As I performed by way of Mario Tennis Fever‘s barebones marketing campaign and its different forgettable modes, like some scoring challenges, one phrase emerged from my mind to explain this newest installment within the collection: perfunctory. That’s not nice. Making it worse, although, is that Nintendo is promoting this uninspired tennis recreation for $70. Ouch. Out now on Swap 2, Mario Tennis Fever is the newest instance of Mario and his friends (and enemies) getting collectively to play a sport. Generally they play golf, generally soccer, from time to time some baseball, they’ve even performed basketball collectively occasionally. This time round, the game of alternative is tennis, and as soon as once more this Mario Tennis journey is developed by Camelot, a studio that has been making Mario sports activities spin-offs since 1999. And if all you need is a brand new Mario Tennis recreation with just a few modes, an honest roster of characters, and multiplayer assist, then Fever checks all these bins. The issue is that it does so with about as a lot enthusiasm as somebody filling out paperwork on the DMV.
Tennis, anybody? The massive star of Mario Tennis Fever is the sport’s journey mode, which features as a single-player marketing campaign in addition to a tutorial for the right way to play. It solely took me about three hours to get by way of this journey, and but that was nonetheless too lengthy. Fever‘s journey mode is all about Mario, Luigi, and some different key characters getting became infants after being attacked by a monster whereas getting a magic apple to heal Daisy from a horrible sickness. To grow to be adults once more, they resolve the most effective plan of action is to struggle the monster, and they also go to a tennis academy as infants to discover ways to play a sport they’ve performed so many occasions that there’s a whole franchise devoted to it. Possibly this sounds goofy and foolish. Belief me, it’s not. Cutscenes in Mario Tennis Fever are static, boring, and have little motion or pleasure. I’ve watched Powerpoint shows which can be extra energetic and interesting than the cutscenes and narrative moments in Fever.
Between these bits are tennis matches and tennis-themed minigames. None of those are terrible, however all of them are typically very quick, and I hardly ever felt like I used to be digging into some new function or mechanic. For instance, an enormous new aspect in Fever is a collection of highly effective tennis rackets that allow you to spawn fireplace, ice, mud, electrical energy, and different zany results to disrupt your opponent. They are often highly effective in journey mode, however the recreation barely spends time on anybody racket, so I by no means felt like I mastered something earlier than I used to be zipped off to a brand new location for extra boring cutscenes and dialogue.
As Child Mario works his approach by way of the journey mode, he ranges up, however you don’t have any management over what stats are improved, nor does the sport provide aspect content material for which levelling up is an enormous assist. So the level-up system may as effectively not exist in any respect. Ultimately, you beat the ultimate boss, and the sport ends with yet another boring cutscene of characters not shifting and chatting. Roll credit. Severely, does anyone wish to play tennis? Exterior of the quick and unhealthy marketing campaign are a collection of different recreation modes that change in high quality from “okay” to “meh.” There are some rating problem mini-games you could play towards the pc or a pal. There’s a freeplay choice that permits you to and as much as three different gamers regionally play some tennis whereas altering the foundations and different variables. There’s additionally a mode that permits you to play utilizing movement controls, but it surely solely features a handful of the particular rackets, which appears bonkers and makes this feature a waste. Simply play Wii Sports activities tennis as a substitute.
My favourite mode is event, which pits you towards completely different NPCs in a collection of almost uninterrupted tennis matches that result in one last match to win that individual bracket. It’s not a revolutionary providing, but it surely a minimum of focuses on the most effective a part of Mario Tennis Fever: the precise act of taking part in tennis. Again-of-the-box quote: “Come on, there aren’t many different arcade-y tennis video games to select from.” Developer Camelot Software program Planning Sort of recreation: Colourful and wacky arcade tennis recreation Favored: Seems good, feels fantastic to play, Fever rackets are enjoyable Disliked: Journey mode is boring and unhealthy, different modes are principally forgettable, tennis gameplay feels floaty, $70 Platforms: Nintendo Swap 2 Performed: Completed journey mode in three hours, mess around six hours of different modes solo and towards different gamers Launch Date: February 12, 2026 To be clear, I don’t suppose the tennis gameplay in Mario Tennis Fever is improbable, because it lacks the depth I need from even essentially the most arcade-y sports activities video games and by no means felt exact sufficient for me. However it’s simply the most effective a part of the sport. Hitting a ball actually arduous and aiming it at simply the correct spot to attain feels candy. Lengthy rallies can get intense and, in my time with the sport, nearly all the time led to some cheering (or groaning) from of us watching or taking part in. So the truth that event mode focuses completely on the tennis a part of Fever made it simply my favourite strategy to play this newest Mario sports activities spin-off. Oh, and sure, there’s on-line multiplayer, and it really works, and… that’s about all there’s to say, because it doesn’t function any really outstanding choices. It’s Mario Tennis Fever, however on-line. Not thrilling, however good to have.
Look, I get it. Generally you simply do sufficient and transfer on. I’ve executed that earlier than in life. I can’t even depend the variety of occasions I turned in assignments at school that had been simply sufficient to cross and nothing extra. Or how usually I’d just do sufficient cleansing as a child to persuade my mother or dad that I’d picked up my room. The factor is, in these circumstances, I by no means charged anybody $70 for the privilege of receiving my minimum-effort choices. Mario Tennis Fever, however, does simply sufficient to be thought of a brand new Mario Tennis recreation and calls it a day whereas charging a premium to play. Watch for a sale or go decide up a used copy of Mario Tennis Aces as a substitute.
