blue
court area and to the path all the way on your right (that doens't go up.) 
There will be many people here who will teach you how to shoot and stand in
various positions.  Pay attention to what they say before hand, as you'll need
to do that in order to complete the objective.  The hardest challenge here is
hitting the ball exactly on the service line to past the service line right
after you get a service return.  This is difficult becuase you don't have much
time, and you have to get exactly on the small line.  Try hitting a light serve
to the corner to make things a little easier.

	Once that is finished, head out of that area and up the path to the right of
the cafe (you'll be on an area of brown courts.)  Talk with the old woman
directly in front of you to face your first challenger.  Watch out for this
challenger's serves and shots, as they can be a little tricky.  Once you win,
talk with the woman again for another challenger.  Watch out for the speed on
this guy.  And, for a third time, talk with the woman and face your final
challenger.  This challenger may be rather difficult, so don't expect to win
without losing a point (like you may have done if you've played Mario Tennis
for the N64 and played some of the easy earlier competetors.)  You'll then get
a nice lecture again.

	Now it's time for some more expierence.  Head out of the court areas, and down
the only path that lets you go down.  At the cross section, goto your right and
enter the large building.  In there head into blue metalic door on the left to
face a robot challenger to gain expierence. In the leftmost door you'll face a
series of arrows moving around that will deflect your ball in a certain
direction.  There are 4 levels that you have to beat, and here they are:

Level 1:  This isn't too bad.  The first thing you must do is serve the ball at
one of the arrows on the wall.  The ball will be deflected in an angle
corresponding to the directin of the arrow that you hit.  Once you do this, hit
a few shots against the net on the service line, and when the 4 arrows come
back try to first hit it just to the right, and then just to the left.  Hitting
the arrows may be trouble, because if the ball goes out of bounds before you
get 50 shots totatled, you'll lose.

Level 2:  This is going to take a little paitence to beat.  This time instead
of arrows hitting the ball left or right, they now hit drop shots (down arrows)
or lob shots (up arrows that get really, really high.)  Your best way to beat
this one is to a little past the service line and try your hardest to avoid
hitting your ball at one of the four arrow machines.  Hit the ball back 50
times to get that valuable expierence.

Level 3:  This level, in my opinion, is much easier than the previous level. 
You get a lot of free hitting time while the blocks stop and change form. 
They'll change forms from Up to Left To Down To Right To Up again.  However,
the annoying down arrows will never appear in the front row (except in the left
corner when they're changing shapes) so you can play it safe and hit the ball
between the baseline and the service line.

Level 4:  Ouch!  This is a really tough one to beat.  Now there are 3 globs of
arrows to mess you up, and they periodicly change their directions.  It's
really quite annoying.  The best strategy is to play pretty far back, and
really pay attention to not over anticipating and having a newly changed arrow
hit a drop shot at you.  Hit 50 shots (after *a_lot* of practice) to win the
final level of this.

=======More To Come Soon!  If you have any information for after this point,
feel free to give me an email at ikillkenny@chesco.com.========

===========================
Chapter 4: Common Questions
==========================

	There are many common questions that you may have while playing the game. 
I'll do my best to try to answer them.

Q:  Where can I find the rom of this game?
A:  Roms are illegal dude.

Q:  When does the English version come out?
A:  January 20001

Q:  Where can I find a translation guide for this game?
A:  Check out gamefaqs.com.  They have atleast one of those there.

Q:  Are there any other versions of Mario Tennis avaliable?
A:  Yes, there is a Nintendo 64 version avaliable.

Q:  How do I do so and so in story mode?
A:  I'm working on that.

Q:  Is it possible to play Mario Tennis online against someome else?
A:  Obviously not.

Q:  Is there a way to make your player always on the close side like in the N64
version?
A:  To the best of my knowledge, there isn't.  If you know otherwie, give me an
email at ikillkenny@chesco.com

Q:  Is this the latest version of the FAQ?
A:  The only way to be certain is to check out www.gamefaqs.com.  The latest
version is there.

Q:  Something in this FAQ doesn't make sense.  What should I do?
A:  Look it over a few times, but if you're still stuck email me at
ikillkenny@chesco.com.

Q:  A green message keeps comming up whenver I hit the ball!  Arrrgh!
A:  That's not really a question, but I'll try to answer it my best (-Troy
Mclure on the Simpsons.)  Anyways, there are some training matches where you
must do exactly what the person says in order to pass them.  Since I don't
speak Japanese, I can't really answer your question.  You best bet is to pay
attention to what the person says before hand in the little court map.  If that
doesn't work, just try different shots from different positions.

===============================
Chapter 5: Credits/Comming Soon
===============================

Section 1: Credits

Written By:  ikillkenny (ikillkenny@chesco.com)
Contact Information:
	Email: ikillkenny@chesco.com.
	AIM: ikillkenny
	ICQ: 33094162
	Snail Mail: Why would you want to send me snail mail?
Only Mario Tennis Site That Exists: Mario Tennis Anonymous
(http://comicsoft.hypermart.net/mta)
Why do you even care?
Translation Help:   AstroBlue/Shdwrlm3's Mini-FAQ/Translation Guide.  Avaliable
at:  http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbcolor/file/mario_tennis.txt.

Feel free to distribute, sell, whatever with this FAQ.  I've stopped caring. 
It would help my ego if you would keep my name in this FAQ, but if you feel
like you're just so important, and have to change the credits around you can go
do that.

Section 2: Comming Soon

	There is a lot that will be added to this FAQ in the future.  Here's a list of
what I hope to add very soon:

Doubles Strategies
Translation Guide
Additions To The N64 Version
Codes/Hints
Common Questions

And more...
