Played this game competitively for around 4 years and I can say with confidence that this game is good but nothing special.
Its 3 main complaints are that it was crazy unbalanced on launch with Bowser Jr, Waluigi and Peach being completely busted, the 2nd being it had a lackluster story mode and the 3rd being it was a 'finish it later game'. There are elements of truth to all those statements and I understand these complaints but there is also some dishonesty to these statements aswell. Firstly, the blatant balance issues on launch were improved upon within a few months and balance changes were shipped out for another year (for a relatively niche multiplayer game btw) leaving the game in a relatively balanced state that we see today (there are still some complaints of course but that is the natural course any competitive game takes when enough time has passed). As for the 2nd complaint, I would mostly agree, its single player is pretty lazy but I never really saw it as the main appeal of the game which is in its core gameplay. As for complaint 3 there were definitely alot of features that should have been in the game day 1 but as for adding new characters each month, I don't see how that is a 'finish it later' decision as the roster was already stacked on day 1 and it takes time to introduce new characters with their own unique gimmicks.
As for my own gripes with the game: the matchmaking is outdated and doesn't work with such a small playerbase, Option Select was never patched, some characters are absolutely useless like Kamek and Rosa, the music is infectiously annoying and alot of customisation options are locked behind boring multiplayer modes which noone plays.
7/10 is honestly pretty generous given all of that but I value the core tennis gameplay that much
Its 3 main complaints are that it was crazy unbalanced on launch with Bowser Jr, Waluigi and Peach being completely busted, the 2nd being it had a lackluster story mode and the 3rd being it was a 'finish it later game'. There are elements of truth to all those statements and I understand these complaints but there is also some dishonesty to these statements aswell. Firstly, the blatant balance issues on launch were improved upon within a few months and balance changes were shipped out for another year (for a relatively niche multiplayer game btw) leaving the game in a relatively balanced state that we see today (there are still some complaints of course but that is the natural course any competitive game takes when enough time has passed). As for the 2nd complaint, I would mostly agree, its single player is pretty lazy but I never really saw it as the main appeal of the game which is in its core gameplay. As for complaint 3 there were definitely alot of features that should have been in the game day 1 but as for adding new characters each month, I don't see how that is a 'finish it later' decision as the roster was already stacked on day 1 and it takes time to introduce new characters with their own unique gimmicks.
As for my own gripes with the game: the matchmaking is outdated and doesn't work with such a small playerbase, Option Select was never patched, some characters are absolutely useless like Kamek and Rosa, the music is infectiously annoying and alot of customisation options are locked behind boring multiplayer modes which noone plays.
7/10 is honestly pretty generous given all of that but I value the core tennis gameplay that much