Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is out now, bringing the Wii Sports formula back with 12 main sports, several of which come with multiple modes, plus a single-player campaign and an open version of Wuhu Island players can explore between matches.
The lineup spans familiar ground, Tennis, Golf, Basketball, Volleyball and Boxing, alongside returning favorites like Table Tennis and newer additions such as Thumb Wrestling and Archery. Three "leisure" activities let players drive, fly or skate around Wuhu Island in an open-world style: Power Cruising, Prop Plane and Skateboarding.
A ranking of all 12 sports published by Polygon on Wednesday offers one outlet's detailed take on which games land and which don't. According to Polygon's review, Basketball sits at the bottom of the pack, criticized for reducing an inherently physical sport to a sequence of motion cues for shooting, blocking and passing rather than anything resembling real basketball movement. Volleyball gets a similar critique in the review, described as suffering from the same reliance on telegraphed gestures, though Polygon rates it slightly ahead of Basketball since there's less movement required.
What the review calls the standouts
Polygon's ranking puts Tennis, Golf and Boxing in the middle tier. The outlet says Tennis, despite being Wii Sports' signature game, now feels outclassed by the Table Tennis mode included here, while Golf is described as reliable but held back by motion controls that make shots, and especially putting, hard to land consistently. Boxing is called a little sloppy in its timing for dodges and blocks but still enjoyable enough that the review suggests it as an audition for a Punch-Out!! Revival.
The top half of Polygon's list leans toward the newer and more inventive additions. Thumb Wrestling is singled out as a surprisingly deep one-handed game built around baiting an opponent's timing. Power Cruising earns praise for having players twist their Joy-Con like a handlebar to steer and boost around the island's waters. Table Tennis, stripped of the big arm movements Tennis requires, is described as a tighter, more satisfying test of shot timing.
Archery and Skateboarding top the list. The review calls Archery one of the better two-controller games in the collection, with players holding one Joy-Con up and pulling another back to draw a bow while accounting for wind and distance. Skateboarding, according to Polygon, makes the strongest case yet for the Switch 2's mouse-style Joy-Con controls, with players placing a Joy-Con flat on a surface and dragging it to push, tilting it to turn and lifting it to jump, complete with grind rails scattered around Wuhu Island.
Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is available now on Switch 2. Nintendo has not detailed any post-launch additions to the sports roster so far.
GDFiled by The Games Desk
Consoles, handhelds, PC gaming and the platforms and hardware behind them.
More from this desk →
Be the first to comment
Join the argument. No password, just your email or a passkey.