The best part of ‘Nintendo Switch Sports Resort’ is the setting, not the minigames

There may not have ever been a darker time to like and care about Nintendo games than the late 2000s into the early 2010s.

By that point, the shine on the Wii had dulled, and the Wii U was not the savior many of us had hoped for. Even the 3DS launch in 2011 was relatively weak, prompting a price drop and a series of make-good programs within six months. But throughout all of that, one little place managed to penetrate through the darkness: Wuhu Island, the tropical setting of games like Wii Sports Resort and Pilotwings Resort.

Nintendo has opted to resurrect Wuhu Island in a new game for the first time in more than a decade with Nintendo Switch Sports Resort for Switch 2, an expanded sequel to 2022’s Nintendo Switch Sports and a far-off successor to Wii Sports. A lot of the Wii Sports greatness is still intact, with fun motion-controlled minigames to keep you engaged, but easily my favorite part of the game is Wuhu Island itself.

Yes, the minigames are good

I want to be very clear before I mostly talk about the environment this game is set in — the minigames themselves are pretty good.

There are a dozen of them this time around, almost double the number in Nintendo Switch Sports. You’ve got classic Wii Sports mainstays like tennis, bowling, and boxing, to go along with newer entrants like thumb wrestling, basketball, volleyball, and archery. All of them are controlled exclusively by motion inputs with Joy-Con controllers, and for the most part, they work fine.

I especially dig thumb wrestling, which requires you to place your thumb down (and thus make yourself momentarily vulnerable) in order to charge up a powerful attack later on. There’s something psychologically thrilling about it, and winning that one against another person is particularly satisfying. Skateboarding, which uses mouse controls to accelerate, steer, and jump, also works surprisingly well, even without a proper flat surface.

Getting a strike still feels great.
Credit: Nintendo

And yes, bowling and golf are probably still the highlights 20 years later. Both are impressively motion-accurate and just about as easy to pick up and play regardless of your experience level with video games as they’ve ever been.

I have some gripes here and there. Boxing was stupid in Wii Sports back in the day and hasn’t improved much since, feeling awkward, messy, and never quite as responsive as you’d like. Regular tennis also doesn’t feel like it’s changed much since 2006, but that’s somewhat alleviated by the inclusion of table tennis, which I find more accurate and easier to play.

Pretty much everything can be played in online lobbies with friends, and that works about as well as one could expect. Mastering each sport rewards you with achievements and points that you can use to purchase cosmetic items for your characters, giving each game a nice little incentive to keep you going. You get points for playing offline now, too, fixing one of the biggest problems with Nintendo Switch Sports.

All in all, it’s a solid collection of sports minigames, with boxing being the only one I really don’t care for. But who cares about that? Let’s go on vacation.

But Wuhu Island is what it’s all about

This is just fun.
Credit: Nintendo

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort also introduces three of what the game calls “leisure sports,” which are less about strenuous physical activity and more about cruising around Wuhu Island on a jet ski, a skateboard, or in a prop plane. These are the real winners to me because they put Wuhu Island front and center.

As you cruise, skate, or fly around the island, you can find sightseeing spots, landmarks, and even all of the places where the other minigames happen. There is something a tiny bit magical about soaring over Wuhu and stumbling upon the table tennis area. This version of Wuhu is much larger than it was back in the day, which, to me, only enhances the joy of realizing that every minigame in Nintendo Switch Sports Resort takes place in one big, contiguous space, rather than a series of contextless arenas.

It’s such a simple, small thing, but it really does help give Nintendo Switch Sports Resort an identity that the last game didn’t have. Nintendo also packed the game with goofy little descriptions of each landmark you can discover, injecting some much-needed personality into something that could have been sterile.

I should note that, despite a relatively simple art style that harkens back to the Mii days (you can optionally play as a Mii, even), Nintendo Switch Sports Resort leverages the power of the Switch 2 to create a visual experience that’s sharp, clean, colorful, and smooth all the way through, even while power cruising around the honestly pretty large locale it’s set in.

Wuhu Island really is the ultimate vacation destination for your Switch 2, and I hope Nintendo keeps it alive in further family-friendly games like this one.