Mario Tennis Fever Review – IGN

    Posted by jsilvrs

    46 Comments

    1. MischiefSculptor on

      Another Nintendo game released another game scoring about as low as it feasibly could while still having the Nintendo logo on it.

    2. At this point, just give me GCN Power Tennis Switch 2 Edition. Ain’t no way I would pay $70 for this Fever.

    3. Isn’t the whole point of a dedicated single player mode to introduce you to the mechanics? It sounds like it does so here.

    4. peter-man-hello on

      Sounds exactly like the game you can expect from the trailers.

      If I skipped Aces I might be into it, but if I want Mario Tennis fix, I might as well just boot up Aces or Mario Tennis 64.

      I’ve never cared for the gimmicks and always just turn them off for pure tennis anyways. I’d rather them focus on single player, unlockables and modes than always requiring some new gimmick (power rackets, power moves, etc.)

    5. I’m just begging Nintendo to put some actual effort into their Mario Sports games… Every release just feels like a half-assed attempt.

    6. In case anyone is too lazy to read even the first paragraph of the review:

      > Mario Tennis Fever has the soul of a GameCube game. Its wacky, over-the-top take on tennis is at its best when you have four friends together on the couch. And for the first time since the GameCube era, series developer Camelot has delivered an entry that feels feature complete on day one, with the most unique characters, solo and multiplayer modes, and silly gimmicks we’ve ever seen crammed into a Mario Tennis game. Sadly, that doesn’t mean it’s all good content, as the single-player adventure once again comes up woefully short in terms of both its length and quality. But when playing locally or online, Fever’s tight, responsive controls and crazy abilities result in a chaotic party game that’s a lot of fun in short bursts.

      TLDR: They had fun with the multiplayer but were disappointed with the short single player mode.

    7. Abject-Bumblebee-299 on

      I liked the first one on the switch but the content was severely lacking and the gameplay not quite fun enough to be worth purchasing another iteration.. I would absolutely buy this game around $30-40 and even possibly around $50.

      $60-70 is IMO reserved for AAA titles with loads of content. Charging a premium for this game will hurt its sales a lot. I wouldn’t be surprised if this games poor future sales performance is interpreted as a lack of gamer appetite for these Mario Sports/casual sports games and that really sucks cause I imagine a lot of people would pick it up for $40

    8. Ever since Nintendo announced that they were only releasing a demo in certain stores to be played rather than just releasing one on the Eshop I knew it would be another flop.

      Nintendo will never learn or really care about their sports games. I think at this point they legitimately see them as cash grabs (especially Mario Tennis). Keep pushing mid games because enough will sell to make profit. Won’t be picking this up and I hope people vote with their wallets.

    9. AttemptImpossible111 on

      No out of ten for me.

      I fell for Super Mario Party. Will not be buying any game using these assets

    10. External-Sky1574 on

      I’m curious how this game sells if it has the same small scope for a full $70.

      Sidenote do people still play Aces online? If so I might just pick that up if I really need my tennis fix.

    11. I’ve stopped paying attention to these releases. Nintendo has been phoning in the Mario sports games for years now.

    12. SomewhatOptimal1 on

      What happened Nintendo, it used to be that when a game was first party branded it meant the game is a banger.

      But since Switch most of the sports games are rehashed multiplayer content with some mild spin on it and no new stories are added to it.

      Look at Mario Karts World, the open world is soulless, no game share after you removed digital copy sharing with NS2.

      Now this…

      Before that Mario Tennis Aces…

      Before that Mario Strikers…

      Nintendo sports games nowadays are expected to be mediocre, when before that they were expected to be what you buy the console for !

    13. As an Aces hardcore competitive player I don’t see myself playing this for nearly as long unfortunately

    14. I just don’t think there’s enough there for Mario to have a full price a tennis game

      It’s fun sure for a bit but it always lacks a bit of depth and we all just want something like Virtua Tennis really coming back.

      The multiplayer is always fun the single player like last time sounds weak.

      People will buy this and justify Nintendo’s decision but it’s certainly not worth £50-£60.

      This can just included in a Mario Party surely instead it’s not needing a full game or at least half the price

    15. Poor single player will be a skip for me then, sadly. I’ve got enough party games, including the last mario tennis; I wanted something I could sink my teeth into on my own

    16. This game feels barely different than an aces switch 2 edition with extra content. Like kirby and mario wonder, it feels like it should be a 20 dollar upgrade. As someone who liked but didnt love aces, it’s hard to justify

    17. It really seems like Nintendo has no idea how much money they are leaving on the table by putting out mediocre Mario sports games. 

    18. I wish it looked better we are on switch 2 it looks like a GameCube game can we get some dynamite lighting or something, indented grass, sand effects

    19. Here in Canada it’s a $99.99 game.

      It sounds pretty underwhelming for $100 bucks and therefore won’t be picking it up. Everything is going up in price so I’ve become much more selective on the games I actually do purchase.

      Mario Tennis on the N64 being one of my favourites and being on the Expansion Pass, I’ll just stick with that one for now.

    20. I’m doubling down with this, I really don’t care so much about Adventure Mode tbh, having a good chunk of single player content with Trials, Unlockables and another things is great to me.

    21. Busy_Medium4418 on

      Even if the story mode is too short, there’s still a bunch of other single player content to play

    22. Practical_Wish_4063 on

      Let’s all take a moment to remember that from 1999 to 2005, Camelot released 4 Mario Tennis games and 4 Mario Golf games and they all remain the height of their respective franchises’ golden eras.

    23. The complaint about the adventure mode being an “extended tutorial” is odd to me. That’s kind of what I would want from it? The point is to go through it and hone my skills so once I start playing MP the mechanics and muscle memory is in tune.

    24. I’m not surprised the adventure mode is just an over glorified tutorial. When they mentioned it in the overview trailer about learning abilities it was so obvious

    25. I just want to know if the Adventure mode has couch co-op.

      Surely it does, right? You play as baby Mario and baby Luigi, surely it’s couch co-op??

      I’ve searched a lot and no one has been able to confirm. I’ll be waiting until I get a green light on that until I decide to buy it, if anyone knows the answers pls shout a brother out

    26. You know, I had a $30 coupon from Best Buy and ended up getting this for $40ish … but the more I thought about it, I think I might save that coupon for a more single player based game and cancelled my pre-order this morning.

    27. Its a tough spot for me. My favorite mario sports games are the ones with adventure modes and lots of content. Ill never get the people who buy them for $70 to just play online against people. I want challenges, adventure mode with tasks and AI opponents that maybe have some kind of special instructions to clear it, other modes like Ring modes in Mario Golf games and whatnot, etc…

      I didnt like the latest Mario Golf because they dumbed down the gameplay and made it super easy. I also cleared everything it offered in a few days. Then Mario Strikers Battle League dropped, and I clear the normal cups in a weekend and then the harder cups by the next weekend and that was it.

      I dont care about online. I play these games for fun. And while I enjoy them with friends at home, they dont really play them a lot. So one might say “well then play online and you can play with lots of other people!” But I dont know, its just not the same. Im still gonna get this as I enjoy most of the tennis games.

      Just give me a new mario superstar baseball

    28. I don’t understand why the same narrative of “single player too short/not enough content” comes up for games that are meant to be played against others… I know all these 2k games have made people think that career mode is the standard but back in SNES/Genesis era, sports games where meant to be played among your friends/siblings. Almost no single player experience and it was fine. The competitive aspect was why you were playing those games in the first place, not completing trophies or CaC mode…

      Imagine Street Fighter 2 being reviewed by today’s standards lol 

    29. For anyone curious, IGN game Mario Tennis Aces a 7.5 (back when IGN still gave out .5 ratings. Seems that the new game is directly on the same level with the last game that is also playable on a Switch 2, which rally begs the question: why did we need another Mario Tennis game before a Mario Baseball game which any model of Switch still hasn’t seen?

    30. Many_Coffee_4789 on

      Nintendo fooled me already with their half-assed Mario Strikers a few years ago. They’re not getting me to buy another sports game until it’s shown they aren’t just another cash grab.

    31. Nobody ask for a new mario tennis on the switch lol why they couldn’t follow up on something that has been archived for ages like baseball or basketball

    32. Theobviouschild11 on

      Why are people so focused on the single player campaign being bad. Who really cares about that for Mario tennis. It’s all about the multiplayer/online anyway.

    33. Something tells me most people buying Mario Sports games, specifically tennis aren’t playing the adventure modes. Especially those that lean into it.

      I was going to get it, but I’m going to hold off to see what future content what look like. I loved the GBA version the most, but I don’t think I’m the mass market target. Someone posted on NintendoLife that they were getting Mario Tennis Wii vibes from this one

    34. DarkArmyLieutenant on

      Do I even need to see the review to know that it’s $70 for the most bare-bones sports game ever made?

    35. i hated the last tennis game. it was weak.

      i want mario baseball. i want mario WRESTLING (not fighting like smash bros but actual pro wrestling).