Mario Tennis Open – Characters, Costumes, and Unlockables

Our Mario Tennis Open unlockables guide breaks down every character, all courts, costume requirements, and other cheats and secrets

Released on the Nintendo 3DS in 2012, Mario Tennis Open served up your typical round of tennis in the Mushroom Kingdom with a cast of familiar characters. Well, most of them, at least. Ten courses make up the various tournaments and special modes, and there a few neat Super Mario Galaxy callouts baked into a combo of a court, character, and mode. But let’s not talk about the odd absence of Rosalina. Customizable gear gives your characters a bit more flavor, and there are even playable Miis that you a dress in costumes or themed gear. Game has an online mode too, but not much you can do with it now that the servers are offline.

Hop across the various sections to find secrets focused on characters, courts, gear, difficulty, and more:

Unlockable Characters

There are 25 playable characters in Mario Tennis Open, although a good chunk of them are recolors or reskins of existing character.

List of Characters

Mario

All-Around

Luigi

All-Around

Peach

Technique

Yoshi

Speed

Daisy

Technique

Boo

Tricky

Bowser Jr.

Tricky

Diddy Kong

Speed

Donkey Kong

Power

Waluigi

Defense

Wario

Power

Bowser

Power

Luma

Technique

Baby Mario

Speed

Baby Peach

Tricky

Dry Bowser

Defense

Metal Mario

Power

Red Yoshi

Technique

Blue Yoshi

Speed

Light-Blue Yoshi

Speed

Yellow Yoshi

Power

Pink Yoshi

Technique

White Yoshi

Tricky

Black Yoshi

All-Around

Mii

Player-determined

How to Unlock Characters

There are four primary character to unlock, and they’re each found as rewards in the Special Games mode. Each unique mode has four level variations, and reaching the third level in each gets you a new character.

What about the rest of the characters? These are the reskins we mentioned earlier. They’re all unlocked via QR codes. They include Metal Mario, Red Yoshi, Blue Yoshi, Light-Blue Yoshi, Yellow Yoshi, Pink Yoshi, White Yoshi, and Black Yoshi.

Star Rankings

Every character has a hidden Star Rank that allows them to participate in tougher tournaments. Any player can play in the World Open series of tournaments, including the Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, Banana Cup, and Champions Cup. Once a character is used to complete the Champions Cup, that character will unlock their Star Rank. Other characters do not need to replay the first three cups to unlock their Star Rank — just playing through the Champions Cup is enough!

Once you unlock your Star Rank, you’ll have access to the Star Open series of tournaments. These include the 1-Up Mushroom Cup, Ice Flower Cup, Shell Cup, and Final Cup.

Unlocking Star Rankings will also unlock a few costumes. These include:

• Fire Mario (two Star Ranks)
• Propeller Mario (five Star Ranks)
• Bee Mario (eight Star Ranks)
• Cloud Mario (10 Star Ranks)
• Tanooki Mario (15 Star Ranks)

You can access a character’s Star Rank on the character select screen by pressing R. You’ll have to unlock at least one character with a Star Rank first!

List of Courts

There are eleven courts in Mario Tennis Open. Some are variations of the same course, so the total number of courts is closer to eight if you don’t count these alternate maps. Two of the eleven courses are unlockable.

Mario Stadium (Hard)

Mario Stadium (Clay)

Mario Stadium (Grass)

Mushroom Valley

Wario Dunes

DK Jungle

Galaxy Arena (Crystal)

Galaxy Arena (Morph)

Bowser’s Castle

Penguin Iceberg

Peach’s Palace

How to Unlock Galaxy Arena

Nearly all the courts in Mario Tennis Open are unlocked from the moment you boot up the game, but the two Galaxy Arena courts require a bit of a challenge to unlock.

You know how there are eight tournament cups in total? Yeah, you’re going to need to complete the Final Cup, the last of the eight, to unlock both versions of Galaxy Arena. The Crystal Court version sets ball speed to its fastest and boosts bounces to their strongest. The Morph Court variant will randomly chance court types from other levels during matches.

Unlockable Tournaments

There are eight tournament cups in total, and unlocking each one is fairly straightforward. Simply complete the preceding cup to unlock the next. Start with the Mushroom Cup and unlock the next three tournaments to get to the Champions Cup. Completing this fourth tournament will unlock the next set of four tournaments, but these can only be played by characters who completed the Champions Cup.

There are a few other unlockables that come with completing certain tournaments.

	Cup Name	Completion Reward
	Mushroom Cup	Unlocks the Flower Cup.
	Flower Cup	Unlocks the Banana Cup.
	Banana Cup	Unlocks the Champions Cup.
	Champions Cup	Unlocks Pro-level difficulty, the Star Ranking of current character, and the 1-Up Mushroom Cup.
	1-Up Mushroom Cup	Unlocks the Ice Flower Cup.
	Ice Flower Cup	Unlocks the Shell Cup.
	Shell Cup	Unlocks the Final Cup.
	Final Cup	Unlocks Ace-level difficulty and both Galaxy Arena courts. If you played singles, you’ll also unlock the Mario costume. If you played doubles, you’ll unlock the Luigi costume.

Additional Difficulties

There are five CPU difficulty settings to set for computer-controlled opponents. The first three are available from the start and include Novice, Intermediate, and Expert.

To unlock Pro difficulty, complete the Champions Cup. To unlock Ace difficulty, complete the Final Cup.

Costumes List

Full body costumes are here! These unlockable costumes can be thrown on your Mii and are based on the other playable characters, non-playable characters, and even characters that don’t appear in the game. Wearing one overrides whatever uniform, wristband, and shoes your Mii is already wearing.

List of Costumes

Mario

Luigi

Peach

Yoshi

Wario

Waluigi

Bowser

Donkey Kong

Daisy

Diddy Kong

Luma

Boo

Bowser Jr.

Dry Bowser

Wiggler

Petey Piranha

Fire Mario

Propeller Mario

Bee Mario

Cloud Mario

Tanooki Mario

Toad

Goomba

Koopa

Shy Guy

Birdo

How to Unlock Costumes

Each costume has a unique unlock requirement. Several costumes require online play to unlock. Because Mario Tennis Open can no longer connect to online servers to link up with other players, these costumes cannot be unlocked.

Gear List

Miis can use customizable gear themed after character and objects from throughout the Super Mario series. As you play and complete matches against opponents, you’ll randomly unlock these pieces of gear as shop items. Once in the shop, you can purchase them with coins you’ve collected.

List of Rackets

Most of the rackets are part of series that include uniforms, wristbands, and shoes, but there are a few unique rackets.

Icon	Series	Cost	Icon	Series	Cost
	Mario	1000		Luigi	1550
	Peach	1200		Yoshi	1100
	Wario	1150		Waluigi	1550
	Bowser	1200		Donkey Kong	1200
	Daisy	1000		Diddy Kong	1200
	Luma	2950		Boo	1650
	Bowser Jr.	1250		Dry Bowser	1200
	Green Shell	900		Red Shell	1600
	Super Mushroom	1000		Fire Flower	1200
	Ice Flower	1400		Super Star	4000
	Banana	1750		Lightning	1200
	POW Block	1000		? Block	1400
	Chain Chomp	1000		Thwomp	1200
	Bob-omb	1000		Bullet Bill	950
	Blooper	4200		Cheep Cheep	1400
	Lakitu	950		Hammer Bro	1200
	Magikoopa	1750		Toad	1150
	Goomba	900		Koopa Troopa	1300
	Shy Guy	1750		Birdo	1250
	Wiggler	1200		Petey Piranha	1200
	Fire Mario	1150		Propeller Mario	1750
	Bee Mario	1300		Cloud Mario	1800
	Tanooki Mario	1550		Metal Mario	1750
	Baby Mario	1200		Baby Peach	2000

List of Uniforms, Wristbands, and Shoes

Unlike the rackets, these sets of gear each include one uniform, one wristband, and a pair of shoes. Each piece of gear has its own specific coin cost to fully unlock.

QR Codes and Unlockables

QR codes are Mario Tennis Open’s unique way to unlock extra playable characters. Our original Mario Tennis Open QR guide from all the way back in 2012 broke it all down, and we’re adding that content to the full Mario Tennis Open guide.

How to Scan QR Codes

On your Nintendo 3DS, go to the file select menu of the game. Hold down both the START button and up on the D-Pad. This will activate a QR camera mode in which you can use the 3DS camera to scan the QR codes and instantly unlock the character or costume. QR codes are exclusive to each region, so be sure to scan the right one.

List of QR Codes

There are eight playable characters to unlock, along with an extra Mii costume based on Yoshi. These characters are variations of existing playable characters, and they include Metal Mario, Red Yoshi, Blue Yoshi, Light-Blue Yoshi, Yellow Yoshi, Pink Yoshi, White Yoshi, and Black Yoshi.

If there are any issues with the QR codes, drop us a comment!