Mario Tennis Fever GBAtemp review
Nintendo Switch 2
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): February 12, 2026
- Release Date (EU): February 12, 2026
- Release Date (JP): February 12, 2026
- Publisher: Nintendo
- Developer: Nintendo
- Genres: Mario Sports
- ESRB Rating: Everyone
- PEGI Rating: Three years and older
Game Features:
Review Approach:
The Mario Tennis series is something of a guilty pleasure of mine. Peaking with Mario Power Tennis all the way back in 2005 for the GBA though, the series has been riding ups and downs with each new release. Entry on entry we see mechanical improvements and unique gimmicks, only to be let down be an absurd lack of content that would otherwise give them a chance to stand out. Does Mario Tennis Fever manage to break this curse?
Ready For Adventure!
As with most people, the first thing I did after booting the game up was jump into Adventure Mode, with this typically serving as a solid entrypoint to pick up the basics while following along with simple storyline. This time Princess Daisy has a mysterious illness, with Wario and Waluigi suspiciously offering a solution, taking the regular cast into an ancient ruin to retrieve a golden fruit to cure her. Ulterior motives at play, Wario and Waluigi loot the ruin, angering some evil power, and ultimately turning the duo, as well as Mario, Luigi, and Peach, into babies. From here you follow Baby Mario as he trains at the Tennis Academy, before setting out to undo the curse.
I’ve already said it once, but this is a simple storyline. Simpler even than what we had with Aces, and that was already relatively bare. Where Aces did well however was in giving you a sense of progression right out of the gate. Though the story was quite short, you were constantly moving through what felt like an interesting world and engaging with fairly interesting challenges. It built up your skills gradually and served as a meaningful introduction to the game’s new techniques. Mario Tennis Fever falls short in pretty much every category here.
Adventure Mode is really split into two distinct parts in Fever, this being the academy progression, and then the following journey into the larger world to undo the curse. Structurally I feel this could have worked. A short tutorial segment that leads into a series of tournaments to prove you understand what you know, or even a series of matches against harder opponents similarly to how the early game of Power Tour played could have gone down well. What we actually ended up with was an unenjoyable gameplay loop that dragged on significantly longer than it should have.
Where tutorials are generally kept brief and to the point, we instead see them drawn out across a series of Mario Party-style minigames and slow matches that only feature the specific skill you’ve been taught. You play a minigame, you play a tutorial match. That’s the first half of the academy. This then opens up to a larger loop of a minigame, quiz, and then actual match. To give the story its due credit, the actual matches are fun. But that’s just to say that the core tennis gameplay is fun. If the academy took maybe half an hour I could accept its purpose, but it doesn’t. These loops repeat without much in the way of interest for two hours. Two hours of an adventure that is in total scraping four hours of play time total.
Things do improve on leaving the academy, but you do see some of the same issues. The most significant is repetition, and it’s frustrating when you know just how well a traditional Mario title uses repetition in a positive way. Introductory sections drag on, hindering the pay-off for the more enjoyable complex ones that follow. Moving through a few genuinely pretty areas, you’ll get fights and boss battles that creatively use the game’s tennis in fun and interesting ways. It isn’t enough though.
You level up, but the stats never really feel like they mean anything.
We know Camelot are capable of a more engaging single player content in Mario Tennis games, and we know they can create some stellar RPGs from their Golden Sun games. It’s baffling that we still haven’t seen something that really pushes their strengths, and it continues to be a shame. Adventure Mode feels like an afterthought where it has genuine potential to be something people buy the game for. There is at least more to Fever’s single player content.
Tumultuous Trials
Looking past Adventure Mode, we also get something entirely new in Trial Towers. The idea here is simple: progress through a tower of ten individual trials without failing more than three times total. There are three towers, with each being more difficult than the last, and an additional “All Trials” mode unlocked afterwards, giving you a full array of 100 trials to beat individually. This mode fills the role that Adventure Mode did in Aces, and it does a good job of it. I don’t feel it fully meets its potential, but I appreciate it all the same.
The trails do a great job of introducing you to the Fever Racket system, and gradually presenting you with the many scenarios you might find yourself in when playing against other people. As you might have guessed from the game’s title, Fever Rackets are the new gimmick at play here. We’ve lost the Zone Shots, the Zone Speed used to counter them, and the character-specific Special Shots from Aces. What we have in their place is a system that’s honestly a lot more interesting, allowing you to pick both a character that suits your style, and a racket that will support them.
During normal play these rackets act identically to each other, but once you’ve charged enough of your Fever Meter from rallying, you’ll gain access to powerful abilities. These are incredibly varied, with some simply giving you a buff when used. The majority however will only take effect once the ball hits the ground, and it’ll happen regardless of who’s side it lands on. These effects typically place a hazard down on the court, limiting where a player can safely move. This creates an entirely new layer to the tennis gameplay as you’re trying to make sure that not just your Fever Shots will have an impact on your opponent, but their own Fever Shots too.
Wrapping back around to the Trial Towers, you get to experience a huge number of scenarios involving Fever Rackets, and the All Trials mode that unlocks after beating the three available towers offers some genuine challenge for those wanting to complete everything. On All Trials mode you’ll not only have to beat the challenge, but also do so with specific restrictions to get a three star rank. These might include returning every fever shot, not dropping a point, or not leaping for the ball during the challenge. If I could have one thing changed, I wish the game would tell you when you’ve failed one of these and lost your shot at a three star rank. Things like dropping a point are obvious, but others like what constitutes a leap are less so. If you’re going for three stars anyway, you’ll want to reset as soon as you know you can’t get it.
This one was horrific.
That small annoyance aside, I do think the Trial Towers are a great addition. There definitely could have been more done with them. An endless trial mode could have been interesting, and the challenges for a three star rank I feel could have been more diverse. For those who want to see a lot of what’s changed since Aces though, and really get to grips with the new mechanics, I can’t think of a better place to start.
It’s Tennis
Now we’ve started running out of modes to talk about, let’s dive into the tennis gameplay as a whole. I feel like I say this for every Mario Tennis game I look at, but it genuinely is a series high. For the first time though, I do think it’s something of a diverging path from what we’ve seen in the past. This isn’t Aces, and I can see some people sticking with the game they’re familiar with.
The big difference is the reduction in pace. This had to happen with Zone Speed and Trick Shots for reaching far-away balls being removed. Here you’ll find yourself generally able to keep up with the ball if you’re well-positioned on the court. We’ve also lost the concept of racket health and the instant win condition it presented. I’ll be open and say I really liked these things in Aces, they were genuinely fresh additions that made the game feel like something entirely unique within what is otherwise a relatively familiar series.
You have all your same basic shots, but with that bit more time to react to them, there’s a much larger emphasis on positioning and figuring when the best time is to unleash your Fever Racket’s ability. With there being the option to bring two rackets into a match with you, swapping between them between serves, you’re constantly forced to react and adapt. The gameplay feels significantly more tactical than what we’ve seen in the past. Though it should be noted that I say this as a relatively casual player; those who more actively engage in the competitive aspect may think differently.
The most fun racket in the game.
Where the game just lets you play tennis it absolutely thrives. If I had one issue above all with Fever, it’s that there just isn’t all that much to compel you outside of a love of the sport. Unlockables are acquired relatively quickly, with the largest grind being to play 100 or so matches. Note trials do count towards this. In Aces and other games in the series, tournaments would have trophies associated with each character, but here we just have three tournaments and no stats to track beyond that. I want something to work towards. I want to make meaningful progress towards a goal. Even if it’s just playing the same tournaments on loop, I want it to count towards something. Mario Tennis Fever lacks that something.
A Multiplayer-First Game
If you’re wanting to get the most out of this game, you’ll either need a group of friends on hand to be playing against, or an active Nintendo Switch Online subscription to take on the world. At its core Mario Tennis Fever is an exceptionally fun game, but ultimately falls into the same trap as many a Mario sports game before it. If you’re looking for single-player content and don’t feel like playing online, this is a game you should not buy. If however you have that group of friends, or have been itching for a new game to play online one match at a time, this is the best Mario Tennis has ever been.
Verdict
- Fantastic fundamental tennis gameplay
- Fever Rackets add a surprising amount of depth to the game
- Solid cast of characters available to unlock
- Both looks and runs great on the Switch 2
- Insanely fast loading times
- Lacking single-player experience
- Slower-paced gameplay might not be preferrable to those who were invested in Aces
