The 2006 release of Wii Sports was a cultural phenomenon. People fought each other in the aisles of Best Buy to secure their Wii consoles before the holidays, primarily because of the Wii’s pack-in motion-control tech demo. Family gatherings often devolved into bowling or tennis matches, regardless of whose house we were at since everyone owned a Wii. Three years later, Wii Sports Resort didn’t have the same cultural impact, but it introduced the Wii Motion Plus, giving fans a reason to upgrade.
With Nintendo Switch Sports in 2022, the novelty came from the series’ long absence and the franchise arriving on the wildly popular and far more advanced Nintendo Switch. But with this month’s release of Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, the cultural significance has faded substantially with each and every entry. However, after spending an hour touring the newly renovated Wuhu Island, I’m not concerned much with how much of a mainstream impact it will have. Instead, I’m more focused on the several hours of lighthearted fun it will deliver to my friends and me.
Nintendo Switch Sports Resort delivers a heavily upgraded version of Wuhu Island, which most famously appeared in Wii Sports Resort. The resort island is explorable on land via Skateboard, air via Prop Plane, and sea via Power Cruiser. I had the opportunity explore by all three of these extremely intuitive methods.
Gliding across the ground on your Skateboard is as simple as holding one Joy-Con in Mouse Mode and mimicking the kick-push motion, with tilting the Joy-Con to steer and lifting it off the surface (in my case, my leg) to jump and perform tricks. The Prop Plane has you hold the Joy-Con like a paper airplane you’re ready to throw, with tilt controls and the gyroscope controlling your pitch and speed. Power Cruising has you jump into the seat of a jet ski by holding two Joy-Cons like handle bars, tilting to steer and twisting to rev the engine faster. Exploring the island is enjoyable, as you search for touristy photo areas that explain a bit about the history of Wuhu Island, as well as abundant collectibles that reward you with points to customize your Mii or avatar.
I enjoyed the exploration element of Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, and it will almost certainly add a new layer of replayability to the overall package, but the main attraction is the individual sports. Thumb Wrestling is a goofy minigame where you hold the Joy-Con upright and try to pin your opponent’s thumb, while they furiously shake their Joy-Con to escape your grasp. The Archery game’s special mode using two upright Joy-Cons lets four people aim at different parts of the same target simultaneously (with points given to your opponent if you accidentally hit their section).
Boxing has you defending from incoming attacks and then picking your shots when you see an opening. Table Tennis has you holding the Joy-Con like a paddle and trying to get your opponent to make a mistake so they either miss the table or you smash their weak return shot. And, of course, bowling is still as fun and straightforward as ever; if you haven’t played since Wii Sports, you’ll notice it’s no longer about release timing and more about spin and aim.
Each sport I played controlled well, even if the Boxing motion controls struggled if I threw a punch the correct way and I miss being able to cheese the release timing of the Wii Sports iteration of Bowling. You can play them in a variety of different formats, including special variants, like Bowling with a hundred pins, as well as the Island Crown mode, where you compete against 20 CPU characters in nine sports with the mission to climb the ranks and take on the Island Legend boss of that sport. Island Crown, in particular, sounds like a mode that will steal away hours of my time when the final game arrives.
Regardless of how big a splash Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is poised to make, I got what I needed from the hour I spent wailing and waggling my Joy-Cons: a fun, casual sports experience full of bite-sized minigames that will deliver enjoyment whether I’m alone or in a party setting. Thankfully, it won’t be long before I can have Nintendo Switch Sports Resort on my personal console, as it arrives on Switch 2 on October 22.