I like tennis. I like video games. So, I thoroughly enjoy the Mario Tennis titles, including the latest entry, Mario Tennis Fever ($69.99 on Switch 2). The sports game features beloved Nintendo characters, arcade-style gameplay with thrilling fighting game elements, and a new hook: Fever Rackets with ridiculously fun special abilities. Wacky enough for casuals but with enough mechanics to reward people like me who seek gameplay depth, Mario Tennis Fever is my new favorite sports title and an Editors' Choice winner for Switch 2 games.  

Gameplay: Fever Rackets Bring the Fighting Spirit

Even without the series's famous special attacks, Mario Tennis Fever has an excellent arcade-style tennis foundation. Pulling off basic shots, such as lobs and slices, is as simple as pressing a button. However, with the right finesse, you can angle shots to control the court and keep opponents running. On the defensive side, characters intuitively slide when reaching for defensive hits. When I played tennis in high school, I was always much better at volleying up close at the net, and that applies here, too. Matches move at a rapid pace, accompanied by thunderous sound effects. I found playing the game without the gimmicks activated is entertaining in its own right, either with buttons or with motion controls à la Nintendo Switch Sports.

For me, the value of turning a sport into a video game is introducing ideas that are impossible in real life. Mario Tennis Fever tosses realism out the window with its big hook: Fever Rackets. Each of these rackets is a unique weapon that grants the wielder a special ability. Some are aggressive, like launching fireballs across the net, while others offer a stat boost, such as a burst of speed. You activate these effects by building up your meter during a match and unleashing a decisive Fever Shot.

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If that sounds like a fighting game to you, that's because Mario Tennis Fever continues the tradition of its predecessor, Mario Tennis Aces, a sports title with fighting spirit. Windjammers players know what I'm talking about. Fever reworks and carries over some of Aces' more complex mechanics, such as manually aiming your big shots and depleting your opponent's health. Like a fighting game, there are special attacks, a flow between offensive and defensive play, and a heavy emphasis on proper positioning. You may use a racket instead of fists, but there's little difference between a knockout fighting game match and these fearsome tennis duels.

However, Aces systems were both more universal and more technical. In that game, you constantly juggled between different twitchy actions that drew from the same meter. It was thrilling to discover this depth, but by the end of the game’s lifespan, die-hards had developed optimal playstyles. Therefore, high-level matches became repetitive exercises to see who could best execute, an endurance test not unlike real tennis

Mario Tennis Fever, in comparison, is a bit less demanding but allows for far more variety. You can only spend your meter on Fever shots, but the game's 30 creates many fascinating combinations. I had to rethink my strategies every time I encountered a new racket that fundamentally changed the gameplay. When your opponent returns balls as high-speed Bullet Bill projectiles, it’s like you're engaged in a boss fight that requires perfect parry timing. When I spawned a falling Thwomp, it hovered above my opponent like a trap waiting to spring. 

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Even with these wild effects, Fever Rackets are surprisingly balanced. Although they can definitely turn the tide of the match, I never felt like I won or lost solely because of a single power-up. You still must work for each point. Speedy players who return a Fever Shot before it bounces reverse its effect back at the attacker. After five grueling sets, I secured a glorious championship point by baiting Bowser into his own lava hazard, which I reversed, using a precisely aimed Fever Shot. You can bring two different Fever Rackets into a match and swap them between serves, which opens up even more strategic options. While Aces had fantastic tricks, Fever Rackets are an expressive and imaginative holistic system, an awesome evolution. It makes you want to train your basic skills and experiment with these possibilities.

Fortunately, the rest of Mario Tennis Fever gives you plenty of ways to keep exploring its mechanical potential.

Game Modes: Many Ways to Play

Although they all played well, recent Mario Sports games, including Mario Golf to Mario Strikers, were criticized for a perceived lack of content. The free DLC didn't seem like such a big deal to fans when the initial launch content was so thin. Fortunately, Mario Tennis Fever rectifies this. There's an "everyone is here" roster quality similar to other supersized Nintendo releases like Super Mario Party Jamboree and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

There are roughly 40 characters to unlock, not including color variations (Baby Waluigi is a thing now, whether you like it or not). You also unlock an array of courts, including traditional grass or clay courts taken from Mario locales like Bowser's airships and Donkey Kong's jungles. It all looks real sharp thanks to the game's slick, next-gen presentation, a blend of tennis dignity and Mario buffoonery. As for the audio, I enjoyed the match commentary from Super Mario Bros. Wonder's talking flower, but you can turn that off if it grows tiresome.

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Along with standard matches and free play, wacky side modes are another way Mario Tennis Fever leverages its arcade-sport status. Although goofy, these modes still require a strong grasp on the game's systems. For example, the racket factory spawns random Fever Rackets to equip, and you must quickly learn how to best use them. An entire Super Mario Bros. Wonder-themed court sends you into a hallucinatory dream realm where good footwork is the only way to dodge surreal obstacles. Even a more mild co-op event, hitting balls through rings for points or returning balls as long as possible, requires intentional shot placement. 

The true test of skill, though, comes from online play, where you enjoy casual matches or rise through the ranks. Nintendo hosted a Mario Tennis Fever online session before release. After we formed a lobby, we easily hopped between multiple match types. I experienced some online lag, but the worst of it was apparently caused by one player's poor connection—and it resolved after they dropped out. Mario Tennis Fever is a Switch 2 exclusive, but Switch 2 players can also play the game with Switch 1 owners via GameShare.

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Single-Player Challenges: A (Mostly) Rewarding Journey

In keeping with today's fighting game trends, Mario Tennis Fever makes a great effort to keep single players happy, too. Multiplayer action is still the focus, but the more robust solo progression seems like another attempt to make up for prior Mario sports game failings. Fever includes standard singles and doubles tournaments, which you can tackle at your own pace. During the more difficult matches, I recommend listening to the Challengers soundtrack to really lock in. 

My favorite single-player mode, though, is the Trial Towers. This mode challenges you to overcome a series of different scenarios. Play a match in a lightning storm, defeat an invisible foe, or team up with two other small players to defeat one big player. Once more, Mario Tennis Fever combines zaniness with tasks that require true skill. Towers are a great boot camp to see various Fever Racket effects in action. You only have a limited number of lives to complete a tower, so tension builds across each round. Initially, I was a bit disappointed that there were only three towers with 10 rounds each, but after climbing them all, I unlocked 100 more trials that I happily dove into. 

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Finally, Mario Tennis Fever has a full-on adventure mode. Listen, I've never understood the hype for the older Mario sports campaigns. I don't think it's necessary that a zippy arcade sports game has a tedious, story-driven JRPG bolted to the side of it, even if Golf Story was pretty good. But for the sake of variety, it was nice to break up my intense matches with a chill campaign about Baby Mario trying to become big again. You'll fight numerous puzzling bosses by finding the right way to hit them with tennis balls. You'll also level up and experience character building, Karate Kid-esque sequences where you do seemingly random tasks to buff a particular stat. If you're struggling, you can even replay old bosses to grind for experience.

At four hours, the story mode has some substance. The opening sequence at the tennis academy is a good, gentle tutorial about overall tennis theory. Mario Tennis Fever's core mechanics are so excellent, I'll take any chance to sample them. However, the mode is still a missed opportunity. You'll occasionally walk around environments and have RPG-esque encounters, but it's really just a bunch of tennis-themed mini-games strung together on a linear path. More freedom would be nice. I wish I could, say, choose which Fever Racket I think would be best against which boss, instead of being forced to use certain rackets at certain times. Still, as a side mode, the adventure mode makes an already generous package even richer.