Pretty middle of the road I say. Could be worse, but since the game isn't completely riddled with bugs or glitches and is really just a flat out tennis game it prevents the score from dropping to far down.

Help them do what? It's not like XCX is going to suddenly change the fortunes of Wii U even if it gets a metascore in the 90s. Just look what Splatoon hasn;t don;e for Wii U hardware sales. There is pretty much nothing Nintendo can do to help Wii U. What Nintendo can do is try to show how they've changed their approach with NX so that they will do pretty much everything better. Maybe XCX willl help with that, but that would only be a small part of What Nintendo needs to do to turn their worst failure into a decent success in the 9th generation.

I don't know. I think XCX can actually do something helpful. All the shovelware on both 3DS and Wii U has somewhat tarnished Nintendo's reputation that they favorite quality over quantity. 2013 for 3DS and 2014 for the Wii U played into this narrative, as the systems received plenty of top-notch games for the console. This year, however, the 3DS has essentially only gotten a Monster Hunter game a buttload of remakes and the Wii U got Splatoon, Mario Maker, arguably Yoshi's Wooly World, and a lot of mediocrity. If XCX is great, it can leave a good taste in the mouth of what was otherwise a poor year for both Nintendo systems.

2016 could also be problematic for Nintendo as well. For Wii U Pokken, Star Fox Zero, and Genei Ibunroku #FE will probably all be decent, but not stellar games (I'm expecting a Metacritic in the 70s for all of them). That really leave Zelda U as the game that could save the system for the year, but I still give it only a 50-50 chance of coming out next year. For 3DS, we have Fire Emblem, SMT IV: Final, and almost certainly Pokémon Z, so that's really all it needs, but it won't be another 2013.

Why didnt they make a new Golden Sun or Shining Force instead? Camelot is still beeing wasted on these shovelware series. The time of Mario sports is over. No one cares anymore.

Just because Wii U is guaranteed to be their lowest selling console, doesn't mean they should just stop trying and do nothing until NX comes out.

They still need to make money and improve their image in the mean time.

Look at what happened when they abandoned the Wii 2 years before its successor arrived. They need to curry favour with Wii U owners in the run up to NX's release so that they don't lose even more of their core fanbase to Sony and Microsoft.

Power Tennis in Gamecube was amazing. Such a good game.

This is just a cash grab.

Fuck me, what happened over at Nintendo?? So many franchises of there's are either just sitting their collecting dust or have fallen a long way from grace. Please just get your shit together next gen, please.

Yikes. Really sucks Mario Tennis franchise has fallen so far as it used to legitimately be one of the best sports franchises.

Lord knows. Over the last 5 years they've completely lost their marbles. It's like they go out of their way to go against what their fans and the mainstream gaming audience want.

I love them, and they still produce some amazing games, but I swear they need a mass purge of their upper management. Too many stubborn old farts hopelessly out of touch with the modern market.

Guess Nintendo doesn't care about Mario spin-offs anymore. Except for Mario Kart and Mario & Luigi, they've all been mediocre to garbage this gen, or just non-existent like Mario Strikers.