It's new to me: Paddle Mania

This column is “It’s new to me,” in which I’ll play a game I’ve never played before — of which there are still many despite my habits — and then write up my thoughts on the title, hopefully while doing existing fans justice. Previous entries in this series can be found through this link.Paddle Mania is not at all what it looks like — it’s a game that I (passively) avoided playing for some time, not out of dislike but because the imagined premise didn’t immediately grab, and this is said by someone who enjoys tennis games. It turns out the reason that I didn’t know anything about this tennis game in advance, though, the reason that I never heard anything about it being a standout tennis offering from the 80s worth checking out, is because it’s not a tennis game at all.There might be tennis players in the art and marquee, but Paddle Mania has far more to do with the Olympics and air hockey than actual tennis. Consider: there is a sumo wrestler in Paddle Mania, but their presence does…