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Nintendo Wii and the iconic Wii Sports turns two-decades old next month, and whether it makes you feel old or not, the series is now totally retro. Capitalizing on becoming one of the best-selling games of all time (largely due to having been bundled with the system), Wii Sports Resort launched less than three years later, alongside the Wii Motion Plus accessory, adding even more multiplayer sports minigames and further expanding the massive cultural impact the franchise had. In 2022, Nintendo Switch Sports arrived to warm but mixed reception, with Nintendo attempting to replicate the success and spirit of Wii Sports for the Switch generation while steering clear of the Wii branding. History now repeats itself with the release of Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, but does the successor on Switch 2 have what it takes to bring motion-controlled gaming back to its golden age? |
Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, exclusive to Nintendo Switch 2, isn’t actually the first ‘Sports’ game to not be compatible with the titular console. Funnily enough, Wii Sports Club (2014) was released for Wii U, without a “U” in the title, so confusing naming conventions isn’t exactly new to this series. I suppose “Nintendo Switch Sports – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Sports Resort” would have been even more confusing, but in some ways, besides the name, a Switch 2 Edition (or at least some kind of upgrade path), seems like it would have been preferred in a case like this. Tennis, Bowling, Volleyball, Golf, and Basketball are all carried over from the first Switch Sports (Chambara, Soccer and Badminton didn’t make the cut), and they feel virtually identical with their arcade-style, Wii Sports-inspired, gameplay. At first, those who already purchased the original may feel a bit swindled to find out that nearly half the sports are the same, but Nintendo rectifies this by polishing up the entire experience in ways you might not expect, and it honestly justifies a full-priced sequel. As for newcomers, or those who haven’t played since the Wii days, Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is a total no-brainer, and easily the most premium of the series. |
For starters, the sports already mentioned haven’t just been copied and pasted. Bowling brings back the fan-favourite 100-pin mode from Wii Sports Resort, Golf adds 6 brand new holes (making for a full Special course of 9 holes, alongside the 9 Classic holes and 9 Resort holes), Tennis no longer has randomized courts, now letting you choose between Hard, Clay, and Grass, and Volleyball introduces a “Bump to the Beat” mode to practice your ball bump timing. With other minor gameplay tweaks and improvements and the entire game now running at a crisp 4K resolution in TV mode, all the returning sports from Switch Sports look and play better than ever. With the word “Resort” as the subtitle, there are of course plenty of other returning sports from Wii Sports Resort this time around, and even one that hasn’t been seen since the original Wii Sports. |
Archery, Table Tennis, and Boxing had to be remade from the ground up, and while their fundamental rules and mechanics remain the same, the visuals have received a dramatic overhaul, and the controls have been reworked and intuitively optimized for Joy-Con instead of Wiimote and Nunchuck. Complete with HD Rumble vibrations and responsive gyroscopic motion, the smaller form factor of the controllers improves both comfort and immersion. As for gameplay changes, Archery now features four difficulty levels instead of three, and are categorized by location: Plaza (Beginner), Beach (Intermediate), Plains (Advanced), and Mountains (Hardcore). There is also a new Special ruleset that divides the target into four color-coded sections, with the goal of each player to hit their own to earn points. If you miss and accidentally hit an opponent’s section, it rewards them with points instead. While Table Tennis doesn’t have any unique rule sets besides the return of Return Challenge, it now has a dedicated option for an 11 Points match, which was a hidden easter egg in Wii Sports Resort. Regarding Boxing, the boxing ring is now located on Wuhu Island instead of an arena, changing the background environment for the first time. A new “Punch Gauge” has also been introduced, starting out full power and depleting with each swing, only filling up again when standing still, encouraging you not to throw too many unnecessary punches. The sports training minigames have unfortunately been removed, but an interactive tutorial is shown at the start to teach you the basics.
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Power Cruising and Air Sports (now referred to simply as Prop Plane, since Skydiving has been cut) also make their return from Wii Sports Resort, as well as a brand new sport, Skateboarding. These three specific “Leisure” sports have something special in common, as they allow you to fully explore the beautifully remastered and faithfully reimagined open world of Wuhu Island. This was only possible in the Island Flyover mode on Wii, but with the graphical power of Nintendo Switch 2, you can now discover landmarks not just in the air, but also land and sea, with the new Sightseeing Tour mode. In Prop Plane, you hold one Joy-Con like a toy airplane, tilting to steer and thrusting it forward to accelerate. Power Cruising has you hold two Joy-Con (or one if you’re short on controllers for multiplayer) like jet ski handles, steering naturally and turbo boosting by twisting the right one up like a throttle. Skateboarding is the only sport that requires a Joy-Con 2, as it takes advantage of the optical mouse sensor in one of the best use scenarios of the feature yet, controlled on a flat surface by sliding back to push forward, tilting to turn, and lifting up to jump. I can’t emphasize enough just how delightful all of these sports feel to control.
In Sightseeing Tour, Wuhu Island is littered with landmarks for you to find, indicated by Spocco Photo camera icons that turn into a postcard photo when collected, giving you a fun fact about the spot. The 5-minute time limit goes by fast, but your progress is saved, so you can take the tour again and again, swapping between daytime, evening, and night, or starting from a different spawn point. There are also tons of secrets to discover and unique missions to complete depending on which of the three sports you’re playing. Prop Plane has hidden white balloons to shoot and pop with your blaster, turning colored next time you play so you can keep track of which ones you’ve found, Power Cruising has integrated Slalom Courses for you to navigate through rings in mini time trials, and Skateboarding has special coins to find and collect. Without a map during gameplay, finding everything can be a real challenge, feeling similar to the free roam mode in Mario Kart World, but the world of Wuhu Island is lively and vast, and there are many hours of addictive fun to be had for completionists. Sightseeing Tour can be enjoyed solo, but you can also play with a friend for some split-screen multiplayer action; helpful to find those final few photos. |
Although Sightseeing Tour is limited to two players, the three leisure sports also have great competitive multiplayer options for up to four players. Prop Plane reworks the classic Dogfight mode from Wii Sports Resort into a new mode called Ball Battle. The goal is still to collect balloons around the island, stealing them from each other to have the most before time runs out, but reaching zero no longer results in an automatic loss. Power Cruising still has a dedicated V.S. racing mode, now called Sea Sprint, with 10 courses spread across Wuhu Island, and Skateboarding also has its own racing mode, Skate Sprint, which has 7 courses. Whether you’re working together in Sightseeing Tour or against each other in these competitive modes, the leisure sports are a huge highlight for local multiplayer.
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There’s still one more sport to cover, as Nintendo made a very bold decision for Switch Sports Resort. Instead of bringing back another one of the missing sports from the Wii Sports series, like Wakeboarding, Frisbee, Canoeing, Cycling, or even Baseball, Yoshiaki Koizumi looked us straight in the eye during the June 2026 Nintendo Direct to tell us that Thumb Wrestling was being added. As ridiculous as that sounded, it turns out that I wouldn’t have it any other way. Holding one Joy-Con in a thumbs-up grip, with your thumb hovering over the ZL/ZR trigger, the goal is to pin your opponent’s thumb when the time is right by tilting left and right. If you get pinned, you have to shake your Joy-Con and hope for a breakout, which becomes more difficult each time. To prevent endless waiting, putting your thumb down for long enough will increase its size, adding in some strategy by making it easier to get a KO next time you pin. It’s just so unapologetically Nintendo. |
Sportsmates were introduced as the customizable character avatar in Nintendo Switch Sports, with Miis being resorted to an alternate option rather than the default. This was a controversial decision at the time, and Switch Sports Resort doubled down, but I have to admit, the designs have certainly grown on me. While Miis are undoubtedly more timeless, and can more easily and accurately represent anyone as a caricature, I actually found myself preferring to play as the Sportsmates, as they naturally mesh better with the more detailed environments. Now, it would be a totally different story if Nintendo allowed for more advanced Mii customization à la Tomodachi Life, but the Mii Maker is the same basic one built-in to the Switch system settings. There is no shortage of customization for Sportsmates however, with a similar selection to the original but with more options, now including a separate color for hair highlights. The method of unlocking additional cosmetics such as sports equipment, outfits (which your Miis can also wear), accessories, hair styles, and even unnatural skin colors like blue or green, has also been vastly improved, as you no longer have to play online matches in order to earn Spocco Points. |
Spocco Points are the main form of currency in Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, and are now earned by playing any sport in any way you choose, with additional points rewarded for better performance. Keep in mind, when playing local multiplayer, each player should select a Switch system profile, as Spocco Points are earned individually, and when playing as a guest, points can’t be earned at all, being restricted to the default customization options. Spocco Points can be spent at the Item Center accessible from the main menu, where there are rotating sets of themed items, two weekly and one monthly. It costs 1,000 points for a random pull from each set, and to put that number into perspective, a 1,000 point bonus is issued for playing daily. If you collect all the items of the current week (the same item can’t be pulled twice), you’re given the opportunity to purchase reissued items from the previous week that you might have missed.
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There are also other ways to earn exclusive items. Stamps from Wii Sports Resort are back, but are now listed as Achievements, since “Stamps” is already the term used for emojis that can be spammed during sports, kinda like reactions in Super Mario Party Jamboree. Every sport has five Achievements to unlock, rewarding you with unique cosmetics related to the respective sport. If that wasn’t enough, even more cosmetics can be unlocked as you climb up the ranks in the Island Crown mode. Island Crown is a single-player focused experience where you defeat increasingly difficult CPU opponents in nine different sports (the three Leisure sports are excluded). In each sport, you start in 20th place and work your way up to 1st, where you’ll compete against the Island Champion, and then furthermore, the Island Legend. If you beat enough opponents in a row, there’s a chance you’ll jump five places in the ranks, meaning you might not have to win 20 individual matches if you’re good enough. Island Crown is an excellent addition for those looking for an extra challenge, and while the CPUs can be painless at the start, later placements can be genuinely brutal. It’s a good way to prepare for the online Pro League, which provides endless replayability by matching you with players of a similar skill level. |
Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is a testament to just how revolutionary Wii Sports was; proving there’s still a place for motion-controls in the gaming space. This revival doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, and it makes little changes to the classic sports we’ve come to know and love from the series, but nostalgia works best when the source material had so much charm to pull from. The all-new sports, Thumb Wrestling and Skateboarding, fit right in with the rest, and the remastered Wuhu Island really comes alive in the Sightseeing Tour mode, making it a blast to explore. Modernized with increased resolution, better single-player offerings, and fixing most of the gripes that prevented the original Switch Sports from achieving the perfection of the classics, Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is nearly definitive enough to finally move the Wii into storage and crown Nintendo Switch 2 as the champion of motion-controlled sports games. Nintendo Switch Sports Resort launches 22nd October 2026. |
A copy of Nintendo Switch Sports Resort for review purposes was provided by Nintendo UK. |
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