REVIEW | Mario Tennis Aces
Written by Michael Richardson
Published 9 July 2018
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All trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
Opinions expressed in this review are of the reviewer alone.
Game Copyright 2018 Nintendo / CAMELOT Co. Ltd.
Nintendo Switch Exclusive
Limping on the Court
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The Mario Tennis series has been recently scrutinized for it’s different gameplay mechanics. Having played Mario Tennis Open on the 3DS, I came to dislike the addition of chance shots because they made the gameplay more of a mindless rally than a strategic tennis match. Therefore, I was especially dumbfounded when Nintendo decided to double down on the chance shots with the Wii U’s Mario Tennis Ultra Smash, which was criticized for a severe lack of content and an ultra smash mechanic that strengthened the chance shots. To say that I was optimistic upon the announcement of Mario Tennis Aces would be an understatement. However, given Nintendo’s recent reinvigoration and polish from series such as Mario and Zelda, and the lucrative success of the Switch, I decided to give Aces a shot. Overall, Aces marks a good return for Mario Tennis that presents the most fun and fluid gameplay in series history, but it’s many baffling design decisions and lack of content hurt the overall package.
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Rookie Strengths
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After nearly a decade of absence since Mario Tennis: Power Tour on the GBA, Mario Tennis Aces elaborately opens with the new adventure mode. Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi have all been corrupted by the magical racket Lucien and it's up to Mario to reclaim the five elemental power stones scattered throughout the world to prevent obliteration. Even though the plot blanalty rips off Avengers: Infinity War, I thought the ridiculous setup was a great segway into the gameplay, and I appreciated how the plot provided a fantastastical twist on tennis. From there, Mario is thrown into a tennis match where the new gameplay mechanics come to fruition. The standard array of shot types are here - topspin, flat, slice, drop shot, and lob, but now with added depth from the new energy gauge. The gauge is built up throughout the match and bolstered by performing charge or trick shots.
Receiving any amount of energy allows Mario and company to slow down time in the new zone speed mode. After the gauge is one third of the way full, you’ll be able to capitalize on zone shots, which fires the ball at blistering speed and must be blocked precisely to prevent damaging the racket. Each racket has three bars of health, and once all of a character’s rackets are gone, they’ll instantly lose the match. Additionally, once the gauge is completely full you’ll be able to unleash the special shot, which always retrieves the ball and will instantly break an opponent's racket if not blocked. I thought all the new mechanics added an excellent arcady feel that consistently invented me in the experience. The energy gauge adds an excellent amount of versatility, excitement, and comeback ability to matches that I found myself addicted for hours, which is complimented by the fact that the game controls fuildly. Also, while the special shot and zone speed might seem overpowered, they can be countered and are not always the best thing to utilize unlike the chance shots from previous games, which are thankfully put on the sidelines this time around. All the new additions feel easy to learn yet hard to master, creating an experience that kept me learning. Furthermore, the gameplay in Aces proves the pinnacle of the series and a superb replacement for chance shots.
Like Ultra Smash before it, Aces wonderfully succeeds in its presentation. Each of the diverse roster of characters feel unmistakable through their excellent and lively animation, even though some make their first appearance in a Mario Tennis game. Chain chomp anyone?! The special shots in particular are beautiful to behold and demonstrate the uniqueness of Nintendo’s vast library of personalities.
Series composer Mokoi Sakuraba once again returns for Aces. I found the soundtrack enjoyable and implemented a sense of excitement into matches. The main theme and tiebreak music are a particular standout, with their bombastic sounds that motivate to continue. While some songs are forgettable, especially in adventure mode and the themed courts, and a few more genres in the soundtrack would have been appreciated, Sakuraba otherwise has some great music on display that benefit the experience.
While I’ve mostly been praising the game thus far, adventure mode exemplifies the game’s main issues: repetition and a lack of content. Fully completing adventure mode clocks in at only four hours, which is a shame given how much Nintendo hyped up its long awaited return. Also, while I found most of the missions enjoyable, they begin to feel repetitive despite their varied locals since they’re used at nauseam throughout the adventure. The only truly enjoyable aspects of adventure mode were the witty dialogue, seldom creative scenarios, and the great bosses. These many encounters test raw tennis skill and add a layer of creativity, fun, and challenge scarcely seen in adventure mode, and ultimately compelled me through the campaign.
Additionally, the adventure mode suffers from an underutilized sense of progression. Completion only rewards six free play courts and no new characters, cosmetic options, or even rackets for online use, which is baffling considering they could have vastly increased the content at launch. In addition, adventure mode houses courts that cannot be played online, despite their gorgeous and unique scenery. Whereas the recent Splatoon 2 adds incentive to play its single player with a creative, albeit short six hour campaign by rewarding new gear to transfer to online play, Aces has none of that going for it. Not even the RPG-like progression and level up system can suffice, since I felt barely any difference from beginning and ending Mario. There is not even an incentive to return, such as a new character to play through as. Furthermore, a longer, more rewarding, and varied adventure mode would have added more reason to play and increased the game's value and replayability. As it stands, this campaign is extraordinary bare bones and emanates a low budget attempt to imbue content into Aces.
Even as a side addition, swing mode hardly imbues content into Aces. Swing mode allows up to four people to duke it out while swinging the joy-con like a tennis racket. However, the imprecise controls result in a frustrating experience since Aces controls poorly compared to Wii Sports tennis. In addition, these matches neglect the energy gauge, the best part of the game. Consequently, swing mode adds no motivation to return. Also, the variety in swing mode confounds me. There’s a rallying challenge, a tennis match with a big ball, and the option of challenging plays to tell if the ball is out. While none of these modes are creative or exciting, they should be playable outside of motion control, and challenging shots should be an option in free play. Furthermore, swing mode brings little excitement to Aces and is better left unplayed.
Thankfully, Aces has its multiplayer component to keep playing long after adventure mode concludes and swing mode exhaust kicks in. The most notable aspect of the online are the tournaments, which allow for you to battle a series of five opponents that culminate in a championship match. To start, I thought the presentation of these tournaments were incredible. They felt like actual tennis matches, with toads accurately commentating and having a television-like scenario for the finals, with special opening animations and a roaring crowd for each character that add a sense of epicness rarely seen in online games.
While the presentation is terrific, the tournaments are a mixed bag. Although they provide plenty of fun, the only courts available are forms of Marina Stadium, the single stadium from Ultra Smash, with the night variant always being in the finals. While I think Marina Stadium is fine, it’s criminal how other courts were not implemented into the tournaments. The lush vegetation of Piranha Plant Forest, the illusive halls of Mirage Mansion, all the way to the molten peaks of Inferno Island added great variety into the campaign with their fun and chaotic hazards, and would have been appreciated in tournaments as a result.
However, some might argue that the court selection would unbalance tournaments, and is available in free play. First off, Mario Tennis has always thrived on its court selection and players barely complained about the online courts in Open. Secondly, free play mode is disastrous. Only tiebreaker matches can be played, which almost completely ruin the strategic element of tennis. Additionally, in my experience it took ages to find opponents to free play with. While you can experience these courts with friends, they are a hassle to set up with the terrible user interface that lacks court images and makes you turn off the courts you don't want to play, not the other way around. Furthermore, I believe the best way Nintendo could have gone about implementing the courts into tournaments would be two scenarios. For ranked matches, which there are none, have all courts available but no stage hazards, like Final Destination from the Super Smash Bros. series. For regular matches, have all courts available with the finals always being some form of Marina Stadium, alleviating balance for the championship.
Aces’s online does not bode well for the future of Nintendo’s service. Firstly, the online ran poorly in my experience. While there is a noticeable improvement from the arduous tournament demo, it frequently lagged in my experience and numerous matches fluctuated from perfectly playable to slideshows within seconds, likely because the game uses player to player matchmaking instead of dedicated servers. Also, the lack of any balanced matchmaking disappoints. I constantly versed players who had put dozens of hours more than me, resulting in quick losses. Most of those players were Bowser Jr’s, an incredibly overpowered character since he can easily hit a ball from all the way across the court. Additionally, although a minor issue, I must address my preposition that either the game has lacked players or incorporates faulty programming, because when I search for other opponents most times it give me the same opponent I’ve been refusing to play, namely Bowser Jr’s. I've exited out of tournaments to no avail, which is an oversight considering the option to not face opponents. With that being said, the gameplay still had me coming back for online play, but I cannot say whether it will if patches do not release soon that alleviate performance and content complaints.
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Verdict
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First and foremost, like many online games, Mario Tennis Aces could receive updates in the future that differentiate the launch experience. Currently, I believe Mario Tennis Aces perfectly exemplifies the definition of an average game. While the core gameplay and presentation are fantastic, they fail to undermine the lazy effort seen from the rest of the experience. With a lack of content, lackluster online, and subpar adventure mode, Mario Tennis Aces fails to live up to hype and leaves me wanting more. It certainly improves upon Open and Ultra Smash, but fails to reinvigorate the franchise. A steady stream of content updates are paramount to ensuring a great experience that last for years to come. As it stands, Aces fights in a tiebreaker to stay alive. If you’re interested in trying the Mario Tennis series, give Aces a try once the online runs better and characters have been balanced. While the gameplay and presentation will impress you, few other things will.
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