Nintendo Switch Sports – review, sports

Trim-you movement in front of the telly

More than 15 years ago, Wii Sports turned the gaming world inside out: Suddenly, your parents wanted to go to the console with you, and bowling rounds were held in the retirement home with the Wii remote control. With over 80 million units, it’s the world’s best-selling video game released on a single platform – Wii Sports is the epitome of Nintendo’s successful plan for audience expansion. After the self-running Wii Sports Resort (2009), which was also released for Wii and scored with increased accuracy thanks to Wii Motion Plus and twelve disciplines, the series was revived again in 2014 – but the HD new version of the debut for Wii U, named Wii Sports Club, was lost no longer do the hype like the motion control pioneer.

Of course, that was also due to the modest sales figures for the Wii U – and this is where the Switch and its aforementioned triumph come into play. In the meantime, the bestseller from Nintendo has even left the Wii behind, so it is the most successful home console from Big N. And which title would have the potential to become the sales high-flyer Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (43 million, Status: 12/31/2021) and Animal Crossing: New Horizons (38 million) to unlock? Exactly: a new sports title. It was released last Friday for 39.99 euros as a digital version or packaged in a bundle with a leg strap for 49.99 euros. Where it is used, we will discuss later…

Accompanied by brisk menu music and significantly improved feel-good graphics, Switch Sports invites you to a large sports area from which you can choose one of the six disciplines. These are: tennis, badminton, bowling, soccer, volleyball and chanbara (a versus fighting game with plastic swords). In view of the manageable number, we are not above going through them individually with you…

light tennis

We start with the popular felt ball fight that inspired Pong, the forefather of all video games: tennis. Here the relationship to the predecessor Wii Sports clearly comes to light. Tennis can only be played in doubles and again the player is not allowed to direct the running movements of the athletes. Instead, the cartoon athletes dash across the court automatically, and your job is to swing the racquet by swinging the arm that’s holding a Joy-Con. Incidentally, you can set whether you are right-handed or left-handed for all disciplines. The tennis from Nintendo Switch Sports works better than the old one: the movements are recognized properly, in addition to the direction of the swing, the timing is particularly important in determining whether you whip a ball across the court (earlier hit) or elegantly play along the line (later hit) . In addition, lobs also work properly if you build an upward movement into your arm swing, and balls sometimes end up out of bounds. On the other hand, the restriction to doubles is weak: If you play solo, you take over both players – if the ball just whizzes over the net and you move the Joy-Con, then the player positioned in front automatically makes a volley. This subtle confusion game fails in four-player mode, then everyone can concentrate on their role. There are three levels of difficulty (unfortunately: ultra easy, very easy, easy) and the option to play either just one game or short matches with a best-of-3/5.

Let’s move on to football, because there are three modes waiting for amateur footballers: in one-on-one or four-on-four, two or eight boys and girls rush across a moderately textured lawn. The movements of the athletes are controlled via the analog stick of the left Joy-Con, while the swing of the right Joy-Con is used to shoot. There is also a sprint head, jumps and diving head balls. The whole thing is much closer to Rocket League than to FIFA & Co., without reaching the brilliance and finesse of Autoball. An orderly passing game is hardly possible, the balls usually just roll in the direction of the goal, there is no out but gangs; and unfortunately neither do funny fouls la Nintendo World Cup. The leg strap, which is included with the module version and which you may still have from Ring Fit Adventure, is used in Shootout mode (but only there, no other sport uses it): To do this, you clamp a Joy-Con to your Velcro strap thighs and volleyed five shots from a corner, on a goal without a goalkeeper. Unfortunately, this has the entertainment value of a game between VfL Wolfsburg and FC Augsburg; on the last day of the game, when nothing matters to either of you…