If you’ve sworn off Mario Tennis Aces because of the annoying reach of the little shit pictured above, tomorrow’s patch might be your saviour.
Camelot’s fighting/tennis game will get a major balance patch – 1.1.2 – tomorrow, bringing some much-needed nerfs for the aggravating offspring of Bowser. The robotic turd has been cleaving through the leaderboards thanks to his limited knockback and seemingly endless reach, the latter of which allows him to charge up longer (and gain energy quicker) than other characters.
But that’s all coming to an end. English versions of the patch notes on the Nintendo site note that Bowser Jr.’s speed when charging has been reduced, which should result in him breaking form more often. On top of that, Bowser Jr.’s accuracy has been nerfed.
“We plan to adjust the balance of this character further in time for the August tournament,” the notes add.
Trick shots are also in for a much needed overhaul. “We have adjusted the range within which a character is able to return a ball, as well as how much energy is used when doing a Trick Shot to hit a ball that goes behind them,” the notes say. The distance players can cover with side trick shots have also been shortened, which should end up benefiting technical characters like Peach that have an easier time hitting the sidelines and corners.
Nerfing the energy gained from backwards Trick shots, however, should make net play more interesting. Right now it’s basically a given to trick shot backwards (when safe) for maximum energy gain, especially since you can pre-buffer the input by holding the right stick before your opponent hits the ball. We won’t know until tomorrow whether that will still work, though.
Either way, anything that breaks up the flow of drop shot/charged cross-court lob/trick shot backwards for metre will be nice. It’ll probably result in my beloved Chain Chomp having an even harder time – the good boy isn’t a great matchup for Peach, who has emerged as a counter to the mass Bowser Jr. play. On the plus side, players won’t be actively dodging Bowser Jr. matches quite as much from tomorrow, which should help countries like Australia / New Zealand with low population queues.
To read the patch notes in full, head here.
Leave a Reply