Wuhu Island is a wild name for an island, especially for anybody that’s played The Sims. With that comment out of the way, Nintendo Switch Sports Resort has you on Wuhu island to relax and compete in all manner of sports. There’s a lot to do here, but the main aim is definitely to give you just a little bit of movement. If you are looking for a great workout, this isn’t the best Switch or Switch 2 game for it, but it’s good for a bit of motion, for sure.
I’m going to quickly complain about the boxing mode, but otherwise, the sports are pretty solid across the board. Boxing feels like a mere shadow of the Fitness Boxing series, which generally feel like they have your movements nailed down. Compared to those games, this version feels almost unintuitive at times and it just left me feeling very disappointed with it. It might just be me, but I really didn’t like how it felt.
Outside of that, the sports are generally a lot of fun. I do think that archery and volleyball might be my favourites though, so let’s talk about those. Archery has you shooting at targets, and it just feels good to do. It’s one of those things that feels enough like the actual sport to really hit the mark – pun intended. The increase in difficulty with different targets is a lot of fun, and it’s just great to pull back and release every time.
For volleyball, as someone that definitely can’t jump high enough to actually play, this is a solid experience. It is very complex though. You have different movements for passing, setting, shooting, and blocking. It means a lot of moving between different ways of moving around, but it’s very satisfying when you start getting the timing spot on and crushing every single point.
Table tennis and tennis both feel fairly similar, but the table version is a little better in my opinion. Sometimes the movement doesn’t quite match up with the full-sized sport, but the controller actually feels enough like a little paddle that it’s a great match. Basketball is fun, and also fairly complex like volleyball, I just prefer the volleyball overall. There’s then golf and bowling, which both feel great as well, built on that long legacy of motion sports game.
The final four are all just a bit odd. Thumb wrestling is like an anime version of the pseudo sport, and it’s fun to do, and wonderfully over-the-top. The skateboarding is kind of disappointing, though. You have to use the Joy-Con like a mouse, and it’s just not an especially satisfying way to play, even though I did enjoy actually exploring the island on skateboard in general.
The prop plane flying and power cruising both felt a lot more intuitive – and pleasing to see for Pilotwings and Wave Race 64 fans – and made for a nice way to play the game while sat down.
For nearly all of these, you’ve got a mix of singleplayer and multiplayer options, with a fair few having local play as well. The singleplayer modes have you trying to wrack up better scores, but you’re also competing against different CPU opponents and trying to beat the island champions. The difficulty here is a nice boost to the longevity of things, and overcoming some of them felt very satisfying as well. It’s definitely more fun against real people though, and you can do so in your living room with family and friends, or online.
Local play is always the way to go with these things for me, as I like to see the lamentations of my children, but if you live alone, then online is a great way to do stuff too. Having all of those options means that as long as you like the core of any of the sports, you’re going to have dozens of hours of fun ahead of you, especially as a lot of sports also have mini-game modes as well.
