Mario Tennis Fever | Switch 2 Review

I am a Nintendo fanboy. Ever since I was introduced to the NES at my cousin’s house in December 1987, I have owned (almost) every Nintendo system. Is Mario or Luigi in the game? Fanboy value increases exponentially. While I can have a critical opinion, I will almost always default to a positive opinion about everything Nintendo related. Even the painfully obvious cash grabs, “At least they’re fun!”

The Switch 2 is a wonderful system, but until recent months, has been lacking in first-party titles. Then along came Donkey Kong: Bananza ended up being my runner up for Game of the Year in 2025. Based on that experience alone, my excitement for Mario Tennis Fever was at its peak. What we found was…fine. But, I am still a fanboy.

Contrived Adventure/Campaign mode

Daisy is sick. Wario and Waluigi hatch a hair-brained scheme to find a magic golden fruit which will restore Daisy to health. Obviously, they have their own motives for some other treasure on this island. Mario and Luigi come along on the trip and find the fruit. However, the four of them get attacked by some monster who discovers Wario and Waluigi up to their tricks. They are promptly turned into babies. 

Toad ponders if improved tennis skills might have saved them from being turned into babies. Well, instead of crying about it, they decide to help the babies re-learn their tennis skills so that they can return to the island, defeat the monster who attacked using lobbed ball-shaped objects, and return themselves to their adult forms. 

And then you do a lot of training. How to do each type of shot, each kind of surface, singles and doubles, and don’t forget about quizzes! It’s a LONG time before you play any actual tennis.

Have You Played a Mario Tennis Game Before?

Mario Tennis Fever is quite similar in playing style to every previous Mario Tennis game before it. Where Fever is an upgrade is in the appearance. We’ll get to graphics and sound shortly.

So, we’re left with the standard controls that you know and love along with opponents who can almost instantly move from one end of the court to the other depending on the difficulty of your matchup. Players run around the court and hit the ball with slice, topspin, dropshot, flat (no spin), or lob. Then, of course, you have your Fever shots and special Star shots, too. 

The controls are responsive and exactly what you would expect from a Nintendo first-party title. Once you actually play tennis, I have nothing negative to say about the game itself. I can complain about my own skills and constantly confusing the lob button order with the dropshot button order. Imagine my unhappiness when I set things up perfectly for a drop shot only to lob a return directly to the opponent who, as expected, crushed it for the point.

The Beauty of Nintendo

Can I say anything unique about a Mario game’s graphics? It is a visual stunner that nicely shows off the Switch 2 hardware. The colors are incredibly vibrant. The courts are packed with tiny, polished details that make the Mushroom Kingdom feel alive. The training arena has sprinkles of Mario Party design in it. 

However, they clearly got lazy with some animations. Characters don’t actually walk through doors. They just stop at the frame. Then, a quick fade transition moves you to the next room. Also, when you’re in the portion of the game that requires doubles matches, Mario and Luigi do not walk around together. After the cutscene, Luigi simply combines with Mario to form just Mario as you walk through the training or the level. Then, upon arrival, Luigi splits back out again. For a $70 game, these feel like shortcuts and it’s a bit disappointing.

The sound design is the usual high-energy Nintendo fare. The music keeps the pace up, but there is a serious lack of character variety. Mario and Luigi seem to have one noise each. Toads might have four. At least the announcer/training flower guy has an actual voice actor.

Final Thoughts

I want to be clear, Mario Tennis Fever is a fun game. If you enjoyed the previous tennis games, you will enjoy this one, as well. Especially once you get past the first 50% of the adventure mode (training). 

For the first time in my fanboy life, I am left with the questions: Why did they make it? And am I carrying any negative weight along with my review because it was a $70 game? I paid for it, we were not given a review code. There just isn’t enough to Mario Tennis Fever to support releasing it much less releasing it at such a hefty price tag. 

Technically (controls and graphics), it is a wonderful game. 

Depth? Not so much.

To hear me talk more about Mario Tennis Fever, be sure to listen to the February 18th, 2026 episode of The Gaming Outsider Podcast around the 1:35:34 time stamp.

This review is based on a purchased copy of Mario Tennis Fever for the Nintendo Switch 2. As of this writing, it is exclusive to that platform.