Mario Tennis Fever [REVIEW] – Serving Up an Ace 

Mario has picked up a tennis racket more times than I have had hot dinners, so you would be completely forgiven for wondering if we really needed another trip to the Mushroom Kingdom courts right now – especially since the last entry left a lot to be desired. But with Mario Tennis Fever arriving as a shiny new exclusive for the Nintendo Switch 2, developer Camelot has genuinely managed to find that sweet spot between chaotic arcade fun and proper, grounded sports strategy. It is easily one of the best Mario sports outings in years, even IF it drops the ball in a few specific areas. 

Check out some screenshots down below: 

Let us get the bad news out of the way first, because it is fairly glaring – the single-player Adventure mode is a bit of a slog. The setup is wacky in all of the right ways, as Mario, Luigi, and the rest of the gang have been turned into toddlers, forcing them to enrol in a tennis academy to level up and regain their adult forms. Sadly, what follows is essentially a tutorial dressed up as a campaign, with players running around doing menial tasks, playing minigames (that get a little repetitive), and learning the ropes at a painfully slow pace.  

To be fair, it does have some strong points: the boss encounters dotted throughout the adventure are genuinely brilliant and act as a massive highlight that breaks up the monotony. You will find yourself having to pick the exact right shot to deal damage to classic Mario baddies, with unique mechanics built into every scrap to ensure they stand out as much more than just another tennis match. It’s just a real shame the rest of the adventure could not match this level of creativity, because if it did, it could have been something special. 

Thankfully, once you are out of the academy and onto the actual courts, the game completely redeems itself. If you played the last entry, Mario Tennis Aces, you might remember how the constant slow-motion abilities and acrobatic super moves completely ruined the flow of a good rally, with the game trying a bit too hard to make it feel unique and play into the sillier vibe of Mario. Fever bins all of that in favour of something much smarter and vastly more fluid, and whilst it does still bring a creative twist to the core tennis gameplay, it feels satisfying and more in line with the sport. 

“While the Adventure mode isn’t great, the brilliant blend of strategic action and wacky antics ensures that the on-court action of Mario Tennis Fever is an absolute treat for players.“

The big twist this time around comes in the racket system. Instead of characters having their own built-in special moves, there are thirty different unlockable Fever Rackets that you can pair with anyone on the massive 38-character roster, which helps create a brilliant layer of tinkering where you can really play around with a character’s skillset. You might take a heavy hitter like Bowser and give him a speed boosting racket, or take a tricky player like Boo, who already has a wicked curve on his serves, and give him a racket that makes those arcs even nastier. You can play into your strengths as a player or those of the character, with the freedom making for some unpredictable matches where you never quite know what sort of shot you or your opponent will pull off. It’s good fun and keeps the action exciting. 

During a match, long rallies charge up your Fever gauge, and once it is full, you can unleash a powered-up shot that triggers your racket’s specific elemental hazard, like leaving a patch of slippery mud, shooting fire, obscuring the screen with ink, or even dropping a Thwomp on the court… yeah, it’s wild. But here is the clever bit: the hazard only activates if the ball actually hits the ground, so if your opponent manages to volley the ball back to you before it bounces, they completely nullify your attack and can even send the hazard straight back to your side of the net. It turns every charged shot into a tense, high-stakes game of risk and reward that feels strategically satisfying, with players having to focus on the type of shot they pull off, clever court positioning, and ensure they’re ready for an opponent attack at any moment. It’s really fun and perfectly implements the chaos associated with Mario Tennis in a manner that ensures that the gimmicks complement the sport.  

If you are playing solo and want a challenge after the lacklustre story, the Trial Towers are brilliant. They pit you against ten floors of escalating challenges, mixing tough one-on-one matches with chaotic doubles games with varying modifiers. You only get three lives to make it to the top though, so it makes for a stern but rewarding test. Then you have Mix It Up, which throws you into weird and wonderful scenarios that add a nice chunk of variety for players. You might be shooting hoops to rack up points, dodging aggressive Piranha Plants mid-rally, or playing on completely transformed courts … it does some really cool things. 

Check out some screenshots down below: 

Mix It Up can also be played in multiplayer, which is where the game truly shines. The online netcode is brilliant, matches run smoothly, and the monthly ranked singles ladder feels fiercely competitive. I’ve loved playing online and facing off against players from across the globe, but in local multiplayer with a few friends around, you will have an absolute blast. I can see myself coming back to the game for a long, long time, with it clear that Nintendo really have hit an ace with Mario Tennis Fever. 

Developer: Camelot 
Publisher: Nintendo 
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch 2 (Reviewed) 
Website: https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/mario-tennis-fever-switch-2/