Mario Tennis GBC (Singles) FAQ

Q: How do you run this game?
A: You go fast. A lot of this game is obviously doing the matches, so it's about winning the matches as quickly as possible.

Q: How do you route this game?
A: Obviously there's 2 factors here, the levels and where you put them, and then the matches themselves. The main thought process is that levels should go into Power, and then Control, to be able to win points as fast as possible. In matches, it's just about routing on your serve, whether and how you can ace, and on your return, whether and how you can return ace. If you can't do either of these things, the simple method is then to drop shot and approach, and just volley past them.

Q: So you have new strats? What are they?
A: I have some new strats. Some minor optimisations on certain serves, and returns. The biggest ones are Brian (more consistent Aces) and Allie (more consistent returns). Other new strats include using Smash Winners more often for consistency, but also for more EXP, to get extra levels to put into speed, to make A Cos and Mario a bit easier/faster.

Q: How do you always know where they are going to serve?
A: I don't always, but I do a lot of the time. Basically, there are 5 different spots that the computer can move to before serving. I refer to them as; 
Wide, slight out, slight in, in, and Line. (From left to right position on first serve, as the first serve is generally more important)
By watching where they move first, I can almost always predict where they will serve, and how to best return. There are 2 exceptions. The first is if they go to the Line, they can then serve to either position. However if you position yourself perfectly, and/or have good reaction time, you can still hit the ball from either position to where you want to.
The other exception only applies to Spike, and A Cos. If they go Wide, they can also serve to either spot. While you can't reach both spots from this position in time, there is still a tell that you can make work. When they go wide, they will always do a Nice serve to the right, and a non-nice serve to the left. So you assume they are serving to the right, and when the timing for a Nice serve passes, you can then determine it won't go that way, and move back to the left in time to return.

Q: How tight is the execution in this game?
A: It varies from fight to fight, but some of the 1 hit winners are really tight. Some of the later just aceable fights have really small windows where the ace still works (or in Spike's case, the Net return), as small as 1-2 frames I would imagine (it's also slightly random, lol). A large amount of the later return winners are also tight, because you actually get a wider trajectory if you time your shot very late, which can be tricky because it's always with a 2-button input (Lob is A->B), so too early on the first input doesn't get enough angle and they can return, and too late on the first input and you don't have enough time to press the second input to register (you have to pause for a bit between the 2 inputs, as pressing B directly after A will register as A+B)

Q: What is WR?
A: For leaderboards, go to http://www.speedrun.com/mariotennisgbc | See: Splits

Q: If WR is better than your PB, then why is the WR time worse than PB at the start?
A: Because while I'm seemingly better at the start of the game, Retro is way way better at the Island Open fights, where he saves tons of time over me.

Q: Are there glitches in this run?
A: No.