Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is quietly one of the console’s most important games.
Wii Sports holds an important place in Nintendo’s history. It’s the best-selling piece of software the company has ever made, one that permeated culture in surprising ways , and its success helped rejuvenate Nintendo after a period of steady decline. It also kicked off one of the company’s most important and unassuming franchises. While subsequent sports titles from Nintendo never sold quite as well as the original Wii Sports , they’ve become a fixture for each new console, much like a new Mario Kart or Pokémon . And now the Switch 2 has its own version, Nintendo Switch Sports Resort , and it’s the best so far.
You’d be forgiven for not realizing that Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is launching this week. The game is coming out during a particularly hectic time for new video game releases , and it’s sandwiched between two flashier Switch 2 titles in Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave and the upcoming remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time . Amid all of that, it’s easy to forget a game about thumb wrestling and bowling. But Sports Resort is also a refined and expansive version of the concept, and one that will likely become a constant over the Switch 2’s life.
The core of the game is the same as always: giving you a bunch of athletic activities — they’re not exactly all “sports” — that require some form of motion controls to play. That means swinging a Joy-Con controller to simulate using a tennis racket or tossing a bowling ball. There are 12 sports in all, and they vary quite a bit. The aforementioned returning favorites tennis and bowling are joined by things like skateboarding, thumb wrestling, and flying a plane.
What makes the game work is its simplicity. Almost each activity is incredibly easy to pick up; I don’t know much about golf, but it only took me a minute or so to get down the fundamentals of swinging a club using a Joy-Con. This means that Sports Resort excels as an arcade-style experience, the kind of game you pull out when friends are over and you want to have some fun. Thumb wrestling is ideal for this. It’s so simple — you move your hand back and forth and use a single button to try and “pin” your opponent — yet gets extremely intense and fun in the competitive two-player mode. And unlike IRL thumb wrestling, no one can actually cheat.
There are some exceptions to the general simplicity. I still find basketball to be a little too complex, and I just can’t seem to figure out a successful strategy in table tennis. But there are enough games in Sports Resort that you’re almost certain to find a handful of favorites you’ll stick with, so having a few duds isn’t the end of the world. There’s also a decent amount of depth, both in terms of the skill ceiling for games — I have spent hours trying to perfect the spin on my bowling release — but also the various modes for each sport. Bowling, for instance, includes the returning option to play with 100 pins at once, which is chaotic as it sounds.
But the biggest addition to Sports Resort is that it now takes place in an open world. That may sound strange for a collection of arcade games, but it also allows it to introduce three new activities that are centered on exploring the beautiful island setting. There’s prop plane (where you hold the Joy-Con like a paper airplane to fly), power cruising (where you hold two Joy-Con horizontally, like the handlebars of a Jet Ski), and skateboarding (where you use the Joy-Con’s mouse controls to simulate controlling a tiny skateboard). There are competitive ways to play these games, like a skateboard race, but I’ve spent most of my time with a sightseeing mode where the goal is to find as many landmarks and secrets across the resort as you can within a five-minute time limit. It’s sort of like a more fleshed-out version of the free roam mode in Mario Kart World . The island is surprisingly detailed and interesting to explore, with lots of caves and hidden paths, and the three modes of transportation let you check it out via land, water, and air.
These exploration-focused modes add a nice new dimension to the experience, fitting snugly within the more traditional sports while offering a very different vibe. I’ve become particularly drawn to skateboarding — there’s something very satisfying about pulling back on the Joy-Con to simulate pushing a board — especially since you can collect items that let you purchase new clothes and other accessories to customize your character.
One of the biggest keys to Nintendo’s success during the Switch era has been consistency. Even in the midst of a tumultuous period for the broader games industry, the company has managed to put out a steady stream of games , many of which have had a surprisingly long life. Nintendo’s biggest hits aren’t always what you expect. The first Nintendo Switch Sports has sold more than 18 million copies, topping beloved games like Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Splatoon 3 .
A little over a year into its existence, that style of perennial seller is exactly what the Switch 2 needs, the kind of game that people pick up alongside Mario Kart when they buy a new console. Wii Sports showed just how transformative a game like that can be, and Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is quietly keeping that spirit alive.
Nintendo Switch Sports Resort launches on the Switch 2 on October 22nd.