Hi, hello, apologies for the silence as of late. From last Thursday through yesterday, I've been out of town visiting family, so the opportunities I've had to write for this blog have been few and far between. I've been making a backlog of news from over the weekend that I'd like to cover, so all of that should be rolling out here shortly. That's why I'm a bit late on this story as well as a few others. Sorry about that!
With all that being said...
Ah, Mario Tennis Fever.
I probably have myself to blame for why I was so let down by this game, as Mario Sports games haven't been anything special for a while sadly. I did think this one had potential to turn things around, with a vast roster, a decent amount of modes, and a promising looking adventure mode. I probably put a bit too much stock in the idea this title was going to be the saving grace of the Mario Sports sub-series...
...but, in my defense, this game was also 70 whole dollars, has a bunch of fairly shallow modes, gameplay that feels like a step back from the previous title, Aces, and an adventure mode that, despite getting off to a strong start with an awesome opening cutscene (seriously, go watch it if you haven't watched it, it's unironically peak imo), ended up having a tutorial so mind-numbingly boring and repetitive I just, stopped bothering.
So, yeah, I'm not a fan of Mario Tennis Fever.
Backstory aside, that brings us to now. Up until now, I've been surprised that the game has remained untouched since it launched, considering how heavily the Switch 1 era Mario Sports games relied on free updates. That finally changed a few nights ago, however, as out of nowhere, the game received its first substantial update, and first patch in general since April.
The update brings the game to Version 1.1.0. I'll cover the highlights below, but you can check out the full official patch notes here if you're interested!
As the article's title suggests, much of the new content is themed around Super Mario Galaxy, which is really cool, but also makes me wonder why we didn't get something like this sooner. I don't know how long it takes to make this kind of content, so as always I'll give the devs the benefit of the doubt (they're only human after all, and maybe they've been working on other things, it's impossible to know). But, there's not a ton of new content, and I feel it would've made more sense to put this out back in April, not only because the game was still fairly fresh, but also because The Super Mario Galaxy Movie had just come out. I do think this is intended to tie into the movie, it's just a little strange that it's three months after the movie came out, and five months after the game launched.
Holy yap, okay, so what's actually new in the update?
The headliner is a new court based on Super Mario Galaxy, the Galaxy Court, and a new special match in Mix It Up Mode, the Galaxy Court Match. This match type's special attributes include a spherical court that captures the vibe of Galaxy's planets, and Prankster Comets that will add a twist to the match as it progresses.
I've actually checked this new mode out, and honestly, it's a pretty neat homage to Galaxy, featuring music and sound effects from the original game. It's very akin to the Mario Wonder themed special match from the base game, which I already thought was pretty cool. I wouldn't mind seeing more of these, I think an Odyssey court set in New Donk City could be neat.
There's also a new Fever Racket, the Black Hole Racket, as well as some additional skins for Luma. You can also now unlock Mario's 'Classic' Outfit (basically just his normal, non-tennis outfit). Support for GameShare was added as well, which is always nice to see, and you also have some typical balance adjustments.
So, all in all, it certainly isn't what I would call a 'meaty' update, but I'm at least glad that they haven't completely abandoned the game. I wouldn't mind seeing a few more free updates for Fever to draw me back in. Who knows, maybe I'll give the Adventure mode another shot, which I am tempted to do as it does appear to get more interesting later based on what was shown in trailers. I had simply determined that, based on what I played of the early game, it wasn't worth my time. I'll go ahead and file that possibility under 'we'll see'.
