You play tennis with a stick for shots and buttons for topspin, slice, and flat hits, aiming shots into corners to force your opponent out of position. A special meter builds up as you rally, letting you unleash a Zone Shot that can crack an opponent's racket if they cannot return it cleanly. It rewards timing and reading your opponent over just mashing buttons, so a few practice matches help before playing online.
Gameplay video
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Screenshots & review notes
Why it lands
It reinvents tennis as a tactical duel rather than a simple rally game, and that ambition pays off even if it alienated some casual fans.
How it plays
Zone Shots and racket-breaking mechanics add a layer of risk-reward tension absent from earlier entries, rewarding careful positioning over button mashing.
Style and score
Courts are colorful and animations are snappy, giving matches a satisfying visual punch when a big shot lands.
Who it's for
The thin single-player campaign is over quickly, so this really shines in local or online multiplayer with friends who'll appreciate the extra depth.
Frames captured from the gameplay video above; notes are our own take on the game.
What it's like to play
You pick a character from the Mario cast and swing a tennis racket with simple button presses: one for a topspin shot, one for a slice, and a shoulder button for a powerful zone shot that slows down time so you can aim precisely. A meter fills as you rally, and once it is full you can either unleash a devastating shot or hold back that energy to block an incoming smash that would otherwise shatter your racket. The court, ball, and characters are rendered in bright, familiar Mario style, and the controls feel snappy from your very first serve. A story mode drops you into a string of odd trial matches and boss fights against giant tennis-playing creatures, which doubles as a tutorial for the game's trickier techniques.
Most of your time is spent in matches, either against the computer or another player, trying to read your opponent, manage that energy meter, and time a well-placed shot to force a mistake. As you play more, matches naturally get tenser, since skilled opponents will bait you into overcommitting to a zone shot or racket break. A single match usually lasts five to ten minutes, while the full story mode can take several hours to complete with its boss encounters. Local and online play let you test what you have learned against real opponents, with tournaments giving structure to longer sessions.
Session to session, the appeal comes from that back-and-forth tension of deciding when to spend your energy versus when to save it, which makes even simple rallies feel like a real contest of nerves. What may frustrate you is that online matches can be sparse these days since interest has faded since launch, and some characters felt clearly stronger before patches evened things out. It suits players who want more depth from their sports games than a quick pick-up-and-play experience, and two skilled players trading zone shots can produce genuinely exciting exchanges.