Mario Tennis Fever – the best Mario sports game in a long time
10/2/2026
Translation: Patrik Stainbrook
Pictures: Domagoj Belancic
Mario Tennis Fever is good. Really good, actually. And looking at Mario’s sporting past, this isn’t a given.
I have a complicated relationship with Mario sports games. Some are fantastic games, offering hours of fun. However, these often alternate with borderline disgusting entries. I’m looking at you, Mario Strikers: Battle League Football.
Happily, Mario Tennis Fever definitely isn’t in the latter category. What’s more, this chaotic tennis title is the best Mario sports game we’ve seen in ages.
If you fancy a multiplayer banger with solid extra content, pick it up without hesitation. Game, set and match for Mario.
Tennis Fever has broken out
The core gameplay in Mario Tennis Fever – tennis, really – works well. You can launch topspins, sidespins, long balls, lobs and drop shots. Depending on your character, you get bonuses or downsides with certain shots.
The controls work flawlessly, regardless of who you play. A good thing, since rallies often escalate into lightning-fast duels where the smallest mistakes and bad timing immediately cost you points. Another great feature: you can freely choose the button layout for individual shot types if the default settings don’t suit you.
You can play either singles or doubles matches. Doubles feel more chaotic and unpredictable due to the fast game pace.
The titular Fever rackets bring even more chaos into play. These racket variants offer some devastating special attacks. Some of my favourites:
- Pokey Racket: when a ball hits the ground, it leaves behind Pokeys that chase and attack your opponent on their half of the court.
- Bullet Bill Racket: the ball becomes an unstoppable Bullet Bill, which your opponent can only return successfully with perfect timing.
- Fire Bar Racket: on impact, the ball leaves behind a rotating fire barrier that covers a large area on the opponent’s half of the court with deadly fire.
Using any of these special attacks comes with risks. You can only use them when a special bar is full – which takes a while. There’s also the danger that your opponent counters your special attack with a volley. Suddenly, the special attack ends up on your side of the court.
These attacks don’t just interfere with normal gameplay, they also cost you some health. If it ever drops to zero, you get a ten-second timeout in doubles. In one-on-ones, you’re much slower for ten seconds. Given this, it’s worth playing things safe and avoiding special attacks as far as possible.
Experimenting with different special attacks is fun. I always get a big grin on my face after luring an opponent into a trap I’d previously placed on their side using cleverly placed balls. And since attacks can be parried too, a pinch of strategy also comes into play in many matches.
Overall, the Fever concept is much more sophisticated than the loop in the predecessor, Mario Tennis Aces. Remember? In that game, Special and Zone shots could break your tennis racket if you didn’t block them perfectly. Always with the same result: losing points or a whole match. And plenty frustration. No original gimmicks – such as Pokeys, Fire Bars or Bullet Bills – either. Boring!
Only, the Fever concept isn’t perfectly balanced. Some rackets are clearly much more powerful than others. I almost always get hit by the annoying tornado from the Ty-foo racket, which rages across the court for far too long. Those huge ink blots on-screen caused by the Inky Racket are also extremely annoying, obstructing my field of vision far too long.
Fever rackets are just as annoying in doubles matches too. They’re simply too much of a good thing. If all four players have one of them equipped, the chaos escalates and chance often counts more than skill.
Fortunately, I can turn the Fever mechanic on or off for every game mode – both locally and online – as I please. It feels good to play a normal tennis match between the Fever chaos.
Solid content with occasional weaknesses
Mario Tennis Fever also gets a lot right in terms of gameplay. However, there’s one big catch.
The first mode I plunge into is called Adventure. This four-hour single-player setting serves as a tutorial and an experimental playground where the game confronts you with all kinds of crazy scenarios. There’s a story, but it’s not worth mentioning. Here’s all you need to know: Mario and his friends have been turned into babies and have to find a way to grow up again.
On their adventure, they first learn the basics of tennis and do strength exercises to tone their baby bodies. You start in a tennis academy and play various mini-games that are more reminiscent of Mario Party than Mario Tennis.
Only as the game progresses does Adventure mode make use of tennis mechanics. For example, you have to put out fires by launching water balls into flames with a racket. Or defeat nasty bosses by hurling stones at their heads. Later, in addition to such mini-games, you’ll battle through spectacular tennis matches in crazy stadiums.
Overall, however, I’d have liked a bit more tennis in Adventure mode and fewer out-of-place mini-games.
The game also offers tournaments, where you’ll have to win three cups each in either singles or doubles matches. To win a trophy, you have to win three matches in a row.
Various crazy challenges and chaotic locations await in Mix It Up mode. For example, there’s a pinball court, a tennis court using elements from pinball machines. My favourite remains Wonder Court, a stage based on the 2D Super Mario Bros. Wonder. There, you can activate so-called Wonder Flowers, which add unpredictable special effects.
My favourite mode is Trial Towers. The aim here is to ascend three towers, with various crazy challenges awaiting on each floor. Only one catch: after three failed attempts, you have to start a tower all over again. Sometimes you play against invisible opponents, sometimes you’re massive and sometimes you’re all alone against two players. I’d have loved to see these creative tennis scenarios in Adventure mode instead of those ridiculous mini-games.
Finally, there’s Swing mode, a barebones addition for nostalgia-blinded gamers such as myself. In it, you wield the Joy-Con 2 controller just like the Wii Remote in Wii Sports 20 years ago. Aside from a spark of nostalgia (and the shocking realisation I’m old), it offers nothing. Play once, then never again.
Let’s move on to the catch I mentioned early on. All these game modes share a fundamental flaw: they’re far too easy.
Adventure mode as well as the tournaments, Mix It Up mode and Trial Towers only become more demanding later on. A shame, but I still had fun playing since I was constantly making progress. I kept unlocking new characters, rackets and courts, looking forward to each reward.
Speaking of which: with 38 playable characters and 30 rackets, Mario Tennis Fever sets new standards for the game series. There haven’t been this many characters with different pros and cons before, as well as rackets with unique attacks. Really cool! The only thing missing a bit of variety is the range of tennis courts.
Multiplayer fun at its best
With the exception of Adventure mode, all game modes can also be played in local multiplayer with up to four players. You can also select Free Play to start matches with custom rules – with a wireless connection or Gameshare, you can even connect multiple consoles.
The game unfolds its full potential in multiplayer. It’s quite possible Mario Tennis Fever will earn a permanent place in my multiplayer rotation alongside Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Battling boring CPU opponents versus real players on the sofa makes a huge difference. There’s shouting, laughing and cheering. Matches have a higher level of intensity – there are always incredible comebacks and spectacular shots. I admit, I often get smashed and lose in a blowout. Doesn’t matter, it’s still fun. I just blame my lousy performance on the super easy single-player, which didn’t prepare me for the harsh multiplayer reality.
If you don’t have any friends (sorry, first off), you can also play online against real opponents in two modes. Online Room offers a way to either create your own lobby with custom rules or join someone else’s. Ranked Match is all-out online play. In this competitive setting, wins and losses determine your ranking across four world tables (singles and doubles, each with or without a Fever racket). The crazy tennis gameplay is still fun online, but I occasionally notice annoying lag.
I hate love the Talking Flower
Visually, Mario Tennis Fever looks a lot prettier than its predecessor Mario Tennis Aces. Character models in particular have received an upgrade. All player characters look rounder – gone are the days of unsightly polygon corners, and their textures have also been revised. Prettier hair, more realistic skin and impressive details across the clothing are particularly impressive in the cool cutscenes you see while entering a stadium.
The tennis courts also show off with detailed grass surfaces and hundreds of animated NPCs in the crowd. Only the environments in Adventure mode sometimes look dull – more Switch 1 than Switch 2.
The soundtrack is well made too, albeit unspectacular overall. One source of controversial discussions in my local multiplayer session was the Talking Flower from Super Mario Bros Wonder. The chatty plant comments on your matches and babbles on endlessly. It repeats itself constantly, which quickly becomes annoying.
Good news: you can turn off the flower at any time. I did this after a few hours. It drove me absolutely crazy, especially when losing points. But without its stupid comments, matches feel empty. I long for our toxic relationship, and reactivate it after a few duels.
Let it babble if it wants, that way I can get upset about the flower instead of my own performance.
Mario Tennis Fever will be available for the Switch 2 from 12 February. The game was provided to me by Nintendo for testing purposes.
In a nutshell
A successful tennis package, and the best Mario sports game in a long time
Mario Tennis Fever does a lot of things right, offering a solid range of game types. Mind you, many single player game modes are just too simple. Indeed, this game unfolds its full potential in multiplayer mode. The tennis gameplay is fast, with intuitive and reliable controls. Crazy Fever rackets add devastating special attacks to the gameplay loop. The system won me over, although it often ends with too much chaos in doubles matches. Visually, Mario Tennis Fever has made great leaps forward compared to its predecessor, putting aside the dull environments in adventure mode.
In short, Mario Tennis Fever is the best Mario sports game in a while – a must for fans of chaotic multiplayer experiences.
Pro
- Solid range of content (game modes, characters, rackets)
- Impressive tennis gameplay
- Winning Fever concept offers special attacks
Contra
- Single player modes too easy
- Doubles matches too chaotic with Fever rackets
- Balancing of Fever rackets not perfect
Header image: Nintendo
Domagoj Belancic
Senior Editor
Domagoj.Belancic@digitecgalaxus.chMy love of video games was unleashed at the tender age of five by the original Gameboy. Over the years, it's grown in leaps and bounds.
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