Nintendo Switch Sports Resort review: A crowd-pleaser with depth

It is no exaggeration to say that the Nintendo Wii was crucial for the survival of Nintendo, and it allowed the company to flourish and get through some dark years, including the Wii U, the fumbled launch of the DS, and other hardships that may have sunk one of gaming’s most important companies. One of the big reasons for the success of the Wii was Wii Sports Resort. So popular is the 2009 title, that you’d be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t at least played it once.

It’s with that legacy, and high expectations, that we go into the latest entry for the franchise in the form of Nintendo Switch Sports Resort for the Nintendo Switch 2.

“The latest game in the intuitive sports series is coming to Nintendo Switch 2! Get moving solo or with family and friends across 12 immersive sports. Aim for the target’s center in Archery, knock down pins in Bowling, duke it out in Boxing, and more! You can also explore the island! Use Joy-Con 2 mouse controls in Skateboarding, steer across the waves in Power Cruising, and tilt the controller to fly around freely in Prop Plane. Plus, in online or offline play, you can challenge Island Champions in the brand-new Island Crown mode, enjoy minigames with different rules, and customize your Sportsmate or Mii character with items!” reads the official synopsis for the game.

So, what does this one offer that hasn’t been done before by other games, or past iterations from the same series? The first big differentiator is the cosmetic side of things. Making Miis to play your sports was always a beloved part of the experience, and that returns here, with plenty of options to make an avatar that suits you.

The cosmetics have also been built into the overarching experience too. Most of what you do grants you currency, Spocco Points, which can then be used to unlock new things for your character to wear. The game offers a bit of randomisation here in the form of collections. You spend your Points to get a random cosmetic from this collection, but there are no duplicates and a small number of items in each collection, making unlocking them less tedious.

The collections are also on timers, so you need to play more to unlock these items before they rotate out. We’re not sure how this will work in the long run and what the plan for future cosmetics is, but for now it’s a fun little system that encourages you to keep going when you may have called it a day. It also encourages mastering each of the games, as better performances means more Points.

Another notable change is the variety. While 12 games seems like a small amount (especially for a game of this price, more on that later), each of them has a notable amount of options and different game modes. Number of players, number of controllers each player uses, length of the game, the ultimate goal, field obstacles, online or offline and much more.

This not only makes the 12 games feel like more, but it also gives you options to change things up to suit your preferences, needs or current party size. There’s even a ladder system called Island Crown, where you need to climb a ladder of 20 increasingly-difficult CPU opponents until you beat the one at the top and claim the crown for yourself.

The last notable aspect may be the most important: nuance. While doing the tutorials for the 12 games you may feel like some games are too easy. Sure some games are actually quite complex on the controls front – basketball is notable for its shaking-based control which is less intuitive than joystick control – but there’s nothing here that’s too crazy.

Under the surface, however, there are so many sub-mechanics, which may seem minor, but become increasingly important.

To explain, let’s take Thumb Wrestling, which we spent the most time playing as it’s a lot of fun. We easily beat our human opponents so we climbed the Island Crown Ladder for more of a challenge. Here we learnt that, despite being such a simple game, there were layers of complexity.

Holding down your thumb without getting pinned increases the size of your thumb which is a double-edged sword. A bigger thumb is more powerful but is easier to pin down. Tricking your opponent to go for an early pin becomes much more skilful when you learn that you can slide a closed thumb around, making for a more difficult target while gaining size.

Pinning is it’s own art form. A direct pin is more effective but you may take a partial pin in a desperate chance to win. During all of this you also need to learn the intricacies of the movement controls and some of its graces, like the delay in removing your thumb once you get a pin, which would otherwise be disastrous.

All of the games have these little foibles and important sub-mechanics to learn, but it’s all options, If you just want to play with friends and family when they’re around, you may not bother, but if you want to finish the Island Crown Ladders and dominate online, it’s required work.

So how does all of this actually work in practice? Nintendo Switch Sports Resort has a great moment-to-moment gameplay and a decently-good gameplay loop to compliment it, but it still feels lacking despite everything we have discussed. We can’t help but think about the various Mario Party titles available on the Switch and Switch 2 which are still on rotation in our house.

While the Mario Party games may not have the nuisance in each minigame that’s on offer here, but makes up for it by having exponentially more to enjoy. More games, a boardgame/party mode that really livens up a room, more team options and the list goes on. Despite the positive reception we got from friends and family testing out Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, we can’t help but feel like Mario Party will still be the king for casual group gaming.

And yes, we did mention friends and family. Unlike other titles, where only the reviewer may access the software, Nintendo allowed us to bring in a select number of trusted players to properly test out the multiplayer suite on offer.

We had players aged six, 16, 27, and 31 trying out the game over the course of two play sessions and multiple hours. Everyone enjoyed it showing that, with little surprise, Nintendo always knows how to make software that everyone can enjoy.

Having more people involved not only game us the best possible chance to see the game played as intended, but we also got alternate perspectives on the games. Golf was the biggest example, with our 27- and 31-year-olds really struggling with its mechanics and absolutely fumbling each hole. The 16-year-old, on the other hand, took to it like a duck to water and was able to get par or better every time after a short period of trial and error.

This wasn’t a case of younger players being better at videogames than the uncs, because the older players squashed the younger ones at some of the other sports.

In speaking to the players later, they all enjoyed their time with Nintendo Switch Sports Resort. Some of the 12 games were beloved, some were hated, and others were simply received as neutral. We got thumbs up when we asked who would potentially buy the game at release, but a thumbs down if this would replace Mario Party.

We want to add here that we didn’t suggest Mario Party, it came up naturally in conversation from the other players, again proving how successful that game series is in leaving a lasting impression.

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort costs R1 049 for a digital copy and R1 199 for a boxed copy. While this is actually less than many first party Nintendo titles, which are closer to two grand much of the time, it may still be a hard sell for those expecting more games and more modes for the money.

If you like what you see from our review, the trailers on this page, and the legacy of this game series, it may be a no-brainer for you. If you’re a newcomer or want the next game to be your group’s favourite, it may be a harder sell.

It’s a real shame, because some tweaks (or maybe some future DLC…) could really push this one over the edge into being unmissable. Simply copying Mari Party’s boardgame system would be ideal, but this title could do its own stuff like a custom tournament of various games or silly modifiers for the otherwise serious sports that turn them on their heads.

As is we really enjoyed our time with Nintendo Switch Sports Resort as it currently stands and so did everyone we invited to play. That sort of general engagement and enjoyment is a pillar of this franchise, so so this is another successful entry.

Game

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort

Visuals

6.0

Audio

6.0

Minute-to-Minute Gameplay

8.0

Gameplay Loop

8.0

Value

7.0

Overall Score

7.0 out of 10.

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