The Mario Tennis Aces characters are weird and wonderful, bringing characters from all around the Mario games to the tennis court. In this Mario Tennis Aces characters guide, we'll be walking you through the complete list of characters that you can play as in the game, including Boo, Peach, Bowser, Spike, and more, as well as their areas of expertise.
Mario Tennis Aces is the Mario Tennis game for the Nintendo Switch. Mario Tennis Aces is the first Mario Tennis game since Mario Tennis: Power Tour to feature a story mode and is the eighth installment of the Mario Tennis series. The base gameplay of Mario Tennis Aces is similar to the arcade. Mario Tennis Aces gives the arcade tennis series a massive injection of depth, turning this family friendly sports title into a tactical, fast-paced chess game that is a thrill to play against other people.
If you instead need help with anything else on the latest Mario tennis game, you’ll want to head over to our Mario Tennis Aces guide. It’s here that you’ll find all the information you need on how to get to grips with the basics of the game, including all the controls, as well as how to perfectly execute, and block, a special shot.
Mario Tennis Aces Characters Guide
Just below, we’ll list out all the characters in Mario Tennis Aces. Next to each name, you’ll see what type of role they fit into in the game, before detailing the types of roles that players can fill further down.
![Mario Tennis Aces Mario Tennis Aces](/uploads/1/2/4/9/124990971/911169199.jpg)
- Mario - All-Around
- Luigi - All-Around
- Wario - Powerful
- Waluigi - Defensive
- Peach - Technical
- Daisy - All-Around
- Rosalina - Tricky
- Toad - Speedy
- Toadette - Technical
- Bowser - Powerful
- Bowser Jr. - Defensive
- Boo - Tricky
- Yoshi - Speedy
- Donkey Kong - Powerful
- Spike - Powerful
- Chain Chomp - Powerful
So what does each role mean in Mario Tennis Aces? Just below, you can find a complete list of all six character types in the game, as well as a detailed breakdown of how each role functions.
- All-Around - As the title suggests, these characters are adept at everything in Mario Tennis Aces, from serving and zone shots, to technical shots and blocking opponent’s shots.
- Defensive - These types of characters mainly focus on being able to repel opponent’s special and zone shots, and they also have a slight bonus for trick shots, letting them cover more ground quickly to send shots flying back.
- Powerful - The powerful characters like Bowser and Donkey Kong focus on pure hitting power, able to send normal shots, as well as zone shots, over to the other side of the court incredibly quickly.
- Speedy - As the name of this category points to, these speedy characters can zip from one side of the court to the other in the blink of an eye, basically doubling up as a form of defensive character in their ability to stop any shots getting past them.
- Tricky - There’s definitely a learning curve involved with the tricky characters, but once you’ve eventually mastered them, they’re able to pull off incredibly powerful shots, and they also have an increased trick shot success rate.
- Technical - Finally, the technical characters are an interesting bunch. They generally have a higher success rate of trick shots, and they’re also typically better at placing charged shots like zone and special shots.
Are There Unlockable Characters in Mario Tennis Aces?
If you're looking to unlock new characters by beating the Adventure mode of Mario Tennis Aces, then you're unfortunately out of luck. There are no additional charaters to be unlocked whatsoever in Mario Tennis Aces, but youc can check out the list of DLC characters coming to the game for free, after launch.
Mario Tennis Aces DLC Characters - How Much Do They Cost?
As of right now, Nintendo has announced that there are a handful of free DLC characters making their way to Mario Tennis Aces at a later date. We’ll list all the confirmed characters for Mario Tennis Aces just below, as well as detailing when they’re coming to the game.
- Koopa Troopa - August
- Blooper - September
- Diddy Kong - “After September”
- Birdo - “After September”
- Koopa Paratrooper - “After September”
Nintendo hasn’t yet revealed exact release dates for any of the characters listed above, but we’ll make sure to update this list whenever they reveal any additional details, such as exact dates or new characters.
We might be all wrapped up with this guide on Mario Tennis Aces, but you can continue ahead to our additional guides on the game. You can visit our Mario Tennis Aces shots guide for how to execute every type of shot in the game, or our Mario Tennis Aces blocking guide for how to perfectly block a special shot.
Mario Tennis Aces doesn't let you play a regular game of tennis - and some people are so upset they're trying to refund the game.
The Nintendo Switch game came out yesterday, 22nd June, and while it's going down well with players (Martin called it 'fun - if a little fuzzy and fiddly' in Eurogamer's Mario Tennis Aces review), it didn't take long before people noticed there's something very odd about the game settings.
It turns out, outside of the CPU tournaments, Mario Tennis Aces forces you to play a shortened version of tennis that follows the same scoring rules as tennis, but not the established game, set and match rules.
Regular tennis is broken up into sets. To win a set you either need to be first to win six games or, if it's a tie at six games each, win a tiebreaker. The final set (either best two out of three or best three out of five) must be won by two games, for example 6-4, 8-6, 10-8 and so on.
In Mario Tennis Aces, it's best of three games wins the match. There are no sets. So, you can win a match in just eight points. It's pretty fast-paced!
I presume Nintendo set Mario Tennis Aces to play this way to keep match length down to a minimum (pass the pad and all that). But what's odd here is there is no way to tweak the settings. You can't change the number of games that make up a set. You have to play best of three games and that's it.
It's also odd in the context of previous Mario Tennis games, which did let you tweak the game and set count in the settings.
There are some Mario Tennis Aces players who are pretty furious right now. Redditor Ventus55 said forcing quickfire matches on players 'removes all the deep analysis you sort through when battling a tough opponent'.
'It belittles the mental warfare you and your opponent are having as you try to outplay one another,' Ventus55 continued.
'It dispatches the adaptability of techniques you need to utilise when your opponent has figured your playstyle out.
![Mario Tennis Aces Mario Tennis Aces](/uploads/1/2/4/9/124990971/802140549.jpg)
'It erases the incredible comeback victories you can have after being down 90 per cent of the match. It completely shatters the rewarding feeling of fighting tooth-and-nail for 20+ minutes to come out the victor by a tiny margin. It makes for very shallow gameplay for most matches because there isn't enough time to feel like you are developing a good strategy against your opponent.'
Some players are so incensed that they're trying to get a refund. One such player is Redditor MarioKartGuy27, who said: 'This sucks for Aces. It' a real game ruiner for me and I wish I could get my money back.'
MarioKartGuy27 has tried and failed to get a refund. 'I pushed that the game was not sold as advertised,' they said. 'You can't call it 'tennis' without it actually being a tennis game. Wouldn't you be pissed if you bought an NFL football game that only allowed for you to be on offense once or twice before the game was over?'
MarioKartGuy27 isn't alone. I've seen plenty of people on Reddit and on social media saying they feel hoodwinked by Mario Tennis Aces and regret pre-ordering the game for this reason.
Essentially, this debate about Mario Tennis Aces boils down to a question over what kind of game Mario Tennis Aces is trying to be. Yes, it has the word 'tennis' in the title, so there is of course a reasonable expectation that the game should be a, well, tennis game - at least at its core.
But even a cursory glance at any screenshot, video or even the box art will tell you Mario Tennis Aces isn't a tennis sim. It's a game of trick shots and super shots, super jumps and slow-motion and, in the case of Waluigi, moonwalking. I've heard some say Mario Tennis Aces is more like a fighting game than a tennis game. Should it, then, have to play by real world tennis rules?
For some, this argument is moot, because Nintendo should have simply allowed players to adjust the game settings of Mario Tennis Aces to suit - as it did with previous Mario Tennis games. Why not let those who want to play a full set of tennis do so - at least in local multiplayer offline? I'm afraid it's another baffling decision by Nintendo.
Nintendo plans to add new characters to the game post-launch. Koopa Troopa is due out in July. Blooper is due out in August. Perhaps Nintendo will patch in some much-needed options to the game alongside one of these characters.
Until then? It's a case of game, game and match.