Mario Tennis Fever Preview

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a Nintendo Switch 2 preview event in Manhattan, which featured a handful of upcoming games coming to the console in the near future. One of my demos included Mario Tennis Fever, the latest entry into the long-running Mario sports title.

It's a series that I personally love, and I have a ton of nostalgia for both Mario Tennis on the N64, and the follow-up, Mario Power Tennis for the GameCube. It's also, unfortunately, a franchise that's had a couple of lower points in its history as well. Ultra Smash was a dud, and while I was hooked on Aces on the original Switch for a while, I eventually had some issues with it that caused me to fall off.

Enter, Mario Tennis Fever, a game I'm actually surprised we're getting so early in the Switch 2's life cycle. However, after going hands-on with it and playing a bunch of doubles matches, I'm absolutely ready for more, and walked away genuinely excited that the release is so close on the horizon. Let me serve you the details of a game that seems primed to be one of the best Mario sports entries to date.

A Colorful, Flashy Feast

First and foremost, Mario Tennis Fever looks and runs great. In true Mario fashion, there are vibrant colors everywhere, and the whopping cast of 38 playable characters are all charming and wonderfully animated. I mean, sure, Baby Wario and Baby Waluigi are as unsettling as you'd expect, but it's not their fault. They'll grow into their teeth someday.

In my demo of Fever, I first went through a very basic tutorial section, then hopped into five straight doubles matches with other people at the event controlling the other three characters. There are 14 courts to play on, and my group was able to experience three of them: a clay court, ice court, and a Mario Wonder-themed court.

All three looked amazing, with the ice court and its slippery surface both offering movement challenges as well as a shiny, beautiful, hockey-themed surface to take in the whole time. The Wonder court was the other clear standout, which felt full of life as our teams competed to collect Wonder Seeds instead of scoring traditional points.

There was also a moment halfway through our match on the Wonder Court where singing Piranha Plants blocked the net to protect Wonder Seeds, causing us to carefully aim our shots at the seeds to try to collect them as quickly as possible. This was a blast, and I was impressed at how creative and cool the Wonder court felt in this particular match.

Fever feels like a big step-up from the presentation of Aces overall, which I suppose you'd expect to be the case since it's been eight years since Aces. Regardless, Fever's presentation is excellent, and I don't expect anyone to take issue with the visuals or art design.

A Change of Pace

But how did Fever actually feel to play? Well, the main difference and selling point in this game specifically are the Fever Rackets that have been added this time around, but we'll get to those in a second. Let's tackle the basic gameplay first.

Mario Tennis Fever is, well... Still tennis. That's a good thing, obviously, so long as Fever does enough to make it feel different enough and worthwhile compared to previous entries. While I can't literally confirm it yet or compare it to earlier games in the series, I will say that I found Fever's tennis ball movement to feel a little slower, if not floatier in general.

To be clear, I don't think this is a bad thing, but it is a difference. Certain older titles became twitchy reaction-based affairs where it sometimes felt like you were hanging on for dear life simply to return a perfectly-timed serve right from the get-go. Here, I found the slightly tuned-down pace ultimately lends itself to some more strategic thinking instead of simply trying to smash the ball deep into the corner to score all your points.

This encouraged me to be more deliberate with some of my shot selections and placements, making those backhanded backspin shots that barely trickle over the net feel all the more powerful. Yes, there are still things like Star Shots and overhead smashes in general where the ball comes out with tons of pace, but these shots feel more earned and perhaps more powerful as a result of the pace of everything else. It just works.

In any sports game, I put a premium on balance and a high skill level ultimately being what leads to a victory. Previous Mario Tennis games perhaps leaned a bit too much into the chaos, where Fever seems more likely to let the best player win. And I should know, my doubles team went 5-0 in our time with the game (insert sunglasses emoji).

Fever Rackets Bring Chaos, But also Balance

Where this sense of balance extends even further is in the addition of the 30 Fever Rackets, which serve as the big difference between Fever and everything else. Gone are character-specific special moves, which often times caused certain options to simply feel overpowered compared to others. If you were around for the early days of Aces online, you know the meta quickly became that Boswer Jr. was the choice if you wanted to always have a leg up in a match.

Here, things are different. The 38 characters do still fall into a playstyle archetype, which is a good thing. Mario is all-around, Yoshi is speedy, Paratroopa is technical, Bowser is power, and so on. I spent time testing out Yoshi, Paratroopa, and Piranha Plant myself, all of which felt as distinct and varied as you'd hope.

Still, the archetype you'll choose ultimately comes down to preference. The most important choice you now have is which Fever Racket you choose. Just for fun in our first match, Nintendo had us spin a wheel to determine which Fever Racket we'd each us. My teammate and I both wound up with the Mud Racket, while our opponents had the Pokey Racket.

As you'd expect, the Mud racket created a mud trap on the opponents' side of the court, which substantially slowed them down if they had to traverse it. The Pokey Racket spawned a Pokey on our end, which we'd have to navigate around in order to return shots, as well as to keep our HP bar intact. Lose all your HP, and you're left stunned on the court, allowing your opponents a free point.

There is a way to counter the Fever Shots, which is basic yet pretty ingenious. Simply return it on a volley instead of a bounce, and the racket's powerup backfires and affects the other side of the court instead.

I also got to spend time with the Charging Chuck racket, which caused my returned shots to turn into an American football, thus bouncing around randomly for the opposing team and making it incredibly tough to hit. The Shadow Racket temporarily spawned a double version of myself, which smartly filled in any gaps on the court to return any shots that slipped by my teammate and I.

I'm excited to keep trying out the 25 or so rackets I haven't touched yet, and I'm also very encouraged that all of the options seem genuinely great so far, each changing up the flow of a match substantially. What's best is that using a Fever Shot once your Fever Meter is fully charged doesn't slow down the pace of the game at all.

This was always a major gripe of mine in previous titles. The cutscenes and animations for special shots felt so jarring and disruptive to the flow of a match. Now, Fever Shots are worked seamlessly into a match, while still being just as fun and exciting at the same time. This is a big win.

I really enjoy that the meta will now be which of the 30 rackets are the best and most fun to use, instead of which specific character can be mained and used to exploit matches nonstop. It's going to be much more fun to have the freedom to choose any character whose playstyle you prefer, then find the best Fever Racket combinations that work best for them specifically, alongside what compliments your teammate the best.

Serving it Up Soon

The game's tutorial and these five doubles matches were all I was able to experience in my hands-on demo with Mario Tennis Fever, so I can't speak to any details involving the game's single-player modes. What I can say, however, is that at least in multiplayer, Mario Tennis Fever absolutely feels like one of the best entries in the franchise to date.

The pace might be a little slower, but the roster of characters and courts are amazing, and all look and feel absolutely beautiful. And of course, the 30 Fever Rackets are going to fundamentally change the game in a variety of ways, which I personally think is the correct choice after spending time with Fever.

If you're interested in seeing if you'll catch the fever as well, we don't have to wait much longer. Mario Tennis Fever launches on Nintendo Switch 2 in just nine days on February 12, 2026.