Nintendo has dropped a new Mario Tennis Aces trailer featuring everyone’s favourite polygonal plumber going toe-to-toe with Spanish professional tennis player Rafael Nadal. It’s weird and wonderful, and also shows us a new feature where you can challenge the umpire’s decisions on awarding points.
It’s match point, as Mario and Rafael Nadal are duking it out on the tennis court. They engage in an intense duel of rackets, culminating in an ambiguous landing that Mario feels fell within the court boundary. Actual real human Rafael Nadal disagrees, however, and challenges the umpire on the ruling. After a little deliberation, she concludes that the ball did, in fact, foul, and Rafael Nadal takes the winning point, leaving a dejected Mario to doubt his skills in the locker room. He returns to the court, however, and joins in with Rafael Nadal and the rest of the tennis gang to play a winner-stays-on game of Mario Tennis Aces, fracturing the fourth wall and bringing the stability of the space-time continuum into doubt.
Mario and Rafael Nadal are going head-to-head in the match of the century! Check out the brand new trailer for #MarioTennis Aces right here. pic.twitter.com/eWOKl6yOm9
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) June 7, 2018
Existentialist debates on reality and canon aside, we see a few cool gameplay elements in this trailer. Namely, the ability to challenge court decisions by the umpire if whether a ball landed or fouled comes into question. This adds a unique spin to Mario Tennis Aces and introduces some real-life complexities to the competitive sports game. Now players will not only have to play well but will also have to consider the tactical element of challenging decisions, a real-world factor that hasn’t been seen in the Mario Tennis series before. If you have a keen ear, you’ll have also noticed the amusing little easter egg at the end of the trailer. When Mario signs his signature on the screen, the squeaking of the pen is the opening few notes of the Super Mario Bros. theme.
If the Mario Tennis Aces trailer has you excited to get your hands on the game, then you don’t have long to wait. The game is releasing on June 22 just after E3, where from alleged leaks we know that it’ll be playable on the show floor.
