Switch Sports Review
Switch Sports Review
If you have fond memories of Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort, then Nintendo Swtich Sports probably won’t supplant those as your favourite entry in the series, but it provides the same motion based sports that you love and remember, which is great for having friends or family over, but the real crown jewel of the game is the online suite.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way first, the lack of variety is what’s really holding back Nintendo Swtich Sports from being something special, hopefully that can be remedied, but we will touch on that later. Nintendo Swtich Sports only has six sports, which wouldn’t be an issue if they were all elite entries and varied but they aren't, however its not full price either.
My top choices were bowling, which feels unchanged from how you remember it, but actually controls a lot better with standard and obstacle mode. Badminton is the best of the racket sports as it provides more control to the player. Volleyball is fun and despite the moves not being authentic, it remains intuitive. Chambara has surprising depth with angles being important for parrying and waiting for the right window.
On the other hand, Soccer is weird to use hands to swing, but you could get the additional leg strap but thats an extra step for the average, casual gamer. The free roaming around the field with a giant ball gives it a very Rocket League feel, which from the outside looking in should be one of the standouts, however it didn’t click for me. Tennis is fine but since there are two racket sports, there has to be one superior one.
Despite what your preference is on the sports, they all control well thanks to the improved technology since the days of the Wii and the WiiMotion Plus. Improved accelerometers, gyroscopes, depth sensing, haptics and deep learning all make things feel one step closer to the real thing. Yes, Nintendo has implemented deep learning to try to precisely figure out where you were trying to place your shot. All done without wires and sensor bars.
As mentioned, the real champion is the online mode, which they specifically call global to remove the stigma to online play. The star of the show is the Battle Royale bowling, where 16 players go head to head and every few frames of bowling, some get eliminated. It’s quick, fun and if you get eliminated you are back in the next game before you know it, as the matchmaking works well. Nintendo’s basic online functionality actually works in the benefit of Switch Sports as you are only getting the benefits of playing against others, which is a tougher challenge than AI and get none of the downsides which can come from typical online play.
Nintendo Switch Sports is a similar amount of fun to previous entires including Wii Sports, which only launched with five sports, one less than Nintendo Swtich Sports but the online is where the value is added as it features a lot more things to do and this is what Nintendo is using in place of a single player campaign. Yes, Wii Sports was packed in but you did have to buy the console.
Nintendo Swtich Sports feels great, looks great, sounds great and will easily fill the void left by the lack of motion based games with friends and family. Nintendo Swtich Sports isn’t perfect as there is a high ceiling for improvement.
We already know golf is coming for free in the fall, there are new weekly rewards to gain just by having fun and playing the game without battle passes or micro transactions. Even just golf alone will provide much more value to the product. If Nintendo continues to provide meaningful support, the game will drastically become easier to recommend and even a must own for Switch owners.