Nintendo announced a new round of content for Mario Tennis Aces during today’s Nintendo Direct. New characters and cooperative challenges will be coming via a Mario Tennis Aces update slated for Wednesday, September 19.
Mario Tennis Aces version 2 will bring four new playable characters with it. Shy Guy, Birdo, Koopa Paratroopa, and Petey Piranha are new playable characters. Birdo is an all-around character, while Shy Guy and Koopa Paratroopa are technical characters, and Petey Piranha is a powerful character. Koopa Paratroopa and Birdo were already announced alongside Diddy Kong back in June. Diddy Kong will be available for anybody who participates in the Aces online tournament in September.
These new characters are unlocked through online play. However, Nintendo did not go into further detail about how exactly these characters are earned. There was also a suggestion that more characters would continue to be added to the game up until sometime in 2019. Expect more zany characters to join the roster sooner rather than later.
Along with the new characters, an online cooperative mode is being added to the game. Players will be able to participate in limited-time missions with other players to unlock special items in-game. The co-op challenge is seen to allow for up to four players. Special items shown off include alternate character color schemes, a hat for Chain Chomp, and a visor for King Boo.
Mario Tennis Aces released in June of this year, and we thought the game was worth a four-out-of-five. We liked the adventure mode, and local multiplayer’s suite of options. Aces follows the modest Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, which lacked a tournament mode and was overall thin on content.
The Mario Tennis Aces update will come after Nintendo Switch Online launches. That means players will need an active subscription to unlock the new characters, and to experience the new cooperative mode.
