Mario and the gang have been appearing in sports-themed games since the mid 80s, making them all-around athletes. The Italian plumber from Brooklyn’s first outing in a sports game was as a referee in Tennis on the original NES in 1984, and has starred in various other games based on golf, soccer, basketball, and several more in the Olympic-themed games alongside Sonic the Hedgehog. Now in 2026, with Nintendo teaming up with developer Camelot Software Planning, Mario, Luigi, Toad, Peach, Bowser, and more step back on the tennis court in Mario Tennis Fever, now being served exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2. 

Mario’s latest tennis outing features a variety of modes for single or multiplayer action. The main single-player campaign is Adventure, where Princess Daisy has fallen ill before the Mushroom Kingdom Tennis Tournament, much to the concern of her friends. The group are soon approached by Wario and Waluigi, who inform them of a magical golden fruit on a remote island that can cure Daisy. The group then travel to the island, where Mario and Luigi successfully find the golden fruit, but Wario and Waluigi accidentally provoke three mysterious beasts, cursing Mario, Luigi, Peach, Wario, and Waluigi into becoming babies. They receive training at the Mushroom Tennis Academy, where they receive training in order to defeat the monsters and find a way to break that curse. 

Despite the interesting premise, Adventure mode has some fun elements, but overall, it is slow-paced, drags on too much, and is just uninteresting. The beginning acts like a tutorial, which does help you learn some handy tricks, but takes too long to get through, and players can still learn the mechanics in the other modes. There is even a How to Play section that explains everything in more detail. 

Adventure mode is filled with dialogue after dialogue, all in text, and you’ll quickly want to move onto the gameplay, but you can’t skip them and have to spam the A button to speed things up. Actual cutscenes can be skipped, though they’re the better parts worth watching, fully animated and feeling like a movie. Actually playing the game gets more fun after the tutorial sections and when you eventually get through all the dialogue. Adventure mode takes about 5 hours to complete, but it feels much longer than it should. 

Thankfully, everything else about Mario Tennis Fever is well worth your time. The gameplay is solid, simple to play, easy to learn, and addictively fun. This isn’t your average tennis game, as players will also be able to perform special moves and avoid hazards on the court with a whopping 38 characters to choose from, with Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Donkey Kong, Bowser, Wario, Waluigi, and many more. The characters play differently from each other, with differences in speed, power, technique, defence, and tricks to suit individual play styles.

The game introduces Fever Rackets with 30 to choose from, each with its own unique abilities. Players can choose a regular racket without worrying about the abilities, but should also look into the other rackets that can give them an advantage over their opponent. Fever Rackets can leave a trail of fire, ice, lightning, tornadoes, bananas, and other hazards all over the court to slow the opponent down. Other rackets can curve the ball while it’s in the air, cover the opponent’s screen in ink to obscure their view, create a shadow copy of your character to help cover more ground, and much more. The Fever Rackets provide a whole new challenge and chaotic fun for the latest Mario Tennis game. 

The game is built for multiplayer, and there is a wide variety of modes for you and up to three friends for some fun and over-the-top tennis action. There is, of course, Free Play for regular tennis matches (as regular as they can be), but players can also make things more interesting in Mix It Up, which is split into Special Matches and Score Challenges. 

Within Mix It Up, Special Matches offers five modes: Ring Shot, Forest Court Match, Pinball Match, Racket Factory Match, and Wonder Match. In Ring Shot, players score points by hitting the ball through rings that randomly appear at the net. In Forest Court Match, Piranha Plants will pop up to eat balls that come close to either increasing or decreasing the size of the court. In Pinball Match, parts of a pinball machine will rise, sending the balls in different directions. Racket Factory Match features random Fever Rackets appearing on the court, and players can change their racket type during a match. Wonder Match is inspired by the Super Mario Bros. Wonder game, where hitting the ball into the Wonder Flower will transform the match based on certain elements from that game. 

Score Challenges has four modes: 2P Co-op Ring Shot and 4P Co-op Ring Shot, both of which have players score points by hitting the ball through rings in either singles or doubles. Piranha Plant Challenge has you facing an opponent with Piranha Plants helping them, and Auto Tennis has players aiming to hit balls in specific areas of the court. Mix It Up is a fantastic feature that lets you change things up for some crazy, hilarious fun.

There is also a Tournament mode, which is self-explanatory; Trial Towers, with three different towers filled with various themed matches; and Swing Mode, where players can play with a single Joy-Con using motion controls similar to the Tennis mode in the old Wii Sports. In Swing Mode, your character will automatically run to the ball, but you can manually control their movement with the joystick if you wish. It’s kept separate from the main game, likely to keep things fair, but the motion controls feel limited and not as fun as the regular controls, though it’s still an interesting feature, possibly for Nintendo to see if there’s interest in motion controls.

Multiplayer can be done on a single Switch 2 with everyone together, via wireless Local Play with other players close by who own the game, or via GameShare with players who don’t have their own copy of the game. Those who have an original Switch console can join in too. The online play is where this game truly shines, allowing players to match up with opponents around the world. 

Players can find or set up a lobby for public or private matches, and all the modes from Mix It Up are available too. In my personal experience, online play has been solid, with barely noticeable lag, even when matched with players in other countries. For the more competitive players, Ranked Match will have plenty of tough opponents to take on as players attempt to rise through the ranks. 

The only downside to Ranked Match is that it prioritises matching you up with opponents close to your region. If you’re in a region with plenty of people playing this game, finding a match won’t be an issue, but those who live in less active areas may be out of luck and will have limited potential opponents or not find any at all. Other games with ranked online matches still let you match up with players across the world, and, as mentioned above, playing against people from other countries in online lobbies has proven to have a solid connection. Hopefully, Nintendo will consider changing this in a future update so no one misses out. 

The overall style and presentation have that signature bright and colourful Mario Bros look and feel, from the menu screens and stage designs to the upbeat music that will energise you for a sports-themed game composed by Motoi Sakuraba. It looks and plays just as smoothly in both docked and handheld modes at a solid 60 fps. There is also plenty to collect from medals, characters, colours, rackets, stages, and more, so there is plenty to keep players busy outside of the multiplayer action. 

Mario’s latest tennis outing is a big improvement over 2018’s Mario Tennis Aces, with a more arcade feel to the gameplay, with 38 characters to choose from, plus the introduction of Fever Rackets and Mix It Up provides whole new ways to play. Tennis has never been this wild. It’s great for serious and casual players, perfect for parties, and the online play is solid, with plenty of tough opponents to match up with. Hopefully, Nintendo will update the region matchmaking for Ranked matches. The Adventure mode may be a big letdown, but it more than makes up for it with everything else it gets right. Mario Tennis Fever serves up an absolute smash and is one of its best sports games to date. 

Written by: Sammy Hanson