On the show floor at E3, only the exhibition mode was playable in Mario Tennis Advance. The story mode was locked -- this was probably merely due to the nature of E3 since it is hard to spend more than ten minutes with a single game. Also, a new addition to the start menu was a comprehensive tennis glossary.
After selecting exhibition, you could choose from eight characters, four of which were locked. As for the unlocked characters, they were Mario, Princess Peach, Waluigi and Donkey Kong. After selecting your character you would pick between a singles or doubles match. You would then pick the CPUs difficulty from either Novice, Intermediate, Expert or Pro. The only playable court seemed to be Peachs.
For those out there that loved or would like to have Mario Power Tennis on the go, Mario Tennis Advance is for you. The title is developed by the same company, Camelot Software Planning, and plays exactly like its GameCube counterpart. I thought the game played very well and was amazed at how closely the game resembled Mario Power Tennis. Even the animations were the same -- from DKs offensive banana boomerang move, to Peachs offensive hearty-thing move, to Marios defensive mallet move.
Im guessing the meatiest part of Mario Tennis Advance and what will make it stand above Mario Power Tennis, will be its story mode. This will likely be similar to that of Mario Golf: Advance Tour in which you would receive invitations to compete against inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario Golf: Advance Tour is known to be addicting and Mario Tennis Advance will likely be no different. The title is scheduled for release October 2005.