Mario Tennis Fever | REVIEW | Nintendo Switch 2

''SERVING UP SOME HEAT''

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Developed: Camelot

Published: Nintendo

Genre: Sports

Release Date: Feb 12th, 2026

Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2

*Review copy provided to me by Nintendo

Mario Tennis Fever is the latest sports related Mario title to hit the market and it is developed by Camelot and published by Nintendo. With recent slew of Mario Sports games being a mix of hit and miss, Camelot and Nintendo aim to steer the ship in the right direction with a brand new tennis game that has some very interesting twists. But was it the right choice to put out another sports title so soon or should another franchise been given this same type of spotlight? Only one way to find out, so lets hit the court!

''RIVALS TURNED PARTNERS''

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GAMEPLAY:

If you're like me and grew up with Nintendo since the Nintendo 64 era, then you have no doubt played a TON of Mario Sports games over the years as they've made their way from console to console with Baseball, Soccer, Basketball and of course Tennis. Although all of those titles haven't always been the bona-fide hits with players around the world, they do still offer a good middle ground of game releases to have in between your more major franchise entries and for me have always felt like a good comfort genre to play due to how straight forward and arcade like some of them actually feel. Specifically speaking for Tennis wise, the series has been both a mix of hit and misses for me over the course of time with some of the games in the franchise that I absolutely love like Mario Tennis on Nintendo 64, Mario Power Tennis on Gamecube, being underwhelmed but still enjoying a little bit of my time with Mario Tennis Ultra Smash on Wii U, but ultimately coming away disappointed at Mario Tennis Aces for the original Switch. Mario Tennis Aces had a lot of great moments, sure, new mechanics introduced and even a story mode which I found fun, but honestly it was TOO DANG HARD. It was like playing a Souls game and WINNING using a D.D.R. pad. Oh wait, never mind, someone already did that. How the heck? I can barely do that with 3 hands and 1 foot. What? Ok ok guys, I admit it, I'm an alien, my secret is out, you got me. But even being an interdimensional alien lifeform that I am, Mario Tennis Aces got to the point in its difficulty at times that went beyond just being difficult, which is fine, having a good challenge makes triumph worth it when you've worked hard at it because in gaming nothing is more invigorating than snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. But the difficulty ramps up so much with the N.P.C's getting WAY too much wiggle room and buffs against you that it goes from being just hard to being outright cheap and unfair at times. I know you're probably thinking ''GET GOOD'' and ''SKILL ISSUE'' and that might just be the case, but all I know is I've never had this issue with any other Mario Tennis game till now, so needless to say, I got triggered and crashed out, sue me. But now brings us to the next major entry into the series, Mario Tennis Fever, one that just like Aces promised, says it will bring about a new era of Mario Tennis games with new ways to play and an even more expanded story mode that aims to balance the fun and intensity the series known for. However, as an overall, does it achieve what it was setting out to do? well... yes, and again, not quite? I'll have to explain won't I?

The games story mode stars off with Mario and the gang prepping for the big tournament to be held with players all across the world coming to play, but suddenly plans are put on hold as Sin starts attacking the stadium. Hang on, never mind, wrong game, wrong sport, sorry guys... OH HECK NO, WERE NOT DOING THIS AGAIN SEYMOUR, GO AWAY, WE LEFT YOU BACK IN THE FINAL FANTASY 10 REVIEW, NO MORE. Anyways, Mario and the gang are preparing for the big tournament when out of nowhere, Princess Daisy comes down with a sickness, OH AH AH AH AH. Jokes aside, you learn from Wario and Waluigi that the key to saving her from her illness is by finding a legendary magical fruit, which they can find by taking Peach's airship to its location. Obviously these two jerks are up to something shady but if it saves Daisy, its worth the risk, cause sometimes you just gotta risk it to get the biscuit. Once setting the plan in motion is done, our crew heads to the location where the fruit apparently resides, proceeds to find said fruit, but then all chaos ensues because Wario and Luigi found a way to awaken some ancient evil engulfed in purple smoke and Fuzzy's. Good job guys, way to go, I mean haven't you watched all the cliche hollywood movies that have done this same plot? you guys should know better. Although, maybe it's not THAT bad considering the purple smoke looks WAY cooler than whatever the heck The Scorpion King was going for with that god awful CGI. So those two little butt heads get a pass this time. As our heroes are rushing to the rope let down by Donkey Kong for their escape, Mario thinks hold up, IM FRIGGIN MARIO! Why am I running?, and then proceeds to say screw that noise and begins to swat away the threat frantically with a frying pan before finally being over taken by the evil fog smoke and turned into... a baby. Oh no, not again, please dont cry... PLEASE dont cry... I CANT deal with it again. To make this situation even worse, it all falls on the lap of Donkey Kong to now have to babysit not one, but FOUR babies with Mario, Luigi, Peach, Wario and Waluigi. Bro just can't catch a break, he literally just got done babysitting Pauline for an entire adventure, now this? bro just wants to play tennis and have a vacation.. oh well, sucks for him, enjoy your babysitting PTSD Donkey Kong. But even if you're babies, you still completed your quest for the golden fruit and proceed to head back home so that Daisy can be cured. Upon returning home.. as babies you get an idea thanks to toad and friends that maybe the key to going back to your adult form is to defeat the monsters scattered across the world and by doing so, defeating the right one who inflicted this change on you, will in return, un-do the evil spell. I mean, that sounds good on paper? but will it actually work? who knows, doesn't hurt to try at least. But.. uhh.. how are little babies going to be able to beat monsters though? like Shredder once said THEY'RE BABIES! AGHHHH!. Luckily Toad has the answer to that, they'll just train them at the Tennis Academy and hone their skills in Tennis. Um, okay, yeah sure, doesn't make sense to me, but I'll just roll with it.

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''I HAVE A BONE TO PICK WITH YOU''

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With your Tennis Academy hub, you're able to participate in quite a bit of mini games mixed with light courses and other means to train your skillset. You can freely move about to find things like a place where you can go through a warp pipe to find tennis courts that allow you to have practice matches and rank yourself up, find the stadium where the huge tournament is going to take place in and even partake in ventures at the local training facility. As you check out the Training Center, you learn that you can play batches of mini games like Hop machine that lets you bounce around on a mushroom and catch flying tennis balls to test your reflexes, taking flight with tiny airplane wings as you run along a conveyer belt collecting tennis balls as you jump and glide over obstacles with your wings, learn how to do curve shots with your racket by hitting tennis balls and destroying cardboard cutouts of Goombas and the further you progress through the game, even more mini games unlock to heighten your tennis skills so that you're always up to date and ready for the next big challenge to come your way in any and all upcoming matches. The overall key here in Fever is not power shots this go around, its in what rackets you choose to use due to each racket getting their own special powers in general which gives your character specific Elemental traits to use such as Ice, fire or even mud. What's going to surprise people more than they think is the actual roster size though, its as big as Wario's booty. Offering you a total of 38 playable characters, it becomes the largest roster ever assembled in this franchises history, although that's somewhat inflated due to Mario and a few others having baby variations of themselves, but still, that's a lot of fish. The even crazier part about it is all 38 characters all have their own base stats that make most characters extremely unique from one another as you unlock different styles and types of rackets that each contain different powers, which allows you to find out who's stronger, who's quicker and which power up best fits their own abilities and stats, making Fever probably one of the more strategic entries into the series than we've ever seen before, especially with the built in Fever gauges that come into play as your matches drag on. Using your Fever shot allows you to activate special powers that not effect the player you the ball to with it, but also the terrain as well should you use an Ice racket for Ice, fire to burn the ground or create a typhoon of wind. It almost feels similar to Mario Kart in the power aspect due to how arcade it seems with it feeling simple but extremely effective, and makes you think about where to hit the ball to either frustrate your opponent or immobilize their movements with timed mud shots. It all feels slick, fluid, concise as you slice the ball, spin shot, perform lobs, close ranged net shots and keeps up the intense atmosphere the series has been known for. Its about time I say because now I don't have to break another TV or rage out because I get frustrated, crisis averted. But heading back to the story, as well as actual tournament matches is where you put to the test the skills you have learned along the way that truly makes this a fun experience compared to what Mario Tennis Aces was going for and far less frustrating to say the least.

Progressing further in the story as you keep ranking up and winning your matches, you again take flight to the sky using Peach's grand ol airship, but the suddenly, out of nowhere, you're ambushed by Falco from Star Fox without warning. Ok no not really, but a Star Fox and Mario crossover would be freaking awesome. Nintendo, get on that one will ya? I need to see scenes with Wario grossing out Slippy, it's vital. Well I wasn't joking about the ambush part because you DO get ambushed, just not be Falco, but instead its by, you guessed it, Bowser and his HUGE airship, which honestly makes Princess Peach's ship rather... puny and dainty. How the heck did that happen Peach!?. You literally have an entire kingdoms economy and Bowser is a self made business man funded by evil and dastardly things. Maybe spend more time building infrastructure and upgrading important aspects of the kingdom rather than taking vacations to summer islands or taking part in plays at a theater. To be fair, all the kingdom's budget probably goes into feeding Mario cakes every day with the amount of times he keeps having to save her, so, fair enough Peach, fair enough. Once you're ambushed, you must defend your ship from incoming Bullet Bills as you hit them with your racket to send them back straight into Bowser's airship, all while also knocking away gliding Bob-Ombs from the air. Its a really awesome and fun boss fight that goes hand in hand with other fun boss fights like fighting a Cheep Chomp and throwing fire and smaller cheeps back into their face and mouth, Petey Piranha fight that sadly enough doesn't involve you somping his little belly button like in Mario Sunshine, Hisstocrat monsters that pop up from the mud that you have to face and knock out with spiked balls, etc. The boss fights are just great and all have their own unique mechanics you have to follow that use different racket powers to gain an advantage. While having the time of your life can be fun, sure, remember, you still have a tournament to play and honestly, its quite a surprise due to the CPU's this go around actually being... smart? what the heck?. Playing doubles doesnt feel cumbersome this go around and movement feels reactive, refined powerful shots without having to jump and slow motion in the air like its the 500th repeat parody of The Matrix, it just has great improvements, especially if you're looking to hop online for some matches due to multiplayer having quick lag free lobbies, co-op lead tournaments, customizable free play for things like best of five sets, stable and locked framerate with no dips, lots of courts to choose from and around 30 rackets to choose from, this title just has a ton going for it. Even with the downsides, like story mode being roughly 4 hours, brief trials, motion controls not living up to their potential, etc, but hey a least we got baby Waluigi that straight up looks like a Gremlin from 1984.

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''MY BISCUITS ARE BURNING!''

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OVERALL:

At the end of the day, Mario Tennis Fever for me was one of the better Mario Tennis games I've played in awhile and a much needed improvement over its Aces entry on the original Switch. But it's not without its shortcomings as said previously with the Story mode only being roughly 3 to 4 hours long to obtain full completion which can be a bummer for people wanting a more in depth story, some of the trials you face being over within like 20 seconds, motion controls not feeling 1:1 in most cases which is a head scratcher for me, etc. However with the fun mechanics of the story mode with its fun narrative and character use, fun Training Academy to traverse for tons of mini games, practice matches and tournaments, strategic gameplay with player stats mixed with racket powers to fully utilize your Fever gauge, and easy pick up and play action more than make up for the shortcomings it has, at least in my opinion and can easy scratch the itch of any Mario Tennis fan out there that might've been disappointed with Aces. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says BUY NOW