Mario Tennis Aces Is Finally Doing Something About Bowser Jr.

Competitive online gaming these days have ushered in an all-new need for developers to address characters because many studios are concerned with how balanced a game is for esports and online multiplayer tournaments. This applies to seemingly innocuous games as well, such as Mario Tennis Aces for the Nintendo Switch, which released back at the end of June. There have been some complaints about Bowser Jr., in Mario Tennis Aces. Plenty of gamers have notified Nintendo that Bowser Jr., is nearly impossible to defeat due to a few game-breaking abilities at his disposal. Nintendo decided it was finally time to do something about the miniature villain.

Polygon is reporting that in patch 1.1.2, which was just issued for Mario Tennis Aces on July 19th, 2018, Nintendo has addressed the big elephant in the room that is Bowser Jr's unrequited sportsmanship. Players have unprecedented amounts of speed on the court as the character, and have been able to charge shots faster and hit at nearly impossible angles, making him very difficult if not next to nigh impossible to beat in the right hands.

The patch notes specifically point out that the developers have made it so that Bowser Jr's speed has been adjusted when moving while charging a shot, and that the angle has been lowered when he hits the ball back. The team also notes that there will be adjustments for balance in the upcoming patches as well so that he's a fair and balanced character in time for the August online tournament that Nintendo plans to host for the game.

Nintendo also balanced some of the other characters in the 1.1.2 update, making adjustments to the range in which characters are able to return the ball and how much energy is consumed when performing a Trick Shot. The team also shortened the time it takes to successfully recover energy from when using a Trick Shot late.

There's also a modification in how characters can get hit from returns, specifically making it where the ball can only inflict body damage when the ball bounces at least once.

This all ties into the new online tournament rating system that will be front and center as well, which will display ratings based on how well players perform. The rating will be showcased on a ranking board to give you an idea of where the top players rank on the board. The August rankings will actually show how players have rated based on their performance in Mario Tennis Aces throughout July.

With Bowser Jr., finally nerfed, some gamers are also hoping the Nintendo swings the nerf-hammer on a few other characters during the balance patches ahead of the online multiplayer tournament. Specifically, some are hoping that the evil villain Waluigi and Boo are hit next.

This is always an issue when it comes to competitive online games, and Nintendo is learning firsthand how much micromanagement is required to strike that perfect balance for online play. After refining some of the characters in ARMS and modifying some of the mechanics in Mario Kart 8: Deluxe, it appears as if the Big 'N' is finally getting the hang of it. Nevertheless, you should notice some big changes when playing Mario Tennis Aces online now that the latest patch has been deployed.