Mario Tennis Fever

Genre: Sports (Tennis)

Players: 1-4 Team Competitive (Local, Local Wireless, Online), GameShare Support

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Review:

Mario Tennis Fever is the ninth game (depending on how you count), in the Mario Tennis franchise of family-friendly Tennis games starring Nintendo’s mustachioed mascot, and at this point I feel like I must be the odd man out when it comes to this series. It seemed like everyone else was disappointed in the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U entries in the series, Mario Tennis Open and Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, but I find them delightful, with superb core gameplay despite a lack of content. Then, it seemed like everyone else fell in love with Mario Tennis Aces on Nintendo Switch, but I absolutely despised it, with its racket-breaking mechanic making it my least favorite game in the entire franchise. Now it seems like the pattern continues to repeat itself – I see a lot of people underwhelmed by Mario Tennis Fever, which released in 2026 on Nintendo Switch 2, but as far as I’m concerned, this is the best game the series has seen in a very long time, and I’d daresay it’s in contention for the franchise’s best game ever.

That said, there’s one area right away where I did feel underwhelmed by this game – the presentation. Oh, don’t get me wrong, Mario Tennis Fever looks great, with clean, detailed visuals running at silky-smooth framerates and with the series’ cartoony characters looking as wonderfully-animated as ever. However, there’s nothing here that I felt absolutely required the power of the Nintendo Switch 2, and I could see no reason this game couldn’t work on the original Nintendo Switch, perhaps with compromises to its framerates and resolution. Certainly, there’s nothing here that I felt absolutely screamed “this is a $70 game!”.

Likewise, the sound and music is… fine. You have typical Mario noises coming from all the typical Mario characters, with the one exception being the talking flowers from Super Mario Bros. Wonder, who speak full English just fine. This is backed by upbeat music befitting a Mario game, but nothing truly memorable.

Once again, the first thing I look for in a Mario Tennis game is to see if it got the fundamental gameplay right, and overall I think this one did, yeah. I do think this is a faster-paced game of tennis than we normally see in this series, and the controls can feel a bit loose for my tastes, but overall the tennis here plays well, with multiple shot types, as well as multiple ways to power-up your shots or perform trick shots by holding buttons, double-tapping them, or tapping button combinations. It’s fantastic in that button-mashers will be able to play this game just fine, but those looking for depth and nuance will absolutely find it here too.

The other question that needs to be asked when it comes to Mario Tennis is one of content, and here I think Mario Tennis Fever delivers about as well as could be expected. The big central mechanic here are the new fever rackets, which is basically a way of letting players select the power move they unleash after gradually charging it up over the course of a match, with effects that range from shooting a fireball that can damage opponents, creating a shadow duplicate of your character, or blasting away opponents with a gust of wind. These rackets aren’t super-balanced, but apart from some of the single-player modes, you’re not required to play with them, so I think they’re a fun addition here.

The main single-player mode here is Adventure mode, and while this mode does have some RPG-style mechanics, I think anyone expecting a great RPG campaign like we got some of the earlier Mario Golf games will be disappointed – more than anything, this feels like an extended tutorial with a variety of minigames. Decent for what it is, but the pacing is slow and I don’t think this is going to thrill anyone looking for single-player content to enjoy.

Next up there are standard free play and tournament modes, to play against computer-controlled opponents or other players. I should note that there are also multiple ways to match with other players online, including ranked matches, private rooms, and GameShare. Testing out ranked matches, I found myself matched up with an opponent super-fast, so I have zero complaints about the multiplayer here – everything I tried works well, and you have tons of ways to connect with other players.

Next, we have Mix It Up mode, which has a half-dozen or so tennis minigames or matches you play with alternate rules, a great way to add variety. There’s also Swing Mode, which lets players play with a single Joy-Con with gyroscopic motion controls a la Wii Sports Tennis, albeit with the ability to move their character if they want using the analog stick (or for less-experienced players, you can leave the stick alone and let the game take care of that for you, again like Wii Sports Tennis). Finally, there’s Trial Towers, which has specific challenges for players to tackle in solo or co-op.

While I’m disappointed at the lack of an actual good solo campaign, I still think that’s plenty of content to keep players engaged, and in the end this is more about the multiplayer anyway, and I strain to find much to complain about there. All in all, this makes for an excellent Mario Tennis game. Perhaps not one that feels like it really needs the Nintendo Switch 2 or justifies the $70 price tag, but a great game of Tennis nonetheless.

tl;dr – Mario Tennis Fever is a family-friendly Tennis game that gets the core gameplay right and offers plenty of great gameplay modes. The Adventure mode campaign is a bit of a let-down, and I don’t see anything here that truly feels like it necessitates the improved hardware of the Nintendo Switch 2 or the $70 price tag, but even with those complaints, I still feel like this is one of the best Mario Tennis games ever made, and it is absolutely worth playing for any fan of the series, or Mario Sports games overall.

Grade: A-

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