Mario Tennis Fever Review

Mario Tennis Fever has me worried for Nintendo’s sports games on Switch 2. It’s not worse than any of the sports games on Switch 1, but it’s also not any better. The trouble is that it commits almost all of the same sins: the mechanics are solid, but nothing outside of the core tennis gameplay is that much fun.Nintendo’s presentation style was already showing signs of aging with games like Mario Tennis Aces. Here, it’s even more noticeable due to tough comparisons to similar games like Golf Story or LEGO Party. Unlike many, I was more ready to forgive these problems with the Switch 1 Mario sports games because it was clear to me that Nintendo was making family-style party games. During COVID lockdowns, that seemed like a fair priority.But now? At $70? A game like Fever feels lazy and rote.Adventure mode is a series of disconnected vignettes that creates a minimal sense of joyThe primary thing that I want to be doing in an arcade tennis game’s single-player campaign is solvi