As a fan of realistic simulation tennis games, I've steered clear of the Mario Tennis series' arcadey take for years, until now. To my surprise, the core gameplay here is very enjoyable in the normal, gimmick-free matches. The power-ups are neat additions to the regulation rules of the sport, and make for a unique and fun experience that I didn't expect to like so much. This is still very much tennis, just Nintendofied. There were a lot of complaints about the lack of content with Aces, but when the core gameplay is so fun, and the online multiplayer is functioning and alive even almost three years later, I don't think any more than what's here would have been necessary, if it was all good.

That being said, all of the novelty modes are trash. Adventure Mode's gimmicky levels, courts, and especially bosses were all a slog to play through, even if it only lasted four hours. Swing Mode, where you use the joy-cons motion controls to control your racket, is terrible and never correctly registered my movements. Ring Shot is a mode where you rally with, or against, an an AI or friend to hit the ball through rings in the middle of the court, and it's just not that engaging past your first round. Co-op Challenge is a selection of minigames only playable in Swing Mode, and considering what I said about Swing Mode earlier, you can imagine how good the minigames are.

In the end, the core gameplay is all Mario Tennis Aces has going for it, and honestly, that's all I'm really looking for here since it's so fun. Sports games are my comfort games. I can always rely on them when I'm listening to a podcast, watching a stream, or I just want to kill time. Aces will make for a fine addition to those comfort games, I just wish its options for variety were a bit more compelling.