You might not know this about me, but I absolutely love Mario Tennis Aces. It was one of my favorite games of the original Switch era, and I'd tell you how many hours I spent participating in tournaments online, but I don't want to embarrass myself. Put simply, it was a lot. So, naturally, when we were invited to check out the game's Nintendo Switch 2 successor, Mario Tennis Fever, I jumped at the chance like the mustachioed man himself leaping to serve.
Much like Nintendo's latest kart racer, Mario Kart World, the character roster in this game is absolutely massive. You've got all the classics, such as Peach, Luigi, and the like, across six character archetypes: all-around, technical, tricky, speedy, powerful, and defensive. My go-to from Aces, Boo, makes a welcome return, alongside its almost-broken spin shots and tilt-inducing cackling. There are also a few series firsts, including Baby Waluigi, bringing the overall cast to 38. You can't really ask for much more on the character front.
In general, the gameplay offers the smoothness of Aces, but with what seem like slightly smaller courts and tighter controls. The compact, slightly constrained courts are an improvement for all player types except those that rely on curved shots, which, as I'll likely mention a couple of times, were completely broken in Aces. They're still useful now, but they don't feel quite as unfair. The whole tennis experience just feels more refined, especially lob shots and drop shots, allowing for more nuanced gameplay.
This game's gimmick, as indicated by the title, is the Fever Racket, unleashing a special effect after you build up its power bar. It's solid fun, and even now, days after my short play sessions, I can see Waluigi flailing around with his burning butt cheeks in my mind's eye after my opponent used the Flame Racket to torch my side of the court. It's exactly what you want from a Mario Tennis game: some colorful chaos that keeps things from ever getting too tame. There's a whole bunch to choose from, but I won't ruin the magic of trying them out for yourself too much here.
While I think the Fever racket mechanic is pretty fun, there could be one slight issue with the system, which I exploited to my advantage during some multiplayer matchups. If you store your Fever energy and wait for your opponent to use theirs, you can quite easily return the powerful shot, making it almost impossible for them to rally the ball back. I'm going to wait for the full launch to pass judgment on this, as it could be that, with a bit of practice, returning a Fever shot is possible, but it was something that I struggled to get my head around in my short time playing.
Another new feature for Fever is the Wonder Court Match. In this game mode, the first to collect seven Wonder Seeds wins, which sounds pretty simple, right? Well, it is, at first. A Wonder Court Match starts like any other, but instead of gaining a point for winning a rally, you pick up a Wonder Seed, and you need seven to win.
At some point, after winning and losing a couple of rallies, a Wonder Flower appears in the center of the court, looming over the net. Once a player serves through the plant, the game changes. In one instance, a bunch of Hoppos spawned on the court, bouncing from side to side, with a special blue Hoppo rewarding you with a Wonder Seed for bouncing it over to your opponent.
In the next match, serving through the Wonder Flower saw a bunch of classic green pipes pop up in the middle of the playing field, followed by the emergence of Trottin' Piranha Plants. The goal here is to avoid the plants and pipes while aiming for appearing Wonder Seeds. It's chaotic in an almost Mario Party-type way and offers something a little different from traditional tennis.
Visually, the distinction between Mario Tennis Fever and its predecessor, Aces, feels a bit like the jump from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to Mario Kart World. What I mean by that is it feels more authentic to the Mushroom Kingdom aesthetic that we've now seen in cinematic form and less like Virtua Tennis with Mario, Luigi, and the rest of the gang as playable characters. There's more charm to the world of Tennis Fever compared to Aces, but without sacrificing any mechanical depth.
Sadly, we didn't get any time with Fever's story mode, which is what I'm most looking forward to checking out, as it looks like, for the first time in a while, the developer has put a decent amount of thought into the story of a Mario Tennis game. Don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting a groundbreaking narrative, but it looks pretty fun from what we saw during the trailer from last year's Nintendo Direct. Still, at least now I know that the gameplay is exactly what I was hoping for, so I'll take that as a win.
If you can't wait to play Mario Tennis Fever, the good news is that there isn't long to go, with the game launching on February 12. While you bide your time, feel free to take a look at our guides to the best Switch games and the best mobile games to keep you busy.