Mario Tennis Open

Nintendo has done quite a good job of marrying their niche sports franchises (Mario Tennis, Mario & Sonic) with real-life sporting events such as the Olympics. In celebration of the start of Wimbledon, Nintendo is capitalizing once again, having released a massive infographic that covers the entire history of the Mario Tennis franchise.

Looking over the facts (shown below), it’s interesting to note that a whopping seven years will have passed between the release dates of Mario Tennis Power Shot and the upcoming Mario Tennis Open.

That’s almost the entire DS line skipped, and the even the original DS was capable of online gameplay.

Of course, the caveat is that the Nintendo 3DS will be the first system to give the series online play and 3D graphics. It’s also interesting to note that the series actually started out on the ill-fated Virtual Boy, where the goal was to win a set before your neck atrophied and you went temporarily blind.