Mario Tennis Power Tour the last Mario Tennis title to introduce truly expansive RPG elements. It’s become a less significant gameplay aspect as the years have passed. The newest entry, Mario Tennis Open, features no RPG features at all.
Why is this so? Producer and lead designer of Mario Tennis Open Hiroyuki Takahashi told Nintendo Power the following when asked about the lack of a RPG-style single-player mode:
“This version may be for a handheld system, but we approached it like a console title. With aspects like download matches and online matches made possible by the hardware, the game has a feature set more similar to console games.
“Another reason is that the game’s cast includes Mii characters in addition to characters from the Mario family, which are difficult to work into an [RPG] scenario. It didn’t feel right to have already-existent Mii characters appear in an original storyline.”
There isn’t any sort of RPG single-player mode in Mario Tennis open, but “there are RPG-like elements in the form of costumes”. Players will be able to customize characters and change their abilities.
