Mario and friends appear in another tennis game. Each character has their own special power move. All the characters can use slices, topspins, flat shots, and lobs. There are many different modes such as exhibition, tournament, and special games. The tournament mode consists of standard courts, the rules are the same as regular tennis, and gimmick courts, the rules are the same except with special conditions. The exhibition mode contains standard and gimmick along with ring shot and item mode. In ring shot, players must hit the ball through rings to score points. In item mode, players can use items similar to Mario Kart.

The special games include modes like Artist on the Court (players use paint balls to color a mural on a wall), Terror Tennis (players keep ghosts from escaping their portraits by hitting the portraits), Chain-Chomp Challenge (players must feed their Chomps tennis balls while trying not to knock Bob-ombs at the Chomps), Gooper Blooper Volley (players keep volleying the ball to the Blooper for a specified amount of times), and others. Players can win more modes and players by finishing tournaments.