When comparing Hollow Knight vs Mario Tennis Aces, the Slant community recommends Hollow Knight for most people. In the question“What are the best single-player games for the Nintendo Switch?” Hollow Knight is ranked 2nd while Mario Tennis Aces is ranked 17th. The most important reason people chose Hollow Knight is:
The visuals, music and sound effects are both quirky and charming. You may stay for the gameplay, but you come in for the lovable world.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Has character
The visuals, music and sound effects are both quirky and charming. You may stay for the gameplay, but you come in for the lovable world.
Pro Rewarding exploration
The game world is enormous, with a massive amount of secret areas that really reward you for sniffing them out.
Pro Amazing art and soundtrack
Has a very dedicated aesthetic that works beautifully.
Pro Fun, challenging boss fights
With a couple exceptions, the boss fights are challenging in a way that does not feel cheap. If you die, it is because you screwed up and not because the game didn't feel like keeping you alive anymore.
Pro Amazing story and lore
Pro Large amount of content
Over 30 hours of gameplay.
Pro Tight and fluid movement
Every movement in the game makes you feel like you are in control.
Pro Has free DLC
Three DLCs have been released, adding additional quests for free.
Pro Mysterious story/lore
Makes you wanna explore more to find out whats going on and you may find secrets with NPCs that will tell you more or add to the mystery. This keeps things interesting.
Pro Forces you to learn attack patterns
You won't get far just going in swinging. Learning enemy behavior is much more important than in any other Metroidvania and that feels very rewarding.
Pro Interesting puzzles
Pro Couch co-op with a friend is tons of fun
Playing with a friend right beside you makes the game much more enjoyable. Reacting to each other in real-time is just better than playing against a computer opponent. There's no online co-op -- only multiplayer matches against random people -- meaning you'll have to be in the same room together to play.
Pro Solid roster of Nintendo characters to play as
There's a good variety of characters you can play as. If you're familiar with first party Nintendo games, then you'll see a lot of familiar faces here, like Yoshi, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Luigi, Peach, and of course Mario. Everyone has their own playing styles, with bigger characters like Bowser and Donkey Kong favoring hard-hitting power shots, and others like Yoshi and Mario that have a more balanced approach. You can go with whichever style or character you prefer, practicing with them until you master everything. Getting to see all of these characters together in one game is great for fanservice as well.
Pro You can compete against others online in multiplayer
When you run out of single-player content to enjoy, you can hop online to play against random opponents. The main game mode is the tournaments you can play, which rewards you with special characters if you score well. Online connectivity is good too, especially with the choice to drop out of matches beforehand against players who have bad connections. Playing online is a really great way to test your skills and improve your play, since anyone you get matched with is an actual player who has their own strengths and weaknesses.
Pro Intense and engaging tennis matches
Mario Tennis Aces is incredibly addicting to play. Matches are fast-paced and exciting, with one particular mechanic that keeps things unpredictable. Every time you successfully hit the tennis ball to your opponent's end of the court, you build up a power meter that you can use in a couple of different ways.
When you want to quickly finish off a match, you can slow down time and take aim at a vulnerable corner of your opponent's court for an instant win. Or, if they try to do that to you, you can instead expend some of your power meter to quickly reach the ball and hit it back. Things can get pretty tricky when you both use up your power meters at the same time, leading to some satisfying wins.
Cons
Con Slow first 2 hours
Game feels slow until you acquire an important upgrade.
Con Choppy on certain hardware
A small percentage of users have issues with choppiness.
Con Too hard
Con Controller lag is an annoying issue
Deactivating VSync and lowering screen resolution did not resolve the problem. This issue has been widely reported by many players.
Con Map system
To get a map, you must find an NPC first for each area you visit. Map updates whenever you find a bench. You also get sent to your last-visited bench when you die. It does not update in real-time, but the map will update with wherever you have been when you find a bench. This is all assuming you have bought the base map from the NPC in that particular area.
Con Some glitches inside
Some speed runners use glitches to finish the game very fast, including glitches that cause you to go to some other area or glitches that make you fly, but you might find some by accident.
Con Hidden lore/story
The story and lore are revealed in a similar manner as Dark Souls. There is a lot of lore, but you have to piece it together on your own because they don't tell you much straight-up.
Con Unresolved crashing issues
A few users have reported that they get random crashes in between room loads and at startup.
Con Very wide skill gap between experienced and inexperienced players
Mario Tennis Aces can be unwelcoming to new players. While playing co-op or online, it's tough to catch up with everyone else who knows how to time their power shots with the meter. If you don't pick up on this mechanic fairly quickly, you may feel like you're getting left behind. You don't necessarily have to use the mechanic if you and a friend agree not to, but this sadly makes matches pretty dull. Running against computer opponents is a good way to get your feet wet before moving up to other levels of play.
Con Limited gameplay options for solo players
If you're the type who prefers to game alone, then Mario Tennis Aces might not be for you. There's only one single-player mode, while the rest of the game is mostly dedicated to co-op and online play. The solo mode is also extremely short, clocking in at around four hours. Aside from that, there really isn't much else for you to do.
Con Certain characters are locked behind online tournaments
The primary way to unlock new characters is to win tournaments, but this isn't entirely fair. They're only available for a limited amount of time, with the rewards changing from tournament to tournament. Even though some of these characters are in the actual game as opponents in the single-player adventure mode, you can't get access to them unless you unlock them through these tournaments. If you don't like playing online, or if you don't have the means to pay for Nintendo's online service once it's implemented later on in 2018, then you're basically out of luck.
Con Single-player adventure mode is pretty difficult
The game's adventure mode makes up for its short length with some real difficulty. It's a rough introduction to the gameplay, as some of the matches and bosses are really hard. There's plenty of variety to things, like courts that have certain hazards in your way and uneven terrain such as tall grass, as well as inventive boss designs like a giant squid that shoots out tennis ball-shaped blobs of ink. But all of these things can get quite overwhelming, especially if you're using the single-player mode to get better at the game.