You get to play through many modes to unlock characters, stars and also beat the record time.
Exhibition[edit]
Your standard matches where you get to choose whatever you want. It can be singles or doubles match, choose your control type and how long your match is going to last. Not just regular matches but with gimmick courts and an item battle.
Tournaments[edit]
Every tennis game has a tournament. From the first three cups, the difficulty starts on easy and gradually gets harder. The last three cups will go from hard to very hard. It's ideal to win all the rounds for each section and also deal with the type of character that's going to play against you. You can do this as singles or doubles.
Thankfully, unlike Mario Tennis, you won't be assigned to a partner. Instead you get to choose which one to team up with. For example: Mario and Bowser, Daisy and Waluigi. Feel free to team up to get the hilarious results.
Special Games[edit]
It wouldn't be complete without tennis minigames. There's Terror Tennis, Artist on the Court, Tic-Tac-Glow, Chain-Chomp Challenge and Gooper Blooper Volley but there's no Demo Mode where you get to watch your characters battle it out.