When comparing Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King vs Mario Tennis Aces, the Slant community recommends Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King for most people. In the question“What are the best games for the Nintendo Switch?” Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King is ranked 52nd while Mario Tennis Aces is ranked 81st. The most important reason people chose Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King is:
The tale of Lily and her adventures in the Kingdom of Blossom are told from the point of view of a grandfather who is weaving the story for his grandchildren. Huddled around their grandfather by a roaring fire, they will often interrupt his storytelling to interject a bit of childlike humor or ask questions. While the story of Lily herself is an otherwise a generic fantasy tale, the delivery method of using the dynamic of grandfather and grandchildren is charming, filled with humor, and adds a whole lot of personality.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Charming, lighthearted storytelling
The tale of Lily and her adventures in the Kingdom of Blossom are told from the point of view of a grandfather who is weaving the story for his grandchildren. Huddled around their grandfather by a roaring fire, they will often interrupt his storytelling to interject a bit of childlike humor or ask questions. While the story of Lily herself is an otherwise a generic fantasy tale, the delivery method of using the dynamic of grandfather and grandchildren is charming, filled with humor, and adds a whole lot of personality.
Pro Gameplay mechanics are presented clearly and are easy to learn
Blossom King gradually introduces puzzle and traps to you in an easy to understand way, and then slowly builds on them over time. This alleviates overly punishing mechanics that can cause frustration while learning the ropes. Whether it's a sliding block puzzle, fireballs you need to dodge, or a locked gate, chances are good that you've already been introduced to the simple version of the mechanic before you encounter the more challenging ones.
For example, there is a certain type of floor tile that will damage you if you stand on them for too long. The first time you encounter it, it will flash red. This alerts you to the danger and gives you time to move. Over the course of the dungeons, these trap tiles will become more and more numerous, but you're already aware of how the mechanic works, so you can overcome them with more confidence. All of the game's various puzzles and traps are handled in a similar way.
Pro Simple but enjoyable gameplay
This game was designed to be a Zelda clone, right down to the pixel art. Running around swinging your sword to smash barrels and hit enemies is simplistic, but gets the job done. You also get a boomerang and bow to attack from range, so there is a little depth to the combat. You can bomb walls to reveal secret passages, talk to NPCs in the overworld, and crawl through a handful of large dungeons. The story is told from the point of view of a grandfather talking to his grandkids, but every once in a while, a dialogue window will pop up which lets you choose the direction the story takes. Overall, the simple gameplay, retro pixel art, and rather large world contribute to a rather enjoyable adventure.
Pro Couch co-op with a friend is tons of fun
Playing with a friend right beside you makes the game much more enjoyable. Reacting to each other in real-time is just better than playing against a computer opponent. There's no online co-op -- only multiplayer matches against random people -- meaning you'll have to be in the same room together to play.
Pro Solid roster of Nintendo characters to play as
There's a good variety of characters you can play as. If you're familiar with first party Nintendo games, then you'll see a lot of familiar faces here, like Yoshi, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Luigi, Peach, and of course Mario. Everyone has their own playing styles, with bigger characters like Bowser and Donkey Kong favoring hard-hitting power shots, and others like Yoshi and Mario that have a more balanced approach. You can go with whichever style or character you prefer, practicing with them until you master everything. Getting to see all of these characters together in one game is great for fanservice as well.
Pro You can compete against others online in multiplayer
When you run out of single-player content to enjoy, you can hop online to play against random opponents. The main game mode is the tournaments you can play, which rewards you with special characters if you score well. Online connectivity is good too, especially with the choice to drop out of matches beforehand against players who have bad connections. Playing online is a really great way to test your skills and improve your play, since anyone you get matched with is an actual player who has their own strengths and weaknesses.
Pro Intense and engaging tennis matches
Mario Tennis Aces is incredibly addicting to play. Matches are fast-paced and exciting, with one particular mechanic that keeps things unpredictable. Every time you successfully hit the tennis ball to your opponent's end of the court, you build up a power meter that you can use in a couple of different ways.
When you want to quickly finish off a match, you can slow down time and take aim at a vulnerable corner of your opponent's court for an instant win. Or, if they try to do that to you, you can instead expend some of your power meter to quickly reach the ball and hit it back. Things can get pretty tricky when you both use up your power meters at the same time, leading to some satisfying wins.
Cons
Con The shield takes up a weapon slot
You can only have 3 active weapons at a time. Since the swords, bombs, and a bow are used so often, those will most likely be your preferred choices. However, for some baffling reason, the shield counts as a weapon and uses up one of your precious slots. Rather than giving the shield it's own button/hotkey, you have to go back into the menu system and swap in your shield every time it's needed. This means you'll be spending way more time in menus and micromanaging your weapon setup than you would reasonably want to.
Con Dungeons tend to drag on a bit too long
Dungeons are massive in size and are rather linear, usually only having one defined path to the boss. Encountering the same puzzles, traps, and enemies can make the dungeon feel stale after a while. By the time you've made it to the boss, the repetitive and linear nature combine into an experience that feels like it's definitely overstayed its welcome.
Con Loading screens can be annoying
The game world is grid based, and moving from one screen to the next requires a loading screen. While they aren't incredibly long loads, you will encounter them often enough to the point they can get annoying and mildly immersion breaking. Why a game with such a simple 8 bit style has loading screens at all is also quite puzzling.
Con Doesn't really bring any new gameplay ideas to the table
Everything in Blossom Tales has been seen before in other games. Puzzles mainly consist of dragging blocks onto pressure switches, dodging fireballs, or blocking arrows with your shield. Weapons consist of the standard sword, shield, and bow. Dungeons are fairly linear with traps and enemies being mostly generic transplanted ideas from other games. While the gameplay itself is good and executed well, you won't be encountering anything you haven't seen before.
Con Very wide skill gap between experienced and inexperienced players
Mario Tennis Aces can be unwelcoming to new players. While playing co-op or online, it's tough to catch up with everyone else who knows how to time their power shots with the meter. If you don't pick up on this mechanic fairly quickly, you may feel like you're getting left behind. You don't necessarily have to use the mechanic if you and a friend agree not to, but this sadly makes matches pretty dull. Running against computer opponents is a good way to get your feet wet before moving up to other levels of play.
Con Limited gameplay options for solo players
If you're the type who prefers to game alone, then Mario Tennis Aces might not be for you. There's only one single-player mode, while the rest of the game is mostly dedicated to co-op and online play. The solo mode is also extremely short, clocking in at around four hours. Aside from that, there really isn't much else for you to do.
Con Certain characters are locked behind online tournaments
The primary way to unlock new characters is to win tournaments, but this isn't entirely fair. They're only available for a limited amount of time, with the rewards changing from tournament to tournament. Even though some of these characters are in the actual game as opponents in the single-player adventure mode, you can't get access to them unless you unlock them through these tournaments. If you don't like playing online, or if you don't have the means to pay for Nintendo's online service once it's implemented later on in 2018, then you're basically out of luck.
Con Single-player adventure mode is pretty difficult
The game's adventure mode makes up for its short length with some real difficulty. It's a rough introduction to the gameplay, as some of the matches and bosses are really hard. There's plenty of variety to things, like courts that have certain hazards in your way and uneven terrain such as tall grass, as well as inventive boss designs like a giant squid that shoots out tennis ball-shaped blobs of ink. But all of these things can get quite overwhelming, especially if you're using the single-player mode to get better at the game.