Nintendo Switch Sports Resort re-captures the Nintendo Wii's lightning in a bottle

Over 15 years since the release of Wii Sports Resort, Nintendo is finally sending us back to Wuhu Island for another wave of fun in the sun. It should have been a Switch 2 launch title.

When the Nintendo Switch 2 launched it came packaged with Mario Kart World, an excellent kart racer, but one that lacked the staying-power of previous instalments. You hardly hear anyone talking about it nowadays if not to complain about the lack of DLC content.

After going hands-on with Nintendo Switch Sports Resort at Gamescom earlier this year, it’s without a doubt the highlight of the showcase for me.

To be transparent, the launch of Nintendo Switch Sports was disappointing. It lacked some must-have minigames, and while Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is missing a few too, it makes up for it with the new additions.

During my session, I went on an aerial tour of Wuhu Island (my first stop was obviously the volcano), played table tennis, bowling, archery, thumb wrestling, and boxing. I also shredded my way across the island with a bit of skateboarding. It was no Tony Hawk, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

The Nintendo Switch Joycons were a natural evolution from the Wii Remotes, and Sports Resort takes full advantage. Mouse-Mode for instance is used for skateboarding, with the player dragging the Joycon back to skate forward, tilting from side to side to turn, and mimicking a kickback to jump.

Every minigame felt easy to learn and smooth to control, and returning quality-of-life improvements like simultaneous play rather than turn-based are very welcome.

While Nintendo Switch Sports didn’t feel even remotely comparable to Nintendo Wii Sports, I can’t deny that Nintendo Switch Sports Resort nails this second-coming. It’s a shame some minigames like sword fighting didn’t make the cut, but I’d be lying if I said Nintendo didn’t make a simple thumb wrestle feel just as intense.

Nintendo

Above all else I’ll praise the game for its accessibility, and the way it translates simple movements into fun-filled experiences you can replay for hours. It’s very intuitive, which is what you’d expect from this calibre of Nintendo game.

When played with a co-op partner, it’ll truly shine, but it’s easily a game you can play solo as there are plenty of challenges to complete, goodies to unlock, and AI opponents to thrash, like the boxing champ…

The Nintendo Switch 2 would have really benefited from this game at launch, Nintendo missed a trick

While the Nintendo Switch 2 did, and continues, to sell well, I can’t help but wonder how it would have fared if Nintendo had this game in the chamber alongside Mario Kart World.

The Nintendo Switch 2 sold more units at launch than the Nintendo Switch did, but you’d think it would have sold a lot more given how many total sales the base Switch had by the time its successor was released.

Over 150 million Nintendo Switch consoles have been sold since its launch in 2017, whereas over one year later the Nintendo Switch 2 has only sold over 20 million.

First-party exclusives, or lack thereof, have contributed greatly to that figure, but I genuinely believe a game like Nintendo Switch Sports Resort could have had a different impact had it been a launch title.

Mario is the face of the company so it’s only natural that he’d frontline the new device. That approach is fine if you’re looking to hook in gamers, but as we saw with the Nintendo Wii, a game like Nintendo Switch Sports Resort could hook in anyone, in theory.

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort launches on October 22 exclusively for the Nintendo Switch 2, and I’m looking forward to my next trip to Wuhu Island.

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