Feeling a little nostalgic before bed, I fired up the Switch while I did some work. Sitting on the home page was Mario Tennis Aces, a game I'd gotten deeply hooked on for a little while.

It'd been months since I'd checked in with the game; I hadn't tried the new DLC characters, the singleplayer challenges, or given online doubles a crack. So I fired up the online mode, and let matchmaking do its thing.

After half an hour, one article written and a drink down, Mario Tennis was still searching. I wasn't getting a game on the court. There was no-one to be found.

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.

Sometimes, a good cheap peripheral is all you need for hours of fun.

It’s been established that Mario Tennis Aces is definitely a fighting game, so like any good fighting game, players have come to despise its strongest character.

Unfortunately, that character isn’t someone cool like Street Fighter’s Cammy or Dragon Ball FighterZ’s Cell. No, the most powerful member of the Mario Tennis Aces roster is freaking Bowser Jr.

When you're not dealing with a Yoshi or Bowser Jr. doing backflips every three seconds, this is what the Mario Tennis experience is really like.

While an ordinary game of Mario Tennis Aces is a fun, light, casual affair, the Mario Tennis Aces matches at CEO 2018 were as intense as a high-level fighting game.

If you've tried to get on the Mario Tennis Aces court in the last couple of days, chances are you'll have run into two aggravating folk: the swashbuckling shit-eating grin of Waluigi, Nintendo's favourite mischief maker; and the robotic "I can hit any ball on the court" arms of Bowser Jr.

If you want a better chance of reaching the tournament finals, you're going to need some help along the way.

With Mario Tennis Aces out on Switch today, I asked our resident tennis aficionado Tim Rogers to play me in a "best of three" series.

If you have ever wanted to play a tennis game in which you have a better chance of breaking your racket than hitting the ball out of bounds, then Mario Tennis Aces is for you. Just get ready for some frustrating matches.

When you first boot up Mario Tennis Aces, you don't see the main menu: you're launched immediately into the solo "Adventure" mode. It's about six hours of gameplay that gives you something to do outside of searching for online matches, but it's also an extended grind that wears thin very, very quickly.

Finally, I can ruin people's lives as Rosalina and Waluigi once more.

Nintendo's booth has everything: Mario Tennis Aces, Smash Bros., realistic props, and the voice of Mario hanging out. Our own Tim Rogers was there on a quest to show the people at home what the experience of E3 is really like.

After taking Mario Tennis Aces out for a spin during last weekend's limited beta, I've reached the definitive conclusion that the beloved sports franchise has turned into a fighting game like Street Fighter, Tekken or Guilty Gear.

With the pre-release online tournament/beta for Mario Tennis Aces over the weekend, two of my predictions have come true: firstly, the myriad of defensive shots and plays are just as annoying as I thought they'd be. Secondly, and more importantly: the game's an absolute blast.

Provided you're not dealing with lag.

Mario Tennis Aces is the sequel to the spiritual successor to the follow-up to Pong. Somewhere along the way, video game tennis became significantly more complicated than two paddles and a square ball. Fortunately, this upcoming Switch game will teach you all its tricks, by way of the RPG-style single-player adventure mode.

I'll be flying to Taipei - tonight, in fact - so while my weekend won't be occupied with a whole lot of video games, there's something I'm keen to try nonetheless.

The Mario Party-esque adventure mode in Mario Tennis Aces appeared in a trailer earlier this week. Nintendo has since published an English version explaining the features in the adventure mode, which is designed to be a solo training ground of sorts.

It's not in English, but if you're patient and you pay attention, the latest Mario Tennis Aces trailer from Nintendo Japan has a bunch of fresh information that hasn't been shown yet.