Mario Tennis Open includes classic Super Mario Bros. mini-game

There are a number of Mario-related reasons to be excited about the rest of the 3DS's 2012 release window, with New Super Mario Bros. 2 announced at the weekend and a release date for Mario Tennis Open now firmly in place.

With Mario's tennis game due to be released on May 25th in Europe, Nintendo has opened an official Japanese website for the game, and in turn has divulged more details about the various modes we can expect.

There'll be the classic Tournament mode, which features singles and doubles action spanning eight cups. In addition, you have Free Competition, which is essentially a sandbox mode that allows you to specify your opponent, court, and set count.

The most exciting mode, however, is "Special Game": a selection of mini-games that appear to be anything but mini.

Super Mario Tennis shows a classic game of Super Mario Bros., where players hit the ball back and forth through the game, hitting coin blocks and enemies with the tennis ball to score points.

Galaxy Shot, no doubt inspired by Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii, sees you hitting the ball across the net to avoid black holes. The classic mode Ring Shot returns, meanwhile, which invites you to hit the ball through gold hoops.

As you'd expect, you can use your Mii character to play if you prefer, with tons of unlockable racquets, clothes, and more available - over 200 unlockable items, in fact. Wowza.

Throw in both local and internet play, and quite frankly, we cannot wait. Mario Tennis Open is bouncing onto 3DS next month - watch out for our review soon.