Mario Tennis Aces online is completely dead and I will never unlock the alt costumes

[Benzychenz]

Mini rant thread because locking outfits to online was a dumb decision. Let me unlock this stuff through single player.

There's two main factors here.

1. The online is fragmented into regional servers.

2. The matchmaking puts you with similar ranked players, which means if there are people playing at the higher tiers, a new owner cannot play with them.

I just left it looking for a match for an hour here in Australia right at peak time 7:30pm-8:30pm and nothing.

 

[Kouriozan]

Oof, I've been doing my monthly tournament in Golf because of this fear, but in Golf at least they give you CPUs if you wait 2 mins.
But I agree, once they released every costumes they just should give us a way to unlock those without needing online.

 

[blueredandgold]

I have never booted the game but I'm in your region let's talk.

 

[Benzychenz]

I have never booted the game but I'm in your region let's talk.

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I'm down. Boot it up and learn the basics and we'll see if it instantly match makes us together.

And then see if the winner ranks up and it stops putting us together? 🤔

 

[TheJackdog]

You wanna know whats really sad?

I found the online to be completely dead like, 3 months after launch. I think this was right around Nintendo online launch and right in the launch window friends and I had a blast doing doubles against other players over and over. By the end of the summer we could never find a game

 

[Gacha Santa Alter]

I feel paywalling online play really did no favours to these smaller Nintendo projects. You can probably find people in Mario Kart and Smash Ultimate just fine any time but considering the service is still... well, not very good, most people that would usually give stuff like Mario Tennis a go will likely give up after having trouble finding matches and just go back to the popular games.

I just hope it doesn't hit Mario Strikers too bad.

 

[Saladin]

The games online died 3 months after launch sadly. Now people are in a community discord just to play

As much as I hate to admit it, but Mario Strikers will have the same fate too.

 

[Fuhgeddit]

This is kind of sad. They need to unlock the costumes outside of online. And to be honest, I've been wanting to pick up Mario Tennis to play with my wife but this is kind of bothering me that I can't unlock costumes/outfits because of the online.

 

[808s & Villainy]

I feel paywalling online play really did no favours to these smaller Nintendo projects. You can probably find people in Mario Kart and Smash Ultimate just fine any time but considering the service is still... well, not very good, most people that would usually give stuff like Mario Tennis a go will likely give up after having trouble finding matches and just go back to the popular games.

I just hope it doesn't hit Mario Strikers too bad.

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This forum complains about the base NSO cost far more than people outside of this forum do. Most people are paying nearly, if not more than, $20 a month for multiple other subscriptions services so I really don't think it's as huge a deal as it's made out to be

 

[sibarraz]

This forum complains about the base NSO cost far more than people outside of this forum do. Most people are paying nearly, if not more than, $20 a month for multiple other subscriptions services so I really don't think it's as huge a deal as it's made out to be

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More than paywalling, the main issue with NSO and nintendo overall online philosophy is that flat out sucks, is missing a lot of features that both Playstation and XBOX have that make online gaming more attractive

 

[Curt Baboon]

I bought this game a few days ago and I'm still baffled about the way they chose to handle these costumes. Not only do I have to go online to get it, but if I want to get Wario's outfit I would need to log back in at some random point throughout the year since it's on a monthly rotation and then play a bunch of matches with a non-existent community.

Like...Why?!

The gameplay's pretty great, though. I just wish a whole section of unlockable content wasn't lost forever, especially in a game without literally anything else to unlock and no one to play against.

 

[Gacha Santa Alter]

This forum complains about the base NSO cost far more than people outside of this forum do. Most people are paying nearly, if not more than, $20 a month for multiple other subscriptions services so I really don't think it's as huge a deal as it's made out to be

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Well, I'd say online complaints making issues sound much bigger than they are in real life is a side effect of message boards, chat apps and social media as a whole since their inception, but I suppose that's beside the point.

My comment about Nintendo suddenly having a sub after that grace period wasn't really about the price itself which is pretty light compared to its competitors, but rather that the experience itself didn't really improve, they just added a few bells and whistles with a couple games from their retro library and discounts. The multiplayer experience remained pretty much the same which may have been a reason for the population of smaller games taking a nosedive.

 

[Bear]

I bought this game a few days ago and I'm still baffled about the way they chose to handle these costumes. Not only do I have to go online to get it, but if I want to get Wario's outfit I would need to log back in at some random point throughout the year since it's on a monthly rotation and then play a bunch of matches with a non-existent community.

Like...Why?!

The gameplay's pretty great, though. I just wish a whole section of unlockable content wasn't lost forever, especially in a game without literally anything else to unlock and no one to play against.

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This sort of thing makes sense at launch to try to keep players returning, but I agree. After the first rotation of outfits, they should just unlock them all or make them easily unlockable in single player. It makes no sense to lock away content in a game that's dead online.

 

[Yerffej]

Still can't believe how botched all these sports games have felt on Switch. Strikers offers little hope for me of that changing.

 

[Rimkrak]

Tough luck, there are still players here in France
(Well last I played online was like 3 months ago) but I used to play every month and always got opponents
OP if there is a way to circumvent the region thing I'm down for games

 

[BasilZero]

Oh that sucks that the costumes can only be unlocked MP :(

 

[Link_enfant]

Can you unlock those costumes by playing directly with someone in your friends list?

 

[Rimkrak]

No you have to play the online tournament mode unfortunately

 

[Jaded Alyx]

I feel paywalling online play really did no favours to these smaller Nintendo projects. You can probably find people in Mario Kart and Smash Ultimate just fine any time but considering the service is still... well, not very good, most people that would usually give stuff like Mario Tennis a go will likely give up after having trouble finding matches and just go back to the popular games.

I just hope it doesn't hit Mario Strikers too bad.

Click to shrink...

I doubt the paywall makes too much difference when the gap in popularity is that huge. You'll always find smaller titles struggling for online population compared to the behemoths of the platform.

 

[Miaus]

I tried to play tournament mode like a 3 weeks ago and couldn't find a match, sad really, I really enjoyed it when it launched :(

 

[Jacknapes]

Mario Golf is heading the same way, i'm pretty sure it'll be dead when Strikers launches. And, as much as i don't want to say it, that'll go the same way in due course. Same for Switch Sports, that'll head the same way. I don't get how bad these games can get online.

 

[Gacha Santa Alter]

I doubt the paywall makes too much difference when the gap in popularity is that huge. You'll always find smaller titles struggling for online population compared to the behemoths of the platform.

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Fair point. I suppose the strict regional matchmaking and downright refusal to match players with a big rank gap doesn't help matters. I play fighters online a lot, I understand it sucks to be matched against SSSSSS+ ranked folks with a billion wins when you're rank F- but it kinda beats not playing at all, at least for me.

 

[Jaded Alyx]

Fair point. I suppose the strict regional matchmaking and downright refusal to match players with a big rank gap doesn't help matters. I play fighters online a lot, I understand it sucks to be matched against SSSSSS+ ranked folks with a billion wins when you're rank F- but it kinda beats not playing at all, at least for me.

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Yeh at least in fighters you can open a lobby and people often find their way in. I don't remember this game allowing public lobbies?

 

[Lobster Roll]

Mario Golf is heading the same way, i'm pretty sure it'll be dead when Strikers launches. And, as much as i don't want to say it, that'll go the same way in due course. Same for Switch Sports, that'll head the same way. I don't get how bad these games can get online.

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I'm a huge Mario Golf nerd and and I think Super Rush is #2 to Toadstool Tour (just barely, though). It's a great game on its own, but I've personally played maybe a handful of hours online in it. Mario Golf has always been a franchise that I just play a round of 18 by myself or I'll play couch coop with a friend or family member. It's the same for me for Tennis Aces. I just play the CPU or against my friends in Aces.

MAYBE Strikers: Battle League will be different as soccer has been an extremely popular online game to play in a few forms (regular soccer and Rocket League being the standouts), but I'm also not too surprised that Mario sports games aren't exactly a smash hit online. Again, I'm speaking personally, but I've never had a desire to be like, "yeah, I can't wait to get home so I can play online Mario Tennis".

 

[Brazil]

I could never play this game online regardless because the netcode is a fucking joke.

 

[NotLiquid]

Mario Golf is heading the same way, i'm pretty sure it'll be dead when Strikers launches. And, as much as i don't want to say it, that'll go the same way in due course. Same for Switch Sports, that'll head the same way. I don't get how bad these games can get online.

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Strikers will likely have more longevity than the other sports games if only because soccer is the way bigger sports genre and also because it plays well for teams which is how the biggest online games tend to go these days. The last game in the series was the biggest Mario sports game in general (barring the Olympics titles) up until Tennis Aces came along, and I wouldn't be surprised if Battle League raises the ceiling further. Not to say that it'll have Mario Kart or Splatoon longevity obviously.

 

[Uzumaki Goku]

I'm willing to get involved.