Mario Tennis Fever review

Mario Tennis has been a consistent part of the Mario Sports line of games since the Nintendo 64. Back in the middle of 2000, I remember picking up Mario Tennis and absolutely loving the gameplay. I was seven, but I spent so much time winning with every character to get that little star next to their name, meaning you defeated every cup as that character. Since then, Mario Tennis has always been a fun game to play through, but it never felt as challenging as it did in the original without the chaos of abilities. Mario Tennis Fever brings the series back to form with multiple new ways to challenge yourself both with abilities and without.

Before anything else, I wanted to point out that the new Fever Rackets are the best way I’ve enjoyed power ups in a Mario Tennis game. While each character still has their individual skill, such as Rosalina being Tricky, Daisy being All-Around, Waluigi being Defensive, Bowser being Powerful, and Yoshi being Speedy, you now have power-ups that any character can use.

There are 30 rackets in all, and each does something unique. Highlights for me are the Spiny Racket, the Mini Mushroom Racket, and the Banana Racket. The Spiney Racket sends Spinies where the ball bounces and those little friends will chase after the opponent. The Mini Mushroom Racket will shoot Mini Mushrooms onto the other side of the court, and if the opponent steps on one, they shrink. Finally, the Banana Racket throws banana peels at your opponent, and they simply slip on each one. Be careful when you use these Fever Rackets as if your opponent lets it hit the ground on their side, the effect takes place on their end, but if they hit it back to you and it hits the ground you will have punked yourself. This takes a minute to fully learn, but once you do, it becomes a lot of fun.

Booting up the game we’re given a well-done cutscene with Peach, Daisy, Mario, and Bowser all playing tennis with their regular rackets. As the match continues, we’re shown the new feature for Fever, the new ability rackets. By the end, you’ve gotten a great taste of what makes Fever new while keeping what makes Mario Tennis special. The cutscene looks great both handheld and on the TV and shows how far the series has come since day one.

Once you’re in, you’re greeted with six main choices and four multiplayer choices. Each brings something different to the table, yes, but they also make it VERY easy for you to know which games can be played with friends and which ones are solo.

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Adventure Mode is a solo adventure where Mario and the gang (Mario, Luigi, Peach, Wario, and Waluigi) get turned into their baby forms trying to either get a magical golden apple to help save Daisy from a horrible illness or steal treasure. I’m sure you can guess which characters did which task. When turned into their baby forms, they’re brought back to the Mushroom Kingdom to become tennis experts so they can return to the cave that turned them into babies and hit the opponents back away from them. Yeah, it’s THAT outlandish, but also, it’s a Mario Tennis game, so any adventure is going to be interesting to put together.

Your journey begins at the tennis facility run by the Toads. This is probably the worst part of the adventure. You’re simply running from mini-game to mini-game, to short 3-point matches, to quizzes about tennis, to simply chatting with the Principal Toad, to taking practical exams, and then ending each series of these with a match against an opponent. You can see how this would get old, even for a younger audience. While the information provided is good since it reaches you how to play the game correctly, the sheer amount of running around and randomness just cause the tutorial level to take hours. You’ll strengthen your abilities, but you don’t have to do more than the bare-minimum to complete the mode!

This, however, countered with an awesome rest of the adventure going through multiple areas like Ice Ruins, Heavy Forest, Foggy Swamp, Valley of the Monsters, and more! Each one is a little different, and the challenges are based on the area you’re in at the time. Ice Ruins have you up against a chain chomp on ice, so you’re slipping around unable to find footing. The Heavy Forest has you challenging Piranha Plants and their mud abilities, so your screen fills with gunk or your character moves slower. These are all so much fun, and I would have loved if this part of the adventure had started sooner and lasted longer! Challenge Rating: 3/10.

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When we get to Tournament Mode, this is where I play a lot in all of the other games in the series. You know the drill: you play singles or doubles and make your way through three opponents on your way to the Cup win! You have Mushroom, Flower, and Star cups all increasing in difficulty. The Star Cup is the hardest, but truly it’s only the final match-up that ever gave me issues. It’s fun, exciting, and doesn’t take too long. I do wish characters got unique celebrations for winning cups like they did in the N64 version, since just seeing a congratulations screen and moving on seems a bit underwhelming.

The only slight issue I had was the inability to turn off the special rackets to play with just “skill alone.” However, playing through all of the tournaments with the ability rackets made me like them more and more! You can play this mode solo or with a friend! Challenge Rating: 5/10.

The Trial Towers provide a very challenging way to learn new skills, practice known skills, or just play through different game types. You or you and a friend will play through 10 Floors of challenges with characters provided. Keep in mind though, your friend will play as the shadow version of the chosen character as this may cause some confusion on Doubles match-ups. The difficulty jump from Tower of Growth to Tower of Resolve to Tower of Trickery is EXTREME. Do not worry if you fail; it’s not super long and failing is half the fun. Challenge Rating: 8/10.

Free Play is just that, free play. You can play with up to four people on the same screen. You also have a plethora of choices in Singles and Doubles, including the ability to have two rackets you can switch between at any given time. You can also extend the length to as long as five sets, six games per set, and if you want a tiebreaker or not. The ability to play with friends is key here, so it’s only as challenging as you and your friends make it!

Mix It Up is a grab bag of Special Matches like Ring Shot (hitting the tennis ball through rings with your opponents to gain the most points), Racket Factory (goal to try and hit the lit up squares), as well as three others. You also have Score Matches, which include Co-Op versions of Ring Shot and some hitting the ball back challenges with Auto Tennis and Piranha Plant Challenge. While these are not super difficult, they’re fun, and most can be played with two to four people.

Finally, Swing Mode is your chance to swing your Joy-Con’s around and play Tennis and get some exercise. This can be played with up to four people, and it’s quite a fun time. Just be careful to have plenty of room for everyone as it’s very easy to get overly excited and smack the person beside you.

Each of these modes brings something slightly different to the table, but all of them have characters or rackets that they can unlock. You can also unlock some characters and rackets just by playing matches of any sort.

Multiplayer is where things get taken to a next level. For Ranked Matches and Online Room, you’ll need a subscription to Nintendo Online. While Local Play and Gameshare you don’t.

Ranked Matches are fierce; people simply don’t mess around. You’ll start at B rank and move up or down based on the outcome of the matches. You have four choices: Singles (with Fever Rackets or no Fever Rackets) and then Doubles (with Fever Rackets or no Fever Rackets). The courts rotate every so often, allowing for variety. With the games I played, I didn’t experience any lag online or frame drops, either handheld or on the TV. The biggest issue I see is that starting everyone at B Rank makes it so the first few you play online, you’ll probably lose just because EVERYONE is starting the same, and it is a really rough feeling just seeing your score go down and down and down instead of crawling up as you get your feet under you. Especially with kids playing this game. Challenge Rating: 10/10.

Meanwhile, Online Room allows you to choose who you’re going up against in created or joined rooms. Pretty straight forward for Mario games at this stage, but something that’s a needed mode.

Local Play is between two Nintendo Switch 2’s who both have the game. Really easy to set up and works well. Gameshare is super exciting as you can play with other players even if they don’t have the game themselves AND you can play this on the Nintendo Switch! This opens doors to old-school vibes of playing Mario Kart on the Nintendo DS with friends on the bus even if we all didn’t have the game.

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Mario Tennis Fever has so many ways to play which feature both Fever Rackets and normal rackets. The game is challenging exactly where it needs to be in some modes while being a little too easy in others. Adventure Mode might start with a slog, but once you’re out of school, everything is so much fun! Tournament Mode is a great way to challenge yourself and a friend. Then Online Mode takes your skills and makes you level-up to face the competition. If you’ve been a fan of the series for a while, this is a great continuation! If you’re new to the series, this is a wonderful addition to jump into!