Mario’s sports spin-offs during the Switch era have been mostly decent, but also, largely unsurprising. There have been few frills and largely anemic single-player modes, and the occasional experiment like Mario Golf Super Rush have been divisive. Mario Tennis Fever is the first in the sport spin-off genre on Switch 2, and a chance to set a new course for the company. After a hands-on with it at a recent Nintendo event, I can’t say whether it has course-corrected on the single-player, but the multiplayer is so chockablock with options and game-changing effects that I’m intrigued.
In fact, the main hook of the new game–the titular Fever rackets–have such wild impacts on the court that at times Fever felt more like a party game than a sports title. Our couch competitive experience was frequently interrupted by raucous trash talk and surprised screams as new effects totally changed the match mid-volley.
But first, the basics. A short tutorial explained the mechanics of Mario Tennis Fever, which are largely unchanged from previous tennis titles. You serve and volley just as you’d expect, and you hit the button early or double-tap for charged and powered-up effects, respectively. Mario and the gang look especially great here, thanks to the enhanced power of the Switch 2 and relatively limited scope of what’s on screen.
And when I refer to the gang, I mean the whole gang. The full roster in Mario Tennis Fever is massive, with more than 30 characters. While not quite as large as the roster in Mario Kart World, the roster accounts for a wide selection of Mushroom Kingdom characters, from Mario and friends to Bowser’s minions and even some obscure oddballs. Each has their own stats, so you may have to do a lot of experimenting to find the one who feels right, but if you just want to have fun playing as your favorite character, you can probably find them.
Then there’s the roster of fever rackets, which is nearly as large. You can play a standard match with regular rackets if you prefer, but the Fever rackets are really the hook for this iteration. Nintendo said there are six fever rackets available from the outset, but more get unlocked as you complete challenges. We were permitted to use any of the rackets, letting us see some of their huge effects. With a fever racket equipped, you build up your Fever Meter as you play, which then lets you activate the effect. The Fever Meter fills up quickly, encouraging players to activate them several times per match, rather than saving it as a finisher.
A Bullet Bill racket fires off a fast-moving rocket. Another racket creates a sudden curving effect. A Thwomp racket spawns a Thwomp on the enemy side that hovers over them and goes in for the crushing blow if it sees the opportunity. A shadow racket creates a shadow clone companion to play along with you, making a second player on your side of the court, or a third if you’re playing doubles. A tornado racket created a whirlwind that remained on the court for quite a while, making an obstacle to navigate around. And on and on.
On top of that are layers of mechanical complexity. Managing to return a Fever racket effect can make the impact bounce back on the one who spawned it, which means you may end up with the Thwomp on your side, or your opponent could get that free shadow companion. Plus, if you and your doubles partner hit the Fever prompt at the same time, you get an even more powerful effect that’s nearly impossible to block–as we on the receiving end discovered.
Then the courts themselves can shift in surprising ways. We mostly stuck with standard courts like turf and clay, but at one point we tried a Wonder court that spawned a Wonder Flower above the net. Hitting it shifted the nature of the court itself, similar to the namesake from Super Mario Bros. Wonder. In this case it turned the net into a shifting set of green pipes that raised and lowered randomly, which altered where we had to aim our shots.
It’s possible that I’ve already seen most of Mario Tennis Fever in the span of my brief preview session. I didn’t get a chance to see any of the single-player campaign. But the enormous selection of both characters and fever rackets makes me curious to see more. In particular, I wonder about high-level Mario Tennis play, and if there’s enough depth here to develop a real meta around character and racket selection. That could give it longevity beyond what we’ve come to expect recently from Mario sports games.