REVIEW: ‘Nintendo Switch Sports Resort’ Is An Absolute Blast

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, the new sports game from Nintendo, is a total blast. I thought I was done with motion mechanics, leaving behind my glory years of Wii Sports in the past. As soon as I strapped on that Joy-Con and ripped a ball down the lane, I knew I was back in. Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is a jam-packed collection that gives you plenty to play, and it’s equally great for solo play and going toe-to-toe with friends. While not every game works precisely, Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is joy incarnate and just a ton of fun. 

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort pulls together 12 different sports and games, separated into two groups. Nine of the sports are your typical fare, including bowling, archery, and boxing, with some fun surprises like thumb wrestling. Three are leisure sports, letting players loose on Wuhu Island through skateboarding, power cruising, and prop planes. It’s a fantastic collection, and while some games are better than others, each is fun in its own way, with unique Joy-Con mechanics. 

The standard games are all what we’ve come to expect from Nintendo’s motion sports experiences. Tennis has you swinging your Joy-Con like a racket, and it’s one of the weaker experiences. It’s still fun, but it has some wonkier tracking, where some shots feel more random than others. Table tennis, on the other hand, excels for the opposite reasons, giving you relatively precise control over where the ball goes. It’s one of the notable ones in the collection, with my partner and me trading matches back and forth, neither one of us willing to back down. 

Some sports work better than others, but all 12 options offer plenty of fun.

Every one of the games in Nintendo Switch Sports Resort has solo modes and multiplayer, both local and online through casual and ranked matches. Some, like volleyball and basketball, even have you teaming up. Volleyball is definitely a more complicated dance with more steps, making it less accessible but incredibly satisfying to learn. Basketball ended up being one of my favorites, bringing me back to my high school days on the court. It still feels so satisfying to nail a shot from the three-point line. 

Thumb wrestling is a standout in Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, with its frantic push-and-pull as you try to keep your opponent’s thumb down. You can make your thumb more powerful by holding it down, but that also leaves you open to attack from your opponent. If you get caught, you frantically waggle the Joy-Con, making it a silly battle that is as ridiculous as it is strategic.

It ends up being one of the best parts of the package, alongside archery, which has you landing shots in increasingly more difficult situations. Ever wanted to shoot an arrow in a volcano? Nintendo Switch Sports Resort lets you fulfill that fantasy. 

Every one of the more normal sports is a ton of fun, especially when playing with someone in the same room. Matches online are also a blast, especially in ranked, but for those looking for a more solitary experience, Island Crown awaits. Each one has a leaderboard to climb to become the very best, taking on increasingly more difficult computer opponents. There’s a ton of content here regardless of how you play, nailing how much you can do alone just as much as you can with friends. 

Thumb wrestling is easily a must-play on Nintendo Switch Sports Resort.

As fun as the typical sports are, they’re familiar, and here’s where the leisure sports really shine. Each one of them uses the Joy-Cons in creative ways, with skateboarding being the best of the three. All three offer a more arcade experience with actual challenges, like driving through hoops, but they also give you island-wide challenges and free roam to just explore and have fun. Skateboarding sees you putting a Joy-Con down in mouse mode, sliding it around and tipping it left and right to skate around the island. It brought me back to my Tech Deck days, making me feel like a kid again. 

Skateboarding may be the one I gravitated to. Both Power Cruising and Prop Planes are no slouches at all, standout experiences in their own ways. Power Cruising has you riding around a jet ski, arms outstretched and horizontal as if you were holding the handlebars of one. Prop Planes puts you in the skies, holding the Joy-Con like a paper plane as you guide the aircraft to glide around.

The best mode for each has you adventuring around Wuhu Island, finding photo spots, completing more arcade challenges, or just losing yourself in the joy of actually playing and exploring the island. Every game, both standard and leisure, also has individual achievements to complete. There is so much to do here, with so much content across every sport. Some of Nintendo’s sports games in the last few years have been a little light on content offerings, but Nintendo Switch Sports Resort has plenty to offer. 

One minor issue is that the cosmetics aren’t shareable in multiplayer mode.

You’re also rewarded for just playing. Whether it’s for winning, playing a game for the first time on any given day, or plenty of other ways, you get points you can spend on cosmetics. It’s a gacha system without any actual money attached, with new banners running that can reward you with new clothes and equipment, like a robotic skateboard variant. It’s a fun system that keeps you playing every day to try and complete them all, but there is one issue.

When playing with someone, for example, my partner, we were both rewarded with points. It’s a fun way to include both players in the reward economy; the issue is that the actual cosmetics aren’t shared. You both pull on your own banners and win your own rewards. In theory, it’s a fun way to differentiate each player’s rewards, but in reality, it’s frustrating that you can’t all share in the spoils. It’s a minor bump, but it does bring the fun down a bit and slow things down as each player goes through the rounds of grabbing their own cosmetics. 

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort had me and my family smiling ear to ear, bringing us back to the early Wii days. It captures that same magic, with each of the 12 games exciting and fun in their own right. While not every one works as well, each one does have its own charm and is a worthwhile part of the package for the chaotic joy they bring. The leisure sports are the standout new inclusions to the package, making Wuhu Island feel much more alive and accessible. 

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is a ton of fun, as good alone as it is with friends or family, and is another fantastic addition to the Switch 2 collection. 

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is out now on the Nintendo Switch 2.