Mario Tennis Fever

Even though some of the peripheral bits were less polished, the core gameplay in Fever is red hot. Actually playing a match of Tennis in this game is downright excellent. The regular matches are excellent, the tournaments are intense, and the special matches are all awesome. If you’re looking to change things up, the Trial Towers and the score challenges add a stack of fascinating twists to the standard tennis systems. Although I didn’t really vibe with the campaign mode, I still recognize its usefulness. I also wish those motion controls could be used in every other part of the game. If you want a more aggressive, fast-paced tennis game that’s also colorful, cute, and accessible, Mario Tennis Fever is an excellent choice.

Mario Tennis Fever manages to set itself apart from previous instalments thanks to its furor rackets. Its fun arcade experience is rounded off by a generous amount of content. All it needs is slightly less automated gameplay and better progression to score match point.

Mario Tennis Fever is a strong rebound from an era of Mario Sports games that left plenty to be desired, even if there are still some glaring shortcomings. The actual on-court gameplay, wide character roster, and abundance of Fever Rackets were enough to keep me experimenting every time I fired the game up. I’m itching to jump into Ranked and see what I’ve really got once the rest of the world can join in on the fun.

Mario Tennis Fever bursts with content. The many characters, courts, and rackets add unique, deeper layers to the gameplay, and multiplayer matches are played with big smiles and heaps of fun. It’s a shame for slightly more mature players that the next layer of depth is just not quite reached. For that, the single-player offering isn’t robust enough, the opponents aren’t challenging enough, and there’s a lack of finesse here and there. But keep it up, Nintendo—because Mario Tennis Fever is moving in the direction of those timeless Camelot classics we so dearly long for.

Somewhat in line with what happened with Mario Kart World, this new Mario Tennis fails to break away from or expand on what its predecessors did, giving us a little more of the (good) stuff we already knew.