Mario Tennis Aces

Aces is the most complex and Mario Tennis game yet, but its online modes are missing some key features.

Mario Tennis looks back to its glory with this fun - if a little fuzzy and fiddly - take on tennis.

The options to play how you want demonstrate how Nintendo remains one of the industry's leaders at making games for everybody — even when that game isn't the one some of us originally wanted.

A bizarre coming together of Smash Bros. and Mario Tennis that strangely works, even if the Adventure mode occasionally frustrates.

The core arcade tennis is fun, and collecting rackets and leveling up Mario's tennis abilities through the campaign is a worthwhile endeavor, even if a few difficulty spikes hurt the pace

"Mario Tennis Aces" is the first sports game since, well, "Mario Kart 8" that's captivated me.

Mario Tennis Aces has a chance at being a great game down the road. Right now, it's simply good. The gameplay is as addictive as ever and the Adventure Mode is a great way to educate people on the ins and outs of Mario Tennis. It's just missing features that, while small, make a world of difference when it comes to the longevity of the game. I want to play Aces for the rest of the Switch lifecycle, but right now it's not giving me much of a reason to keep booting it up.

We're used to seeing Wii U games transfer to Switch, but for Ultra Smash to have moved across without a substantial makeover would have been disastrous. Aces, wonderfully, is anything but that – it's a superb arcade sports game that's generous with its suite of player options and only occasionally guilty of being a little cheap in its Adventure Mode. The presentation is spot on, and the core tennis action is absorbing whether you're trading simple strokes or firing off special shots. Some animations and voice overs are identical to Ultra Smash's, but everything around them has been overhauled to quite splendid heights. This is something of a Switch Port Plus, then – not quite a whole new experience, but so improved as to be near unrecognisable next to its preceding title.

It's the best the series has seen in years, and that's saying something for this tennis fan. If you're looking for one of the best sports games the Switch has to offer, look no further. You've found it.

Mario Tennis Aces is one of the best Mario Tennis games, and well worth it for gamers that love to sit back with groups of friends. If you appreciate a good game of tennis with some whacky rules to spice it all up, you'll surely enjoy this.