Summary
Developer – Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development
Publisher – Nintendo
Platforms – Nintendo Switch (Reviewed)
Nintendo released the successor of Wii Sports in 2022 which came to be a surprise for many players around the world at the time. Nintendo Switch Sports since its release has sold over 13 million units and has continued to get new content two years into its life. Now, it feels like the proper time to give the game a fair review.
Nintendo Switch Sports comes with the same atmosphere as we all remember from the original Wii Sports title, but it’s enhanced. It brought Bowling, Tennis, Chambara, Soccer, Volleyball, and Badminton at release and over the last two years, Golf and Basketball debuted bringing more variety. It’s not just the variety of different sports players can play in, it’s the grind to unlock content and the online ranking system the game offers.
The Pro League is for individuals who aspire to engage in competitive sports matchups and seek a ranking system in which they excel. This is unlocked once you play ten matches in a sport. The grind to rank up is where a lot of replayability comes in for Switch Sports as you’ll need multiple wins to go from C to B and A to S. What makes it more challenging is when you lose because it will decrease some points off the progress you made.
If you want to play casually, you can do that and there are still unlockable items for your character. After every match depending on how you do, you’ll earn points and for every 100 points you get, you’ll have the ability to choose which collection you want an item from and it will randomly select one that is within this collection theme.
When Nintendo Switch Sports was released I was skeptical about the sports requiring multiple players to work together simultaneously. However, after playing Soccer and Volleyball for countless hours everything works flawlessly and it only takes one tutorial lesson to learn how the gameplay works.
One of the main reasons Switch Sports is more relevant today is the ability to play online, while still being able to play offline with friends and family. In Bowling, you can play with up to 16 players online, and it features numerous elimination rounds.
The only way to play is with Joy-Cons and you are not able to play with a pro controller. But you can play sitting down instead of standing up constantly. The Joy-Cons work perfectly for the game and are a great replacement for the Wii remotes.
There is a lot of customization for your character in this game. You can change your Face & Hairstyle, Body, Outfits, Hats, Glasses, Masks, Stamps, and Equipment for all the different sports.
Overall, Nintendo Switch Sports is a great successor to Wii Sports adding an online mode with a competitive ranking system giving players a reason to grind. Even though it’s still missing some sports, we wouldn’t be surprised to see more updates for the game.
