Mario Tennis Aces update will nerf Bowser Jr.

If you’ve been playing Mario Tennis Aces since its late-June launch on Nintendo Switch, you know two things: one, that this game is fun as heck; and two, that playing a match against Bowser Jr. is a nightmare.

The game’s next content update will change that, however. In the patch notes for Mario Tennis Aces version 1.1.2, out July 19, Nintendo said that it’s slowing down Bowser Jr. and softening his nasty return shot. The Koopa Kid’s been considered overpowered to the point of being unfair.

Nintendo is thankfully rebalancing the entirety of Mario Tennis Aces’ character roster, so that Bowser Jr. mains won’t have such a significant advantage over the rest of us. Nintendo said that it plans to “adjust the balance of this character further” in time for Mario Tennis Aces’ August online tournament. (Here’s hoping nerfs to Waluigi and Boo are next.)

The rest of this patch, however, helps level the field in other beneficial ways. Trick shots, which help tennis players return balls that are otherwise out of reach, will receive a number a changes to make them harder to spam. The amount of space players have to successfully land them will be reduced, according to the patch notes, and as will the distance those shots can travel. There will also be a much smaller window to pull off a trick shot, and hitting it just before the ball is out of play will deplete more of a character’s energy bar.

This is all good stuff, as is this last note: It’s going to be a lot harder to serve a body shot, so you won’t have to worry quite as much about your poor Daisy getting smacked in the stomach on every other point.

Expect Nintendo to continue supporting Mario Tennis Aces at least through the fall, when new characters will be released for free. There’s also a big tournament coming up in August, so keep practicing your swing for that. Read the full set of patch notes on Nintendo’s support website.