Fucking THIS. The GBA RPG mode was peak Mario sports, leveling up your character and actually having stakes made it addictive as hell. Modern Nintendo sports games just feel like glorified party games with no meat on the bones.
38 characters means nothing if there's no reason to actually play through content with them. Give me a tournament arc, give me rival matches, give me SOMETHING to grind for besides online rankings nobody cares about
It'll be 79 on metacritic, consensus will be fun gameplay but not enough game modes and a disappointing story mode. 38 characters won't solve the problem all recent Nintendo sports games have had which is a massive lack of content
Nintendo always treats a big roster of characters in their Mario spin-offs as if it were like the biggest selling point, and not the actual amount of good content you can get in it. Sick of it.
“Jamboree is the biggest Mario Party ever! World is the biggest Mario Kart ever! Fever is the biggest Mario Tennis ever!!!” Like okay?? But will the game be more than average at best?
Not sure if it’s a hot take or not, but when I was a kid I absolutely considered a game’s character roster as the main reason to buy a game, so I get it. Definitely disappointed by how simple and short lived Nintendo’s sports games have been though.
You know, fair point. For a lot of these games us, the adults, aren't really the targeted demographic lol. Kids want to play their favorite character period.
A big difference was having to go down certain paths to unlock specific characters. I’m not a fan of the ‘unlock a random character by completing a random task’ thing.
I have no idea what the deal is with Tennis these days, but I’d prefer to have a lot of characters and have to earn each of them.
• the most popular characters are gym leader bosses you have to beat to unlock as playable,
• the less popular characters are peppered throughout the story and unlocked through sidequests.
Make a basic ass story about "evil tennis ball corporation is mind-controlling the popular characters, beat them all to save them and defeat the corporation!" DONE.
I had Mario Tennis as a kid, unlocking all the characters (and courts) was the game. Once I had them all, there wasn't much left to do but play tennis against the computer.
And his point being, when he was a kid. If you were a kid, especially nowadays with "skins" being so common in games, you'd love to be able to play as gold mario or donkey Kong with a funny hat etc.
Why would they do that? They make a new Mario Party every 3 years max. If they put too much DLC in one game, people won't move on to the new game in a few years. Full games sell way more than DLCs and split communities up.
I don’t think they would ever do mini games, but think if they put out a couple boards for 10$ 6 months after lunch they could make a decent return and not risk future sales.
Superstars is still the better Mario Party despite Jamboree’s roster IMO. Jamboree has good boards but worse minigames and games are so much slower in general.
If I have friends round I find myself starting up Superstars because the question with Jamboree always seems to be “how many turns have we got left?” because it’s SO SLOW
Jamboree is big... but only if you count all the modes and motion minigames that basically nobody ever plays. It's still quite good but damn is the minigame pool small if you disable motion minigames.
for all the criticisms of mario sports games, I think calling Aces a "generic tennis game" is one of the few things you can't say about it (and it looks like this one is stepping in its footsteps).
They probably saw the constant whining and screaming by people over the years asking for X Y and Z characters to be included in Super Smash Brothers and then assumed that same idea translates to Mario kart or Mario party where characters aren’t really that distinct in what they do like they are in Smash.
Tbh some omissions from Smash were a little dumb and low hanging fruit for Nintendo. They clearly have fixed that with the Switch version (although I am one of the Waluigi requesters since brawl)
All the Mario Parties for Switch were great but they all fell incredibly short on content. Honestly they could combine the three of them to make one really great game. I don’t know why Zelda gets insane amount of content but these get next to nothing.
The GBC and GBA Mario Tennis games had a story mode with a completely unique cast of characters culminating in an exhibition match against The Greatest Player Ever™ -- Mario! The story and progression was really simple, but I always had so much fun with it. Leveling mechanics, minigames, a fairy in a lake, and I always love the Island Open Tournament that your character works toward winning.
These are arcade sport games (which is no longer a thriving genre unfortunately), if the gameplay is good you can play it pretty much endlessly. People expecting a compelling story in a tennis game is crazy to me lol. I don't really see the need for it or a ton of additional gimmick modes that you play once and never care about again.
If you don't like sports games you won't like this one. If you do like sports games you don't mind the repetition of playing the actual matches and improving your skills (all sport games have that really). I also expect it to score somewhere between 75 and 85, but since I like tennis, sports games and Mario in general I'm pretty much guaranteed to have a good time.
I agree with this as a whole, but even in the arcade aspect, they have been dropping modes and features quite a bit.
For example, from Mario Gold: Toadstool Tour to Mario Golf: World Tour, getting rid of Doubles and Highlights was a huge annoyance. Sure, World Tour had a ton of Challenges to do, but removing key features was a weird this to do. Super Rush lucked out with the Switch having built in flashback recording.
Fever already looks better than Aces content wise at least, with it having more challenges. Hopefully the Tournament Mode is more fleshed out, or at least similar to how it was on 64 and Power Tennis.
I play N64 Mario Tennis to this day and just end up fucking around in a tournament or two before I shut it off for a few months. The gameplay matters a whole hell of a lot more than anything else.
Eh, I don't think people are just looking for stories in the sports titles. They're looking for unlockable cosmetics, progression, something to keep it fun other than the gameplay. It's similar to what you see in fighting games. Of course the gameplay is the main focus in those, but the ones that offer boring but a 1v1 or arcade mode always leave large numbers of players wishing for unlocks, progression (and yeah, story too) the last smash didn't hav a great story mode(compared to the massively popular mortal combat cinematic story) but it was loved for all the stuff to explore outside of the core combat. It's why capcom put the world tour in sf6.
Nintendo has done this very well in other titles, and it just hilights how barren the sports titles feel at times.
Your sentiments ring true, and honestly one of my biggest gripes with this sub, how people just endlessly dog on the Mario Sports and Party titles, like they're somehow grand let-downs compared to the memories they have of the old games. (You would think Super Mario Party killed everyone's dog or something)
Aces is the greatest game in the franchise and it's not close. I absolutely cannot understand how people tore it down just because it didn't have a bunch of (mostly forgettable) mini-games and gimmicks like Power Tennis. Judge the game on its own merits, not on what the last one did.
I honestly think people just outgrew these franchises, because they are absolutely not worse than their Gamecube and N64 counterparts.
Yea, I always found the hate that aces got pretty odd considering how phenomenal the gameplay was. I never played any of the older ones though besides strikers so maybe they're just wanting it to be something that it's not
Mario Strikers Battle League was heavily criticized for lack of content but also its gameplay, which was supposedly way worse than even the GameCube version. I had never played that version on the GameCube (had Sega Soccer Slam at the time 😁) and only got to play it on Switch 2 with the GameCube Classics selection. There is no way that without some nostalgic glasses that the GameCube version plays objectively better. It's really just that playing games with your family and friends at a younger age was a lot more fun and exciting at the time. I see that same level of excitement when my young nephews are gaming together and playing the games of the current generation.
That's a great point tbh. I guess the fact that it's Mario makes me feel like it needs to offer something more? It's maybe unfair to think FIFA can be just football and not much more but Nintendo sports games should offer something beyond just the sport itself
It's just a pity a lot of people write off these games based on wrong or perhaps too high expectations. It's a great tennis game (well for this one we don't know yet ofc) with a Mario theme and some wacky stuff attached to it.
Tennis games are quite a niche genre I guess (there must be a reason the Top Spin series didn't get new releases for quite a while and they stopped making Virtua Tennis), and the current tennis games that are still released are generally low effort and crappy. So I'm very happy Mario Tennis gets a new release.
I haven't played FIFA in a long time, but last time I played it they started adding manager modes and even the story mode for a player and Ultimate Team to get people to spend real money. Nice for people who like it, but it contributes 0 to the core gameplay.
Maybe the general appeal of Mario draws people that normally wouldn't really consider playing sports games and they end up disappointed. Anyway, I hope they nailed the tennis aspect and added a lot of content so everyone can be happy.
It will be like a poorly balanced fighting game where people will ID the best fighter (I mean tennis player) and strategy, and those will be spammed without mercy in any online play.
Yeah it left such a bad taste in my mouth I just hope they eventually make another golf game that rivals the 3DS one...that is probably the last time I really really enjoyed a Mario sports game. Didn't care for the latest golf entry on the Switch. Was underwhelmed by Strikers on the Switch. It's really weird how the games a minimalized in ways that just take away from the fun I used to have with them and at a certain point I have to wonder if it's just me and my gaming preferences have changed over time.
(but I still suspect they're just making quick and dirty sports games that sell without putting the same effort into them that they used to)
Nah man. Kirby Air Riders really opened my eyes to the type of content we should expect from spin-off party games. Granted, it’s not a sports game, but the similarities are there. There’s no reason we should expect anything less than hours of repayable content for $60-$70. They’re doing the bare minimum and flipping a quick profit.
I never played the original Air Rider game, but I have put a fair amount of time into Air Riders on the S2 and yeah, it's such a polished and fun experience. You're exactly right in terms of where the bar should be set, but that's also what you get with a Sakurai game. I can load up Air Riders and just have a few minutes of fun in quick matches or go back into the story thing, or just explore any of the many options/modes and while there's a level of complexity, it's all pretty accessible for the most part. The more recent Mario sports games have confused simplicity for accessibility and the result is a shallow experience with a fairly decent coat of paint, and if the underlying tennis/gameplay is fun than that's great, but in Aces the meta stuff just killed any sustained interest for me. Saw the overview trailer for Fever and aside from the roster if looks like there are some other modes, so if they have a demo I'll check it out but I'm waiting for some in-depth reviews but I've no shortage of games I'd probably rather spend time on.
Yeah, somehow I was thinking of Mario Gold last night and after Super Rush felt meh I was thinking they should make a harder pivot and try soemthing like mini golf.
Then I realized, nah, they will just make a bland game with 50 characters.
Did you play Golf? It's got a huge single-player story with a world to run around in and really in-depth mechianics. What do people want out of these games?
Judging from the only(?) trailer we got from this game, there seems to be slightly more of content Aces had(Tourney mode, Story, Online, and 2 additional games modes). Only new content is the Trial Towers mode. Make of that what you will
Look bub if I'm paying 70$ for a Mario Tennis, it better have lots of fun stuff for me to do. I don't want another generic sports game that's just basic tennis with a Mario cost of paint. If you're fine with that, good for you. I want some actual Mario in my Mario sports game. If I just wanted a sports game I'd buy a sports game.
Yea man. I personally wasnt huge on Super Sluggers. But I loved Mario Superstar Baseball. I beat the hell out of it. I used to play on the hardest difficulty and do a team of Peach, Daisy, and all toads. Lol
I even made teams that had as little synergy as humanly possible just to make it even tougher. The game is so underrated
They're probably thinking on a global scale. Sluggers didn't even get a release in Europe, and Sports Superstars didn't meet sales expectations.
I'm not sure how many Nintendo games are exclusively released in Japan these days. There used to be games like Fortune Street, Legendary Starfy, Tingle's Rose Colored Rupee Land, and Glory of Heracles that didn't get Western releases. They've tried to launch a few of them, but they didn't really take off.
I to would like a baseball game, however, I wish Camelot would work on their own IPs. I doubt they're pigeon held by Nintendo, they're probably getting paid good money to make cheap sports games.
To be fair, it has been so long that they are probably not even capable of doing an RPG like that by themselves. It would need to be like a big scale production with other studios, hence why Nintendo is probably not going to do it because they already have their "quota" of first party RPGs with games like Fire Emblem and Xenoblade.
Maybe if it was like a small scale eShop game but they don't tend to do those. Believe me, I wish they did. But, to be fair to them, I've seem release some of those fan requested or niche games and get like mid sales at best. Like, remember when they released games like a new Famicom Detective Club? Even ones that are from bigger IPs like a sequel to Wario Ware Move it from the Wii. How much did they sell?
My point is not that we should not ask for those games but rather to counter the typical points I see with "free Camelot from the Mario Sports mines" or "Nintendo always do the same IPs over and over". Just adding some context.
Anyway, what the game needs is a lot of things to do with them, no more characters for the shake of it. A meaty campaign and lots of modes. Fingers crossed!
This. I've never ever cared about the number of playable characters in a Mario Tennis game. I'm only going to main one or two at the moment. How the game plays, multiplayer options, and a wealth of game modes are far more important
I'm hoping the fact that the reveal trailer focused so much on the number of characters and modes included is a sign that they're listening to critiques for the sports games in the OG Switch era. Currently we have:
38 Characters + 30 Fever Rackets, Tournament Mode, Trial Towers, Mix It Up Mode, Online Room/Ranked, Adventure Mode
Same. “One price fits all” is an outdated model for games. I buy a lot of Nintendo games and still have a hard time justifying a Mario sports game unless it’s on a good sale. On the other hand I’ve had good fun playing some of them on NSO.
Nintendo does have different price tiers for games, and I've always argued that the Mario sports titles should have been $40 tier games like Nintendo Switch Sports.
You’re right when considering all releases. I suppose what I meant is that their definition of a “main release” is too broad and inclusive. Mario sports games at $40 sounds about right.
I can't say I'm crazy excited about the game. Whether I purchase this or not will depend on game modes, plain and simple.
Kirby Air Riders doesn't exactly have a huge selection of characters, but it has enough content to make that not a problem. Game modes -> selection of characters. And it's not even about the amount of game modes; it's about how substantial they are.
It's in my "maybe" category until I see community feedback.
Mario Tennis hasn’t hit since they took away the campaign/career mode. I was so drawn into Mario Tennis for the GBC because of the campus, the tournaments and watching my characters skills grow.
I wish they’d to back to the RPG lite formula, the trailer for MT:F looks great but without a campaign I’m not dropping 70 bucks on it.
The thing is why are we getting two mario tennis games on switch 1/2 and not a new sluggers, basketball, or sports mix? The aces tennis game is superb is more of a fighting game that is more competitive if the other person knows how to play as well. It was very sweaty online when it first came out.
Start thinking of Switch 1 and 2 as separate consoles. Yes, S2 is backward compatible, but that doesn't mean every Switch title will be the 'main' title. I imagine Nintendo wants to promote new titles that take advantage of the new hardware. For series that have to wait for a new entry, they're releasing S2 upgrades to hold buyers over.
Insane to me that Nintendo thinks this and Fire Emblem are enough to keep people hyped about 2026. I really hope that February direct is a banger because Fire Emblem and Pokemon Gen 10 as the only major releases of the year that I even remotely care about would be catastrophic for a second year of the console. I really feel like they put too much stock into the Switch 2 versions of Switch 1 games.
The biggest issue with the first game was lack of courts and weak multiplayer (not being able to co-op online). The characters do add more options for combinations in duos, but unless you have smash bros amount of modes, charging $70 for this is a lost cause.
If it has a good story mode and only starts with 5 of the characters unlocked, I will be stoked for it. I miss having to meet random criteria to actually unlock people.
When Mario Golf dropped online was booming....for about a few weeks. Worse is when news broke a few months later that all the online rewards (skins) were completed. It became HARD to find someone to play with.
Such a fun game abandoned. No DLC. No true updates. Just "is what it is"
All I want from this game is an RPG mode either with a custom character that is not a Mii oh my gosh I hate how those look in actual games. Or, an RPG mode that lets me pick my character from the list of 38 and play them. Or... some other innovative single-player mode.
Just give me a lot of single-player content. Don't be another game that relies heavily on online for 'real' content.
Does the switch have a good sports game with deep management? Like if retro bowl had a more complex GM role or something, could be just about any sport.
Maybe I ask too much, but I'd be way more interested if these Mario sports games had a few games packaged in one. Ideally just all the current mario sports franchises, but if thats too much maybe like a 'mario net sports' with badminton, tennis, table tennis, volleyball, etc. As it stands, the value for money on these games just seems putrid.
I don't care as much about extra content as I do the mechanics. Aces forced you to use that stupid super shot, since the CPU always uses it and there's no way to disable it. Let me play a normal 1v1 or 2v2 on a variety of surfaces. That's all I want.
I've promised myself to not buy anything besides The Duskbloods this year; these AAA titles are getting way too expensive - and I still actually very much enjoy Path of Exile 1..
i just want mario baseball. i didn't have purchasing power when the last one came out in 2008, and since then a whopping 4 mario tennis games will have released after this new one. PLEASE NINTENDO the joycons + baseball is an easy home run
Can we please just get Mario sluggers again? everyone wants it and it’s been so long, and the switch is the perfect console for it with motion control or controller options
Considering Aces had 30, and we've already seen baby versions of Mario, Luigi, Peach, Wario and Waluigi in the trailer, that's only 3 left to reveal. Odds are they'll be baby versions of Daisy and Rosalina, plus one random enemy character.
Mario sports like in the GC/Wii, real games with real amounts of content, are unfortunately dead.
Kid me would love a third Mario Baseball. Adult me knows if that ever happened they would make a fuckup of a product that runs its course in less than a month.
Mario Kart World and Mario Party: Jamboree showed that they are just going to stuff their party and sports games with random enemy characters to play as now. So large rosters aren't as exciting.
I pray the adventure mode is as fun as it looks, as it looks better than Tennis Aces. I am more interested in the racket gimmicks than I was the zone shots.
I hope some of these 38 characters are unlockables through the story mode or an offline tournament mode. Speaking of which, offlime tourneys need to bring back trophy animations for singles and doubles - it is a small thing, but man it adds so much personality and was sorely lacking from Aces.
Lastly, please have good side modes, no need to drip feed us content, a powerful and lasting first impression is enough to keep folks coming back, anything extra is just icing at that point.
Super Rush wasnt perfect and was lacking in many ways, but it was a guilty pleasure of mine personally. I actually enjoyed playing it and unlocking everyone's super clubs, just needed more battle arenas and tourneys/side modes.
I found it to be the most enjoyable Mario Sports game on the switch, I also enjoyed Toadstool tour and World Tour, that said I feel that the entirety of the Marii sports games kind of died after their gamecube/wii iterations.
Yeah the fine print ended up being that only 3 are actually new as the other 5 slots are wasted on babies (not even including baby Daisy but instead inventing more reasons for me to hate Waluigi)
Also I wish the story was more akin to Prince of Tennis. I prefer Mario Tennis on Gameboy Colour and Advance to be honest, it felt like I was climbing the ranks in a story mode with RPG elements.
Yeah, I remember I loved the gameplay for that one, but none of my friends played it so it got lost between other games.
When they announced fever I was like: 'Another Mario Tennis? But Aces just released', then I saw a calendar and felt old. Same thing is happening now when I see people asking for a new Smash.
Neat to see the game is gonna have some content. They're gonna need it to justify a 70$ price tag. Not saying it's impossible to turn Mario Tennis into a big spectacle like Mario Kart but dang 60$ already felt overpriced for the sports games so 70$ is crazy.
The previous Mario Tennis game, Aces, came out in 2018, 8 years ago. Enough time has passed, especially if it's a game for a new console.
Baseball has been more or less phased out at this point. The last main game was in 2008, and all we've seen since then was it being included in Sports Superstars on the 3DS. It could come back, although I'm not sure if they can bring the old creative heads back or not.
38 characters and none of them good.
Nintendo literally have some of the greatest video game characters of all time, but whenever they put out a racer or a sports game, the characters they put in there are the worst of the lot.
My ass over here wanting a story mode similar to Mario tennis GBA
Yeah, it is heartbreaking that Sports Story sucked and we never got the tennis version of golf story, because golf story was incredible.
I forgot about Sports Story. Thanks for reminding me of that game.
The music is so good in that game and the story mode is great
Fucking THIS. The GBA RPG mode was peak Mario sports, leveling up your character and actually having stakes made it addictive as hell. Modern Nintendo sports games just feel like glorified party games with no meat on the bones.
38 characters means nothing if there's no reason to actually play through content with them. Give me a tournament arc, give me rival matches, give me SOMETHING to grind for besides online rankings nobody cares about
Fever appears to be remaking some of the locations from GBA story mode
Literally this is all I want
Literally this is all the games need to be great. The online content was fine. The single player content needs work.
Kirby Air Riders achieved both. Other competitive party games should too.
my ass wants a "golf story" but Nintendo themed.
Mario Golf on the Game Boy Color and I'm not joking
Oh damn. It's even on NSO. I will try that! thanks!
one of my favorite games all time
It's all they need to do to create an instant-buy from me...seems so easy. Instead, crap
and to think about all that money i spent on mario golf
Everyone and their mom has been waiting for that and Nintendo knows it
It'll be 79 on metacritic, consensus will be fun gameplay but not enough game modes and a disappointing story mode. 38 characters won't solve the problem all recent Nintendo sports games have had which is a massive lack of content
Nintendo always treats a big roster of characters in their Mario spin-offs as if it were like the biggest selling point, and not the actual amount of good content you can get in it. Sick of it.
“Jamboree is the biggest Mario Party ever! World is the biggest Mario Kart ever! Fever is the biggest Mario Tennis ever!!!” Like okay?? But will the game be more than average at best?
Not sure if it’s a hot take or not, but when I was a kid I absolutely considered a game’s character roster as the main reason to buy a game, so I get it. Definitely disappointed by how simple and short lived Nintendo’s sports games have been though.
You know, fair point. For a lot of these games us, the adults, aren't really the targeted demographic lol. Kids want to play their favorite character period.
My niece and nephew liked to re pick characters after each individual Mario kart race haha
I kinda do that now in MKW lol… there’s just so many cool characters and costumes!
Another shares my pain 🤣 I just don’t have it in me to tell him it’s standard to wait to change characters
I mean, yeah, after every 4 races my partner and I pick a new character that fits a theme, is that not normal?
Yes, but every 1 race is a lot!
Games need a Roger Ebert like critic
My kids are 8 and 4 and it's definitely the main selling point for them! They just like choosing and variety. It's why Pokémon is so popular.
A big difference was having to go down certain paths to unlock specific characters. I’m not a fan of the ‘unlock a random character by completing a random task’ thing.
I have no idea what the deal is with Tennis these days, but I’d prefer to have a lot of characters and have to earn each of them.
I still remember trying to figure out how to unlock all the characters in melee.
I don't know why it's so hard to do.
• Take a basic map
• the most popular characters are gym leader bosses you have to beat to unlock as playable,
• the less popular characters are peppered throughout the story and unlocked through sidequests.
Make a basic ass story about "evil tennis ball corporation is mind-controlling the popular characters, beat them all to save them and defeat the corporation!" DONE.
I had Mario Tennis as a kid, unlocking all the characters (and courts) was the game. Once I had them all, there wasn't much left to do but play tennis against the computer.
Depends on how many of the characters are just reskins tho
And his point being, when he was a kid. If you were a kid, especially nowadays with "skins" being so common in games, you'd love to be able to play as gold mario or donkey Kong with a funny hat etc.
Depends on the game. For fighting games, it's definitely a huge factor. But yeah, I enjoy big rosters but it can't sell me on a mediocre game.
Jamboree is actually one of the biggest Mario parties though.
Tennis and Golf are hard ones too because they peaked in their 8 and 32 bit iterations on Gameboy Color and Advance.
Nintendos been trying to hit that peak since then and just doesn't seem to get what made those special
I still blows my mind we don’t get new minigames and boards in Mario Party in this day and age.
Why would they do that? They make a new Mario Party every 3 years max. If they put too much DLC in one game, people won't move on to the new game in a few years. Full games sell way more than DLCs and split communities up.
Hell they used to make new Mario Party games yearly if not bi-yearly. And they always had like 5-7 new boards and ~80 new minigames each.
I don’t think they would ever do mini games, but think if they put out a couple boards for 10$ 6 months after lunch they could make a decent return and not risk future sales.
Superstars is still the better Mario Party despite Jamboree’s roster IMO. Jamboree has good boards but worse minigames and games are so much slower in general.
If I have friends round I find myself starting up Superstars because the question with Jamboree always seems to be “how many turns have we got left?” because it’s SO SLOW
Jamboree is big... but only if you count all the modes and motion minigames that basically nobody ever plays. It's still quite good but damn is the minigame pool small if you disable motion minigames.
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for all the criticisms of mario sports games, I think calling Aces a "generic tennis game" is one of the few things you can't say about it (and it looks like this one is stepping in its footsteps).
They probably saw the constant whining and screaming by people over the years asking for X Y and Z characters to be included in Super Smash Brothers and then assumed that same idea translates to Mario kart or Mario party where characters aren’t really that distinct in what they do like they are in Smash.
Tbh some omissions from Smash were a little dumb and low hanging fruit for Nintendo. They clearly have fixed that with the Switch version (although I am one of the Waluigi requesters since brawl)
seems to jsut be what nintendo players go for. eg, pokemon fans thinking the only issue is not enough monsters
All the Mario Parties for Switch were great but they all fell incredibly short on content. Honestly they could combine the three of them to make one really great game. I don’t know why Zelda gets insane amount of content but these get next to nothing.
Jamboree is actually great though
I respectfully disagree, felt like it just handles the core party mode worse than Superstars in every way.
-Too much padding for a lot of badly designed boards, and a disappointingly small amount of main mode mini games.
-Lots of mini games are much worse designed than Superstars too, but thats obviously because Superstars took the best from the series.
mario kart world is a better than average game though, online random lobbies aside
Smash Bros says otherwise.
To be fair: What kind of story mode are we expecting in Mario Tennis?
Level 1: Play tennis against Baby Mario!
Level 999: Kill god (at tennis)
The GBC and GBA Mario Tennis games had a story mode with a completely unique cast of characters culminating in an exhibition match against The Greatest Player Ever™ -- Mario! The story and progression was really simple, but I always had so much fun with it. Leveling mechanics, minigames, a fairy in a lake, and I always love the Island Open Tournament that your character works toward winning.
I have such a great memory of the GBC Mario Tennis story mode.
Still pull out my Game Boy on occasion to play that MArio Tennis game, it was so good.
These are arcade sport games (which is no longer a thriving genre unfortunately), if the gameplay is good you can play it pretty much endlessly. People expecting a compelling story in a tennis game is crazy to me lol. I don't really see the need for it or a ton of additional gimmick modes that you play once and never care about again.
If you don't like sports games you won't like this one. If you do like sports games you don't mind the repetition of playing the actual matches and improving your skills (all sport games have that really). I also expect it to score somewhere between 75 and 85, but since I like tennis, sports games and Mario in general I'm pretty much guaranteed to have a good time.
I agree with this as a whole, but even in the arcade aspect, they have been dropping modes and features quite a bit.
For example, from Mario Gold: Toadstool Tour to Mario Golf: World Tour, getting rid of Doubles and Highlights was a huge annoyance. Sure, World Tour had a ton of Challenges to do, but removing key features was a weird this to do. Super Rush lucked out with the Switch having built in flashback recording.
Fever already looks better than Aces content wise at least, with it having more challenges. Hopefully the Tournament Mode is more fleshed out, or at least similar to how it was on 64 and Power Tennis.
Agreed. Did no one play og Mario tennis for days on end? Zero story
Mario tennis on the Gameboy color was my shit
Funnily that actually had a good story lol
Mario Tennis and Golf on the Game Boys all had fleshed out RPG stories and were made by Camelot the same devs for this one. So no, not zero story lol
He's talking about the N64 game
I play N64 Mario Tennis to this day and just end up fucking around in a tournament or two before I shut it off for a few months. The gameplay matters a whole hell of a lot more than anything else.
Eh, I don't think people are just looking for stories in the sports titles. They're looking for unlockable cosmetics, progression, something to keep it fun other than the gameplay. It's similar to what you see in fighting games. Of course the gameplay is the main focus in those, but the ones that offer boring but a 1v1 or arcade mode always leave large numbers of players wishing for unlocks, progression (and yeah, story too) the last smash didn't hav a great story mode(compared to the massively popular mortal combat cinematic story) but it was loved for all the stuff to explore outside of the core combat. It's why capcom put the world tour in sf6.
Nintendo has done this very well in other titles, and it just hilights how barren the sports titles feel at times.
Your sentiments ring true, and honestly one of my biggest gripes with this sub, how people just endlessly dog on the Mario Sports and Party titles, like they're somehow grand let-downs compared to the memories they have of the old games. (You would think Super Mario Party killed everyone's dog or something)
Aces is the greatest game in the franchise and it's not close. I absolutely cannot understand how people tore it down just because it didn't have a bunch of (mostly forgettable) mini-games and gimmicks like Power Tennis. Judge the game on its own merits, not on what the last one did.
I honestly think people just outgrew these franchises, because they are absolutely not worse than their Gamecube and N64 counterparts.
Yea, I always found the hate that aces got pretty odd considering how phenomenal the gameplay was. I never played any of the older ones though besides strikers so maybe they're just wanting it to be something that it's not
Totally agree.
Mario Strikers Battle League was heavily criticized for lack of content but also its gameplay, which was supposedly way worse than even the GameCube version. I had never played that version on the GameCube (had Sega Soccer Slam at the time 😁) and only got to play it on Switch 2 with the GameCube Classics selection. There is no way that without some nostalgic glasses that the GameCube version plays objectively better. It's really just that playing games with your family and friends at a younger age was a lot more fun and exciting at the time. I see that same level of excitement when my young nephews are gaming together and playing the games of the current generation.
That's a great point tbh. I guess the fact that it's Mario makes me feel like it needs to offer something more? It's maybe unfair to think FIFA can be just football and not much more but Nintendo sports games should offer something beyond just the sport itself
It's just a pity a lot of people write off these games based on wrong or perhaps too high expectations. It's a great tennis game (well for this one we don't know yet ofc) with a Mario theme and some wacky stuff attached to it.
Tennis games are quite a niche genre I guess (there must be a reason the Top Spin series didn't get new releases for quite a while and they stopped making Virtua Tennis), and the current tennis games that are still released are generally low effort and crappy. So I'm very happy Mario Tennis gets a new release.
I haven't played FIFA in a long time, but last time I played it they started adding manager modes and even the story mode for a player and Ultimate Team to get people to spend real money. Nice for people who like it, but it contributes 0 to the core gameplay.
Maybe the general appeal of Mario draws people that normally wouldn't really consider playing sports games and they end up disappointed. Anyway, I hope they nailed the tennis aspect and added a lot of content so everyone can be happy.
If they sold it for $20, it wouldn't be nearly as big of a deal.
It will be like a poorly balanced fighting game where people will ID the best fighter (I mean tennis player) and strategy, and those will be spammed without mercy in any online play.
I see you played Aces lol
Yeah it left such a bad taste in my mouth I just hope they eventually make another golf game that rivals the 3DS one...that is probably the last time I really really enjoyed a Mario sports game. Didn't care for the latest golf entry on the Switch. Was underwhelmed by Strikers on the Switch. It's really weird how the games a minimalized in ways that just take away from the fun I used to have with them and at a certain point I have to wonder if it's just me and my gaming preferences have changed over time.
(but I still suspect they're just making quick and dirty sports games that sell without putting the same effort into them that they used to)
Nah man. Kirby Air Riders really opened my eyes to the type of content we should expect from spin-off party games. Granted, it’s not a sports game, but the similarities are there. There’s no reason we should expect anything less than hours of repayable content for $60-$70. They’re doing the bare minimum and flipping a quick profit.
I never played the original Air Rider game, but I have put a fair amount of time into Air Riders on the S2 and yeah, it's such a polished and fun experience. You're exactly right in terms of where the bar should be set, but that's also what you get with a Sakurai game. I can load up Air Riders and just have a few minutes of fun in quick matches or go back into the story thing, or just explore any of the many options/modes and while there's a level of complexity, it's all pretty accessible for the most part. The more recent Mario sports games have confused simplicity for accessibility and the result is a shallow experience with a fairly decent coat of paint, and if the underlying tennis/gameplay is fun than that's great, but in Aces the meta stuff just killed any sustained interest for me. Saw the overview trailer for Fever and aside from the roster if looks like there are some other modes, so if they have a demo I'll check it out but I'm waiting for some in-depth reviews but I've no shortage of games I'd probably rather spend time on.
Yeah, somehow I was thinking of Mario Gold last night and after Super Rush felt meh I was thinking they should make a harder pivot and try soemthing like mini golf.
Then I realized, nah, they will just make a bland game with 50 characters.
Lol hate how right this is. What's it gonna take for Nintendo to make a 90+ sports game. They just can't do it.
Way to leak the game early lol jk but yeah spot on, Mario sport games these days are empty filler vaporware.
The real question is, will it have meaningful content?
Look at the last several Mario spin off sports games, of course it won't
Did you play Golf? It's got a huge single-player story with a world to run around in and really in-depth mechianics. What do people want out of these games?
Something more like Mario golf advance tour / Mario tennis power tour
Judging from the only(?) trailer we got from this game, there seems to be slightly more of content Aces had(Tourney mode, Story, Online, and 2 additional games modes). Only new content is the Trial Towers mode. Make of that what you will
Yes you hit the ball and you play the tennis
20 bucks and I'm sold
Best they can do is $89.99
jokes aside its actually $70, which is insane
Well we know it has some sort of story mode at least
I could feel the monkey paw’s finger curling when Mario Tenis’ story mode turned them into babies
It's Tennis. You play against your friends.
Damn, I never thought of that.
The gameplay is the meaningful content. I hate how everyone wants to eat a bathtub full of porridge these days.
Look bub if I'm paying 70$ for a Mario Tennis, it better have lots of fun stuff for me to do. I don't want another generic sports game that's just basic tennis with a Mario cost of paint. If you're fine with that, good for you. I want some actual Mario in my Mario sports game. If I just wanted a sports game I'd buy a sports game.
All these sports game that have come out the last 10 years and still no baseball is wild
Yea man. I personally wasnt huge on Super Sluggers. But I loved Mario Superstar Baseball. I beat the hell out of it. I used to play on the hardest difficulty and do a team of Peach, Daisy, and all toads. Lol
I even made teams that had as little synergy as humanly possible just to make it even tougher. The game is so underrated
Makes even less sense considering baseball is like the most popular sport in Japan
They're probably thinking on a global scale. Sluggers didn't even get a release in Europe, and Sports Superstars didn't meet sales expectations.
I'm not sure how many Nintendo games are exclusively released in Japan these days. There used to be games like Fortune Street, Legendary Starfy, Tingle's Rose Colored Rupee Land, and Glory of Heracles that didn't get Western releases. They've tried to launch a few of them, but they didn't really take off.
I to would like a baseball game, however, I wish Camelot would work on their own IPs. I doubt they're pigeon held by Nintendo, they're probably getting paid good money to make cheap sports games.
Yeah, Bomberman Hardball was my jam cause it had baseball
Just give me Virtua Tennis for $20 in HD
virtua tennis on mobile was so much fun when I was younger. idk if it will still hold up but man it was addicting.
Free Camelot from this bullshit and let them make more Golden Sun
They haven't made an RPG in 16 years, they're a sports studio and have been for a while
🙏🏻
A game that will sell maybe around 1 million copies if they're lucky vs a sports game they can shit out in 3 years that will sell 10mil
hmmm wonder what they'll choose
There is no choice. Camelot is contracted by Nintendo to make Mario sports games.
To be fair, it has been so long that they are probably not even capable of doing an RPG like that by themselves. It would need to be like a big scale production with other studios, hence why Nintendo is probably not going to do it because they already have their "quota" of first party RPGs with games like Fire Emblem and Xenoblade.
Maybe if it was like a small scale eShop game but they don't tend to do those. Believe me, I wish they did. But, to be fair to them, I've seem release some of those fan requested or niche games and get like mid sales at best. Like, remember when they released games like a new Famicom Detective Club? Even ones that are from bigger IPs like a sequel to Wario Ware Move it from the Wii. How much did they sell?
My point is not that we should not ask for those games but rather to counter the typical points I see with "free Camelot from the Mario Sports mines" or "Nintendo always do the same IPs over and over". Just adding some context.
Didn't we know this from the first trailer?
Anyway, what the game needs is a lot of things to do with them, no more characters for the shake of it. A meaty campaign and lots of modes. Fingers crossed!
We did, I think everyone's just forgot which is fair enough
I forgot the game even existed, and I remember being super hype that first trailer. Mario Tennis was one of my favorite games growing up
This. I've never ever cared about the number of playable characters in a Mario Tennis game. I'm only going to main one or two at the moment. How the game plays, multiplayer options, and a wealth of game modes are far more important
I'm hoping the fact that the reveal trailer focused so much on the number of characters and modes included is a sign that they're listening to critiques for the sports games in the OG Switch era. Currently we have:
38 Characters + 30 Fever Rackets, Tournament Mode, Trial Towers, Mix It Up Mode, Online Room/Ranked, Adventure Mode
I’m excited for the game. Haven’t bought a Nintendo sports game since Wii Sports, but my 6yo has expressed interest.
We love Mario Kart World and we REALLY love Kirby Air Riders. I think Nintendo is killing it lately, so I have high hopes for this.
$70 for a tennis game is crazy
Yeah, $60 was already a steep point for a game like this but $70 is just insane lol
$60 when Aces came out was worth more than $70 now. By purchasing power it's actually cheaper.
$70 is the new standard for any Switch 2 game. I don't know why you're surprised.
yea zero chance it is worth it
Mario, Tannuki Mario, Cap Mario (odyssey), Fireball Mario, Baby Mario, Cap Less Mario etc
I'm not paying 70€ for Mario Tennis. I like the game, but not worth that much. Sad...
Yeah, I bet it’s a really fun game but it’s just so expensive for what it is.
Same. “One price fits all” is an outdated model for games. I buy a lot of Nintendo games and still have a hard time justifying a Mario sports game unless it’s on a good sale. On the other hand I’ve had good fun playing some of them on NSO.
Nintendo does have different price tiers for games, and I've always argued that the Mario sports titles should have been $40 tier games like Nintendo Switch Sports.
You’re right when considering all releases. I suppose what I meant is that their definition of a “main release” is too broad and inclusive. Mario sports games at $40 sounds about right.
I absolutely forgot about this game
When was it announced? I don't think I've ever heard of it
Where the F is Mario Sluggers?
...I thought we already knew that?
I can't say I'm crazy excited about the game. Whether I purchase this or not will depend on game modes, plain and simple.
Kirby Air Riders doesn't exactly have a huge selection of characters, but it has enough content to make that not a problem. Game modes -> selection of characters. And it's not even about the amount of game modes; it's about how substantial they are.
It's in my "maybe" category until I see community feedback.
K Rool?
This would bei awesome 😍
Mario Tennis hasn’t hit since they took away the campaign/career mode. I was so drawn into Mario Tennis for the GBC because of the campus, the tournaments and watching my characters skills grow.
I wish they’d to back to the RPG lite formula, the trailer for MT:F looks great but without a campaign I’m not dropping 70 bucks on it.
The thing is why are we getting two mario tennis games on switch 1/2 and not a new sluggers, basketball, or sports mix? The aces tennis game is superb is more of a fighting game that is more competitive if the other person knows how to play as well. It was very sweaty online when it first came out.
Start thinking of Switch 1 and 2 as separate consoles. Yes, S2 is backward compatible, but that doesn't mean every Switch title will be the 'main' title. I imagine Nintendo wants to promote new titles that take advantage of the new hardware. For series that have to wait for a new entry, they're releasing S2 upgrades to hold buyers over.
I won't even need to play it. It'll be another Switch era multiplayer game with barely any content at launch.
Insane to me that Nintendo thinks this and Fire Emblem are enough to keep people hyped about 2026. I really hope that February direct is a banger because Fire Emblem and Pokemon Gen 10 as the only major releases of the year that I even remotely care about would be catastrophic for a second year of the console. I really feel like they put too much stock into the Switch 2 versions of Switch 1 games.
Why does Nintendo think we want more characters in every game? More characters =/= good game...
The biggest issue with the first game was lack of courts and weak multiplayer (not being able to co-op online). The characters do add more options for combinations in duos, but unless you have smash bros amount of modes, charging $70 for this is a lost cause.
This is my most anticipated Switch 2 game this year, next to Pragmata and the Duskbloods.
If it has a good story mode and only starts with 5 of the characters unlocked, I will be stoked for it. I miss having to meet random criteria to actually unlock people.
That's the new thing with Nintendo, throw as many characters as they can at the game. MKW has a crazy lineup.
As long as one of them is Boo this is a day 1 purchase for me.
Mario Super Sluggers successor when?
Please just give us more switch sports courses. There are dozens of us.
When Mario Golf dropped online was booming....for about a few weeks. Worse is when news broke a few months later that all the online rewards (skins) were completed. It became HARD to find someone to play with.
Such a fun game abandoned. No DLC. No true updates. Just "is what it is"
When can we expect the beta test demo period?
On Super Mario Wiki I count 24 so there's still more to come
Imo they peaked with N64 Mario tennis. I still play it. Haven't cared about a single one since then.
Same goes for Mario golf. The newest one is pretty good but I still prefer n64
All I want from this game is an RPG mode either with a custom character that is not a Mii oh my gosh I hate how those look in actual games. Or, an RPG mode that lets me pick my character from the list of 38 and play them. Or... some other innovative single-player mode.
Just give me a lot of single-player content. Don't be another game that relies heavily on online for 'real' content.
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If the word free updates shows up that's my sign to not waste my time
I just want a good Tennis game with no fucking gimmicks with online matchmaking…how is it so hard lol
I hope they get rid of diving across the entire fucking court. Ugh
Does the switch have a good sports game with deep management? Like if retro bowl had a more complex GM role or something, could be just about any sport.
Maybe I ask too much, but I'd be way more interested if these Mario sports games had a few games packaged in one. Ideally just all the current mario sports franchises, but if thats too much maybe like a 'mario net sports' with badminton, tennis, table tennis, volleyball, etc. As it stands, the value for money on these games just seems putrid.
I don't care as much about extra content as I do the mechanics. Aces forced you to use that stupid super shot, since the CPU always uses it and there's no way to disable it. Let me play a normal 1v1 or 2v2 on a variety of surfaces. That's all I want.
One of them better be K. Rool
they're gonna do something INSANE and random like -no multiplayer court selection option-
then backpedal after massive predictable backlash
Oh wow, I'm ready to play the same Mario characters for the billion time. Can we get Camelot characters back in it
I've promised myself to not buy anything besides The Duskbloods this year; these AAA titles are getting way too expensive - and I still actually very much enjoy Path of Exile 1..
i just want mario baseball. i didn't have purchasing power when the last one came out in 2008, and since then a whopping 4 mario tennis games will have released after this new one. PLEASE NINTENDO the joycons + baseball is an easy home run
Can we please just get Mario sluggers again? everyone wants it and it’s been so long, and the switch is the perfect console for it with motion control or controller options
I’m still hoping for a new Mario baseball game at some point
Considering Aces had 30, and we've already seen baby versions of Mario, Luigi, Peach, Wario and Waluigi in the trailer, that's only 3 left to reveal. Odds are they'll be baby versions of Daisy and Rosalina, plus one random enemy character.
I’d pay £60 for a virtual tennis port
Mario sports like in the GC/Wii, real games with real amounts of content, are unfortunately dead.
Kid me would love a third Mario Baseball. Adult me knows if that ever happened they would make a fuckup of a product that runs its course in less than a month.
Mario Kart World and Mario Party: Jamboree showed that they are just going to stuff their party and sports games with random enemy characters to play as now. So large rosters aren't as exciting.
Mario Tennis PowerTour on GBA is the best Mario tennis. Any other title entry will leave me dissatisfied until they can replicate the academy system.
GBC did it first
I'd say 64 is the best one though, for multiplayer. Single player 100% the handheld RPGs
Why did you link to the twitter article when you could have just linked directly to the Nintendo page?
I pray the adventure mode is as fun as it looks, as it looks better than Tennis Aces. I am more interested in the racket gimmicks than I was the zone shots.
I hope some of these 38 characters are unlockables through the story mode or an offline tournament mode. Speaking of which, offlime tourneys need to bring back trophy animations for singles and doubles - it is a small thing, but man it adds so much personality and was sorely lacking from Aces.
Lastly, please have good side modes, no need to drip feed us content, a powerful and lasting first impression is enough to keep folks coming back, anything extra is just icing at that point.
I don’t think there has been a good tennis game since the 64. I can certainly say that about golf. Mario Golf Rush was terrible.
Super Rush wasnt perfect and was lacking in many ways, but it was a guilty pleasure of mine personally. I actually enjoyed playing it and unlocking everyone's super clubs, just needed more battle arenas and tourneys/side modes.
I found it to be the most enjoyable Mario Sports game on the switch, I also enjoyed Toadstool tour and World Tour, that said I feel that the entirety of the Marii sports games kind of died after their gamecube/wii iterations.
To be fair I don’t think any of the sports games were good. But super rush had no, well anything to it. I was done with it after a few hours.
Tennis was fun for a little while but the single player mode felt too flat.
no outfits like MKW is a L
gameboy color mario tennis was significantly better than this...pathetic.
Is it fair to compare this to one of the greatest handheld games of all time?
I just don't understand how they can't incorporate the same game into 3-D gameplay lol
Even something minor like a cameo of the characters from the GBC Mario Tennis would get me hyped. That game was goated
I'd love to get a tennis game like the Mario Tennis: Power Tour I had on my Game Boy, these games have been so disapointing.
Mario Tennis GBC was so lit
It was basically Tennis Academy: The RPG
I just played a bit of it the other day actually
I just want Mario Tennis added to the Gamecube Nintendo online library
Yeah the fine print ended up being that only 3 are actually new as the other 5 slots are wasted on babies (not even including baby Daisy but instead inventing more reasons for me to hate Waluigi)
38? 38? Last year, last year I had 39!
wish k rool was in it
No Baby Rosalina?!
Also I wish the story was more akin to Prince of Tennis. I prefer Mario Tennis on Gameboy Colour and Advance to be honest, it felt like I was climbing the ranks in a story mode with RPG elements.
That’s around $2 for each character
It'll be fun to play for 2 weeks then the online will be empty afterwards. It's the cycle of Mario Sports Games.
Still hyped for it though.
I played Aces for a long fucking time. The only thing that caused me to drop that game was the unbelievable skill ceiling.
Yeah, I remember I loved the gameplay for that one, but none of my friends played it so it got lost between other games.
When they announced fever I was like: 'Another Mario Tennis? But Aces just released', then I saw a calendar and felt old. Same thing is happening now when I see people asking for a new Smash.
Aces was alive more than just 2 weeks, maybe because it was the first.
In the old days people would re-buy a series game because the leap in graphics was worth the cost of admission. E.g.
Mario Tennis on Game Boy Color vs
Mario Tennis on N64 vs
Mario Power Tennis on Gamecube
But nowadays the graphical leaps are not that different. They need to offer more RICH GAMEPLAY presentation to ensure sales each generation.
Otherwise it's easy for someone to say, "Well I basically already have that game, I'll spend my $70 on something else."
Neat to see the game is gonna have some content. They're gonna need it to justify a 70$ price tag. Not saying it's impossible to turn Mario Tennis into a big spectacle like Mario Kart but dang 60$ already felt overpriced for the sports games so 70$ is crazy.
The last game had characters but not nearly enough content
Why the fuck are we getting ANOTHER Mario tennis game before a new baseball one? They just did Tennis!
The previous Mario Tennis game, Aces, came out in 2018, 8 years ago. Enough time has passed, especially if it's a game for a new console.
Baseball has been more or less phased out at this point. The last main game was in 2008, and all we've seen since then was it being included in Sports Superstars on the 3DS. It could come back, although I'm not sure if they can bring the old creative heads back or not.
38 characters and none of them good. Nintendo literally have some of the greatest video game characters of all time, but whenever they put out a racer or a sports game, the characters they put in there are the worst of the lot.