Mario Tennis Fever (NS2) Review

Happy Mar10 Day, everyone! With today being the portly plumber's special day, it only makes sense to grace SuperPhillip Central with one of his games--and a recent one at that: Mario Tennis Fever! Let's take to the court with the SPC review.

Mario and Friends' Swing Fever

I've been a bit hard on Nintendo's sports offerings on the original Switch--but for good reasons. Both Camelot's games on the Switch, Mario Tennis Aces and Mario Golf: Super Rush, launched with a paltry amount of content for the asking price, especially when compared to past entries. While both games also received free post-launch content, it's stuff that should have already been in the base game and not released piecemeal. As if listening to me directly (and many other players, too), Nintendo and Camelot come bursting onto the court with a brand-new Mario Tennis entry that seems to be the genuine article, at least when content is concerned. After all, content is king.

Mario Tennis Fever is the latest iteration of the famed Mario Tennis franchise, and it's Camelot's first foray on the Nintendo Switch 2. Is this a fever you'll enjoy, or one that you'll want a cure for?

Nintendo heavily marketed--or at least portrayed--the Adventure Mode as some big deal content-wise for Mario Tennis Fever. It turns out, it's merely another version of a tutorial. It starts with Mario and company recovering a Golden Fruit for Daisy, who has succumbed to some type of illness. While the recovery attempt succeeds, it isn't without consequence. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Wario, and Waluigi are transformed into babies in the process, and without much fight to them, Baby Mario and Baby Luigi will need to go back to the practice courts to have their tennis know-how and skills eventually return to them.

They might be babies, but this won't be an Adventure Mode in Babysitting--they can take care of themselves!

The first half of the Adventure Mode takes place in the same tennis practice area, having Baby Mario and sometimes Baby Luigi as his doubles partner partake in various training exercises, each delving into some facet of tennis. There are mini-games to play, opponents to take on, and each of these generates experience points for Baby Mario to level up his skills and stats. 

By the time the training wheels come off and the actual ADVENTURE part of the Adventure Mode begins, it's short lived. There are a handful of areas to explore in a super linear fashion, more opponents to take on, story elements to enjoy, mini-games to play that are more organically interspersed in the adventure, and bosses to battle. 

The adventuring part of Adventure Mode sees a lot of variety, but it's also incredibly brief.

Really, and to reiterate, the Adventure Mode is meant to serve more as a tutorial than anything else--the appetizer to the main course which is the rest of the game. Instead, the heavy focus on the Adventure Mode from Nintendo made it out to be more important to the Mario Tennis Fever package than it actually is. That's not to say the mode's not worthwhile, but at the same time, a five-hour tutorial isn't the most compelling concept.

The lackluster Adventure Mode aside, what truly drove me as a Mario Tennis Fever player was the other additional modes included in the game. There's your traditional Tournament mode--a three-cup, three-round apiece series of matches that can be played in both Singles and Doubles play. Though I wish the game denoted which characters have earned trophies in that mode. For as much as I disliked the initial offering, Mario Tennis Aces gave some replay value and longevity by logging and recording which characters completed which cups in Tournament mode. As is in Fever, there's no real incentive to replay the mode once it's beaten in Singles and Doubles because there are no trophies for individual characters to earn. Not to say that this unlocked anything in Mario Tennis Aces, but it was just nice to have, again for longevity and replay value purposes. It was rewarding on its own to see my full roster of unlocked characters shown as having a complete catalog of tournament trophies earned.

Mario, with the backhand return to continue the rally!

Regardless, Mario Tennis Fever does deliver a wide range of unlockables all the same, even without this aforementioned exclusion. There is a slew of achievements, and these aren't just for show. These unlock new characters, alternate character colors, tennis rackets, and courts, too. To unlock everything that Fever offers, I sunk a fair amount of hours into the game's multiple modes. 

Apart from the Adventure and Tournament modes, there are special score challenges. Such challenges include: Ring Shot, Piranha Plant Challenge, and Auto Tennis. Ring Shot has you in a rally with another player as you attempt to aim your shots and volleys into rings of various sizes and point values to meet a point requirement before time runs out. The Piranha Plant Challenge sees a Piranha Plant coming out of one of three green warp pipes on the opposite side of the net, firing tennis balls one at the other. Your character has to return them without the player on the opposing side returning them back to you. Lastly, Auto Tennis takes a mechanical Piranha Plant that shoots out tennis balls, and your goal is to return them atop of various score tiles for points.

Tournament mode gets rather challenging, so make sure you don't lose your focus.

Then, there is the meatiest mode within Mario Tennis Fever--though it doesn't appear to seem so meaty right from the get go--it's the Trial Towers mode. This mode is essentially the Events from Super Smash Bros. Melee put to tennis tasks. You have three towers to take on, each with ten challenges to complete. Every time you fail a challenge, you lose a heart. Lose all your hearts, and it's game over and you have to start from floor one on a new run. 30 challenges or missions spread across three towers doesn't seem too exceptionally content-rich, but after the third tower is completed, it's then where the content pours from every orifice of Mario Tennis Fever's Trial Towers. 

Variety is the spice of life, content is king, and Trial Towers delivers both.

After beating each tower, unlocking the characters associated with each, you unlock 100 trials to take on, and this time in any order. Simply select a trial and then take it on. These are similar to the missions seen in the three preceding towers, such as taking on an opponent with them using a certain racket to make things more difficult or battling a powerful opponent as three weaker, but faster baby characters, for instance. The difference is that these individual trials have three goals each to them, and you earn a star for completing each--whether that's not losing a point, not getting knocked out, or something more challenging like not taking damage at all. Understandably with 100 trials, this mode will last players a while.

Of course, all the modes and content in the world couldn't save Mario Tennis Fever if its tennis gameplay double faulted. Fortunately, Fever's tennis action is better than ever. For one, it forgoes the elimination-based power shots that Aces supported. For me, the timing for Aces' counters were waaaaay too strict, often resulting in me getting eliminated from matches when all of my rackets shattered. While there is a gimmick to Fever's tennis with Fever Rackets, losing all your HP does not mean you're permanently eliminated from the match. Instead, it's either temporarily in Doubles play, or you simply play with less stamina and trudge along the court in Solo play until your health recovers. 

I'm seeing double with this particular Fever Racket!

The Fever Rackets are indeed the main draw and gimmick of Mario Tennis Fever, understandably so. There are 30 or so rackets to unlock, and with over 30 characters to play as, that means you're going to get a lot of different character and racket combinations to experiment with. When your Fever Gauge is full, you can choose to unleash a Fever Shot with your given racket. If it hits the court before your opponent can return it, your racket's ability will be utilized. The Volcano racket, for instance, erupts on the court where the ball hits to reveal a fiery crater that launches fireballs out. Any player that comes in contact with them will get burned and lose HP in the process. Meanwhile, the Golden Dash racket is better served for defensive play, offering a temporary but super helpful, speedy boost to the player that uses it, allowing them to jet around the court with relative ease.

Diddy, we're not in Kansas anymore.

Of course, your opponent can counter a Fever Shot, and if the ball lands on your side of the court, the area-of-effect power will happen there, which means you'll have plenty of dodging to do as you try to contend with hitting the ball back to your opponent. It's absolutely riveting to have an action-packed rally where players keep hitting the ball back and forth, not letting it touch the ground, to keep the Fever Shot chance going. A counter to a counter, to a counter, to another, until ultimately someone finally misses and the Fever Shot hits the court, resulting in chaos on their side.

Rosalina sees how the Mario Tennis Fever action can heat up in a most literal sense.

That said, if you prefer traditional tennis, like Mario Tennis Aces before it, there is an entire mode of play dedicated to that. Have yourself a no-frills, no Fever Racket, pure game of tennis! Though if you want to unlock most of the content within Mario Tennis Fever, you're going to have to engage with the Fever portion. Still, it's nice to have the option to play without the extra craziness and have it come straight down to skilled play, outmaneuvering, and leading your opponent into a disadvantage for you to earn the point.

Disappointingly, at least for me, is the number of courts in Mario Tennis Fever--just seven, with multiple variations of court types (i.e. grass, sand, concrete, etc.). While the number of courts is similar to past installments, I would have loved to see more in the way of locales and venues. That notwithstanding, what is here is enjoyable, whether it's the gimmick courts like playing tennis within a pinball table, or a court themed after Super Mario Bros. Wonder, complete with unique Wonder effects that occur mid-match.

One of the handful of gimmick-themed courts to play on. If you prefer no gimmicks, you can play without 'em!

If you're the type who prefers to play online and show the world your tennis ability (or for me, my lack thereof), there is obviously online play to participate in, either in Singles or Doubles play. You can play with or without Fever Rackets, as well. Ranked play pits opponents against each other in a tiebreaker best of seven series. While some may balk at the idea of such a relatively short match instead of something set-based, it keeps matches quick, the pace of finding new matches even faster, and if you're completely getting decimated in a match, you can get it over with lickety split. Unlike Aces, there are currently no tournaments or unlockables to earn through online play--it's simply there for those with a competitive spirit to engage in.

Online play is like Yoshi's armpits after a 20-hit rally--sweaty.

No matter the type of tennis you prefer to play--online or offline, with or without Fever Rackets, solo or multiplayer--you're getting a gorgeous game with colorful and crisp visuals. I absolutely love how animated each character is and how much personality they show in everything they do on the court. Fever's replays after every point would be better if they could be turned off entirely (a strange omission), but what's there are entirely epic showcases of sharp shooting shots and points earned. So, too, would it be nice to be able to turn off the Talking Flower, also from Super Mario Bros. Wonder, for commentary. I enjoy the action-packed words from our floral friend, but not everyone will. 

The courts are colorful, the characters are crisp--Mario Tennis Fever is a winner in the graphics department.

Camelot Software doesn't exactly serve an ace with its first Nintendo Switch 2 offering, but Mario Tennis Fever serves in general as an excellent starting point all the same. The tennis gameplay is great as ever, the amount of characters and rackets means that you'll have loads to experiment with to find the best character and racket that suits your play style, and the level of content is absolutely satisfying this time around. The Adventure Mode disappoints once again, but the rest of the package is more than worthwhile. I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more tennis with Mario. Now, pardon me as I take some more sick days due to this Fever of mine.

[SPC Says: B]