New Version of Popular Sports Series Coming to Nintendo Switch 2

Nintendo had a big announcement for fans of interactive sports games this week. 

Mario Tennis Fever is coming to the Nintendo Switch 2 in February along with two new colors of the Joy-Con 2. 

Here is what you need to know about the newest update to a long-running series. 

New Features for Mario Tennis Games 

According to Nintendo, Mario Tennis Fever will include new characters, game modes and experiences. 

That includes 38 playable characters, including the debuts of Goomba, Nabbit, Piranha Plant, Baby Wario and Baby Waluigi. 

Those players are all able to be used for familiar game techniques like Topspin, Slices and Lobs, but there are also many new features. 

Those include 30 new rackets with unique abilities including the Ice Racket, which turns parts of the court into a slippery frozen tundra, the Mini Mushroom Racket, which shrinks a player’s opponent and the Shadow Racket, which creates a duplicate of your character to mess with your opponent’s strategy. 

Also new will be the Fever Gauge “to unleash a Fever Shot.” 

New Game Modes, Too 

Nintendo also says the newest version of Mario Tennis will include a single-player adventure mode, tournament mode, swing mode and online mode. 

In the Adventure mode, mysterious monsters have turned Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Wario and Waluigi into babies who must re-master their tennis skills and overcome challenges to return to normal. 

Trial Towers mode allows players take on a series of challenges as they climb a tower, Mix It Up mode features matches with unconventional rules like the Ring Shot, where you have to hit balls with precision through rings to earn points, and Forest Court Match where feeding tennis balls to Piranha Plants expands the court. 

When is Mario Tennis Fever Available? 

Presale has started for both Mario Tennis Fever and the new light purple and light green Joy-Con 2s. 

All will be released Feb. 12. 

While tennis games have been part of the Nintendo experience since the original NES in 1984, this will be the ninth to include Mario in the name. 

A version of Mario Tennis has appeared on the Virtual Boy, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, GameCube, Wii, Game Boy Advance, 3DS, and the original Switch.