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I’m just like you.
A Nintendo Switch gamer that doesn’t have the privilege of playing games early, meaning I need to rely on the same factors as you when deciding whether a game is worth my time and money or not.
That means my buying decisions are based on pricing, marketing, my experience with the franchise, and, most importantly, the track record of the publisher and developer behind it.
And using these factors, I decided that I will not buy Mario Tennis Fever for the Nintendo Switch 2, but should you?
Why I’m Not Buying Mario Tennis Fever – It’s expensive
The first thing I notice when purchasing a game is, of course, the price. And, at 79.99 € for the physical copy, it’s a tough sell for a Mario Sports title, or even any other Nintendo game.
We all know physical games have had a huge price increase, mainly due to the manufacturing costs of the Switch 2 cartridges. But even Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, a game that was in development for years and surely has had a much greater production cost, launched with a lower price tag of 79.99.
I also consider the pre-order discounts, which usually lower the value by 15% or more. That’s how I got the Final Fantasy 7 Remake Game Key Card for roughly 38 €, which is a great value for a title I consider to be one of the best available on the Nintendo Switch 2.
Currently I could purchase Mario Tennis Fever at 67.99 €, and looking at what the game offers, it’s still not worth it for me.
Marketing and Features Look Promising
Last month we had an overview trailer that actually had me excited for the release of Mario Tennis Fever.
They’ve introduced the 38 playable characters, which more than doubles the starting roster of Mario Tennis Aces. And I showed a few of the 30 available Fever Rackets, which I loved the addition of since it brings more of the Mario World silliness into the court.
They also went over some of the game modes, like Online Mode, Tournament Mode, Trials Towers, and Adventure Mode.
Online play for these types of games is more than expected at this point and is usually my main reason to purchase these titles. Which also means the online needs to be balanced and competitive. But as I’ll explain later, I have a ton of concerns in this regard.
Tournament Mode is not that exciting, honestly, since you’re mostly playing against NPCs. But Trials Towers is definitely my cup of tea. I love when video games have a tower to climb with challenges that increase. And I think I have to thank Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi on PS2 for introducing me to this concept.
Lastly, we have the Adventure Mode, which I have some concerns with. Mario Tennis Aces Adventure mode was lackluster for me, and I was hoping they’d go more in-depth to see if there were any improvements, mainly in the storytelling and presentation.
They showed the premise and assured us that it’s a great place for beginners to start, but besides that, it’s not a very convincing mode.
Nintendo’s Past Mistakes With Mario Sports Games
One of the worst mistakes of Mario Tennis Aces was not having a roster as big as Mario Tennis Fever, so in that regard I’m super happy.
As mentioned, I love playing these games online, and if you’re always running into the same characters, things tend to get stale.
And believe me when I say that things got stale pretty fast in Aces. In the first week, people found out how strong Bowser Jr. and Waluigi were, and the top leaderboards consisted of nothing but these 2.
Eventually, they added patches that added new characters and balanced the game, but at that point I had already sold it since there was nothing else that motivated me to play it.
Also, it’s impossible to talk about Mario Tennis Fever without mentioning other Mario sports titles, such as Mario Golf Super Rush and Mario Strikers Battle League.
These two were released after Aces, and both decided to follow the same approach in delivering a half-game at full price and updating it as time went on in a pseudo “live-service” way.
Since we have different studio developers in play and the same publisher (Nintendo), we can assume who’s at fault here.
So… Should You Buy Mario Tennis Fever?
More than the exaggerated price, presented features, and game mechanics, what makes me not want to purchase this game is Nintendo’s track record with these Mario Sports titles.
They started with a great promise with Mario Tennis Aces and ended with Mario Strikers Battle League, one of the most shallow games on Switch released by Nintendo.
With this said, I will be following this release closely, and if it’s actually a decent game, I might pick it up one day discounted. I honestly think you should do the same unless you’re a massive Mario Tennis fan, and I won’t blame you, since I’m the type of guy that purchases every Pokémon title.
(Spoilers: I will not be buying Pokopia either.)
Thanks for reading!
