Tennis and Nintendo have a history that stems back to 1984. Over the weekend, Nintendo ran an Online Tournament demo event for their latest tennis title Mario Tennis Aces. As mxdwn first covered, the demo event as well as details on the game’s mechanics were initially announced on Nintendo Direct back in March.
Mario Tennis Aces and its previous iterations have been developed by the same company, Camelot Software Planning since 2000. Technically, the 1995 Mario’s Tennis for Virtual Boy was the first Mario-themed Tennis title but was developed by Nintendo’s in-house team known as Research and Development 1. Before starting their relationship with Nintendo, Camelot Software Planning worked for Sega in developing the Shining Force RPG titles. They first stepped into the sports genre after developing Everybody’s Golf (titled Hot Shots Golf in North America) for Sony PlayStation in 1997.
Compared to the original Mario Tennis for Nintendo 64, the game’s mechanics have come a long way. In 2000, players were limited to creating different shots with only the A and B buttons on the N64 controller. After playing this past weekend’s Online Tournament demo, some fans have noted that the extended mechanics of Mario Tennis Aces are very similar to those found in fighting games.
Mario Tennis Aces will be available for Nintendo Switch June 22. Nintendo is currently running an online special until June 21 that will award 300 Nintendo Gold Points to anyone who pre-purchases the game. The fun had by many players this past weekend shows the great potential this has for being a fan-favorite.