“Mario Tennis Fever” is undeniably a good time — just don’t bother playing its Adventure Mode. There’s so much to enjoy with the game, especially with a friend, but one of its central selling points is better off being ignored. The “Mario Tennis” series is known for arcade-style fun, and this new entry mostly delivers.

The multiplayer-focused sports game, which was released Thursday, features five main modes, among others: Adventure, Tournament, Trial Towers, Mix It Up and Swing Mode, as well as the Online options and Free Play. The game can be played both locally and online, and it is exclusive to the Nintendo Switch 2.

Most players will, and should, start by opening up the game’s Free Play Mode, where they will see a smorgasbord of options to play singles and doubles with friends, online, and against computer players. The game features 38 playable characters, the most in the series’ history, and the roster is amusing, with quirky additions like Piranha Plant and Baby Waluigi. Throw in a decent variety of courts, and there’s a solidly replayable tennis game.

Of course, this is without considering the game’s central mechanic: the fever rackets. These powered-up rackets give characters a special ability to use, and fitting with Mario’s cartoon setting, the effects are all perfectly wacky. Whether creating a tornado every time the player hits the ball or scattering banana peels all over the court, these turn a simple tennis game into utter mayhem. 

The goofy characters and special effects make the Free Play option the perfect game to play with a friend. When players work their way up to harder difficulties, it’s one of the most fun collaborative experiences Nintendo has delivered in years.

Unfortunately, the game’s central mode — even listed first on the main menu — is easily its worst. The Adventure Mode is an embarrassing four-hour slog that feels like 10. Much of the mode is devoted to reading dialogue obviously intended for young children who have never played tennis before. 

The opening hours, in which you go through tutorial sections set in a tennis academy, were particularly mind-numbing. Even when you finally escape the academy and start “fighting” enemies with the power of tennis, the fun gets repetitive and the dialogue remains worthless.

“Mario Tennis Fever” controls nearly perfectly, with one exception. Standard shots like topspins and slices are assigned consistent buttons, but to perform a lob shot or drop shot, players must press two buttons in sequence. It quickly becomes infuriating that lob and drop shots — which are essential on harder difficulties — aren’t assigned their own buttons by default.

Rackets aside, the basic gameplay mostly resembles real-life tennis, but the ball rarely hits the net and almost never goes out of bounds. Even in a game where Donkey Kong plays tennis, this lack of realism feels strange.

The game also offers a motion-control mode, Swing Mode, in place of button controls, but this addition is inconsistent and frustrating. It certainly pales in comparison to the iconic Wii Sports games that Nintendo has made over the years, doomed by the new game’s comparative lack of simplicity by still featuring button controls alongside its motion-control features.

Combining the simple swing controls of Wii Sports with the more complex game mechanics of “Mario Tennis” makes for a muddled mess unsuitable for casual and hardcore players alike. Instead of feeling like a fun alternative, Swing Mode feels like an unfinished mess that players can ignore.

Beyond Swing Mode, though, it’s all button controls across the game’s various modes. Tournament Mode is a standard circuit, where players progress through increasingly challenging brackets. The only drawback here is the commentating Talking Flower, whose incessant and repetitive yapping gets old fast, but muting the television alongside a friend turns tournaments into the game’s best feature.

Mix It Up Mode features minigames and special courts that offer weirder remixes of the standard gameplay, and the easy standout here is a special court based on “Super Mario Bros. Wonder.” Trial Towers Mode is a challenge mode best suited for a single player, and while it’s more challenging than standard play, the mode doesn’t really offer anything truly thrilling.

“Mario Tennis Fever” is a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, but it doesn’t do much to take advantage of the hardware’s power. The story mode and some background elements make it clear when corners were cut. The game reeks of an awkwardly middling budget, with enough to splurge on content and a few high-definition cut scenes but not enough to make everything truly sparkle.

In fact, that sentiment applies to the game as a whole. “Mario Tennis Fever” is at times an engaging experience, especially with a friend, but it doesn’t do quite enough to dethrone “Mario Kart World” as the default multiplayer experience on Nintendo Switch 2.