Thumb Wrestling should be an olympic sport
To be honest, I’m surprised that Nintendo hasn’t gone a lot harder over the years in attempts to recapture the same lightning-in-a-bottle that was the original Wii Sports and, to a degree, the follow-up Wii Sports Resort. But for whatever reason, it took until just a few years ago with 2022’s Nintendo Switch Sports for the company to take another stab at a compilation of motion-controlled multiplayer sports.
But where Nintendo Switch Sports somewhat dropped the ball, the Switch 2 exclusive Nintendo Switch Sports Resort stands up, brushes the dirt off of its knee pads and gets back on the board for a vastly more successful heat.
A lot of this is riding on the sports themselves, of course. The selection this time is a very healthy dozen games, the majority of which are returning from one previous title or another. There are the consistent favourites, like Tennis, Bowling and Golf, which all play much the same as you’d remember – with the benefit of the slightly more comfortable and tactile Joy-Con 2 controllers. There are the comparative duds in Basketball, Volleyball and Boxing (sorry). And then there are the clear stand-outs: Archery, Table Tennis, Thumb Wrestling and the three vehicular leisure activities in Prop Plane, Power Cruising and Skateboarding.
I said this in my earlier preview, but Thumb Wrestling is one of the best examples of motion-controlled athleticism that Nintendo has come up with for this series to date. It’s the perfect marriage of a deceptively simple concept with hidden psychological stakes and physical humour both on and off-screen, and it’s the very first sport I fire up whenever I’m inducting someone into Nintendo witch Sports Resort. Archery returns in fine form with its very satisfying dual-Joy-Con 2 setup for miming the act of using a bow and arrow, and Table Tennis simply feels great to play – fast, responsive, punishing of mistakes.
It’s not just more and better sports that make this package sing, though. There’s a clear commitment this time to offering a breadth of experiences, which rings true in the many alternate modes like the classic 100-pin Bowling or a twist on Archery where everyone playing shares a target and has to aim for the high-scoring inner rings without accidentally landing in an opponent’s quadrant. There’s also a lot more value for solo players, particularly in the Island Crown mode where you’ll face off against a series of increasingly-tough CPU opponents in each of the nine “regular” sports, aiming to be crowned champion.
Whatever it is you elect to do, you’ll pretty consistently be earning in-game achievements and points, the latter of which can be spent on rotating selections of cosmetics for your Sportsmate avatar (don’t worry, Miis are still an option!). At first I was a little disappointed to see that unlocking new bits and pieces is dictated by a gacha-style system instead of just allowing me to pick what I want to spend my points on, but in the end it meant I was more motivated to keep playing long after my friends had gone home. That’s something I can’t say I’ve done with previous entries.
All of this is happening on Wuhu Island, which returns from Wii Sports Resort. And this time around, you’ve got three options for leisurely exploring the island between heated bouts – by land, air or sea. These Leisure Sports are a huge highlight among the dozen core activities included in Nintendo Switch Sports Resort. Prop Plane and Power Cruising should be somewhat familiar for longtime Resort fans, at least as far as controls go, but Skateboarding is a whole new beast. This is the sole sport here that uses the Joy-Con 2 controllers’ mouse functionality, asking players to slide, lift and twist their Joy-Con 2 controllers over a any nearby surface to simulate kicking, ollie-ing and tricking on their in-game skateboard. It’s like an ultramodern take on Tech Deck and it rules.
All three of these allow you to either cruise around at your own pace with no timer, or drop in for five-minute timed sessions where you’ve got the secondary goal of picking up collectible bits around the island and discovering new starting points for subsequent sessions. Wuhu is just such a lovely place to explore, and the small joy of seeing exactly where each sport you’ve been playing is geographically located is still wonderful.
About the only thing I haven’t spend much of any time with in Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is online play, purely by virtue of in-person multiplayer remaining the single best way to play. Though more will always be better, just about everything here is very accommodating of same-screen multiplayer sessions where the host might only have one set of Joy-Con 2 controllers, which is welcome. Menus and transitions in and out of different sports are all very slick and snappy as well, which makes a huge difference when you’re a couple of wines deep and frantically jumping between activities.
Reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2 | Review copy supplied by Nintendo
Great
- Thumb Wrestling and Skateboarding are great additions
- Archery still rules
- Wuhu Island is a joy to explore
- More incentive for playing solo
Not great
- Lottery-style unlockables can be annoying
- Still a few dud sports in the mix
Born into the world of video games through SEGA, and in particular Sonic the Hedgehog, Kieron’s gaming tastes now consist of the latest, shiny AAA thing, an indie darling or two, and an embarrassing number of hours of Balatro.