Nintendo Switch Sports test: still a fun formula? [Update]

As soon as Nintendo announced the game, memories of a 2006 Christmas came flooding back. Wiimote in hand, the whole world discovered that video games could literally make us move. Thanks to the success of the console with which the game came free, Wii Sports became the best-selling Nintendo game in history. Its third sequel, Nintendo Switch Sports, therefore leaves with a certain challenge: to succeed in mixing nostalgia, novelty and efficiency.

Update 02/05/2022: addition of our impressions of the online multiplayer mode

Nintendo Switch Sports test: still a fun formula? [Update] View PriceRead ConclusionNintendo Switch Sports

tennis nostalgia
Football is a nice surprise, although incomplete
Volleyball and Chambara fun to play
Almost flawless technique

The overall pace is a bit slow
Lack of interest in certain sports (badminton, bowling)
No "hub" to navigate, just a main menu

Test carried out using code provided by the publisher. Nintendo Switch Sports is available exclusively on Nintendo Switch.

Tennis, Bowling, Badminton, Volleyball, Football and Chambara: these are the six sports available in Nintendo Switch Sports. Between two warning screens specific to the Wii Sports series and still so infantilizing (but ultimately quite funny), Nintendo therefore offers anyone with a Nintendo Switch and a pair of Joy-Con to take part in these different sports. . You will sometimes move a lot, sometimes not at all, but overall, the pleasure will triumph over the boredom, whatever your favorite practice.

Classic sports, others more elaborate

Undoubtedly with the idea of not losing the lovers of the very first opus on Wii, Nintendo has therefore decided to integrate classic sports, which are particularly easy to understand. This is the case of the legendary tennis, having undoubtedly made the heyday of Wii Sports. If you remember, then you won't have to learn anything new. Forehand, backhand, that's all you need to master. Bowling, a little more complex with the effects that can be given to the ball, nevertheless remains identical to what we knew in 2006. If you have played Wii Sports, you will even be disappointed: the 100 pins mode no longer exists, now make way for games with obstacles. The only welcome novelty, the game with several people is done simultaneously and no longer each in turn.

It is therefore really the new sports that will bring a certain “complexity” to the game. While obviously remaining accessible to everyone, Nintendo Switch Sports being a family title and not cut out for esports, it will still be necessary to go through a tutorial sometimes a bit long to understand all the subtleties of a sport. The one that will prance at the head of the least obvious grip is undoubtedly the volleyball. Once you get the hang of it, the gameplay is very fluid, but for anyone who's never been on a volleyball court, you'll first need to learn how the sport is played, then remember the movements to perform with the Joy-Con to counter, jump, smash or receive, all in timings that are not always very clear.

The chambara meanwhile is close to the saber present in Wii Sports Resort. The recipe is not reinvented either, but it is pleasant to rub shoulders with the most difficult computer, whether with a single saber, a "loaded" saber or even two sabers. It is also undoubtedly the sport that best uses Joy-Con movement recognition, sometimes requiring a minimum of precision. The era of buggy Wiimotes is long gone.

Did you play badminton?

Not all new sports are necessarily amazing, it has to be said. Badminton unfortunately remains the poorest sport of the six, as it is ultimately close to tennis and can be frustrating. Not necessarily very complicated to learn, even against a computer set to “very strong” (there are three difficulties, the others being “normal” and “strong”), badminton struggles to offer new sensations. Okay, we hold the racket up and it is possible to trap the opponent by sending the shuttle very close to the net with a drop shot.

But then ? Really not much. We can perhaps speak of the extreme frustration of seeing your character fall because of a bad raise... and who will be unable to get up before the opponent hits the wheel. Not even a slightest chance of being in the fallout, nothing. To move the arms from left to right while hitting with a racket, we will largely prefer tennis.

Football, a little different from the rest

Much less likely to get you moving, football has a special place in Nintendo Switch Sports. You won't have to make big moves and you probably won't get tired of it. But this sport wants to be a little different and rather fun, even if it will lack a bit of rhythm due to a somewhat frustrating stamina bar, which will reduce your offensive and defensive efforts. Equipped with a pair of Joy-Cons, one in each hand, you'll be asked to control your character's or Mii's movements via the left Joy-Con, then punch, pass, or jump with the right. Only two movements are imposed with the recognition of movements: the strike with the foot (to the left, the right, the top or at ground level) with the right joystick and the diving head by shaking the two joysticks at the same time.

The gameplay of football is rather addictive in 4 against 4 mode, which is also reminiscent of a kind of Rocket League without a car (football what). Finally, this mode would have benefited from being played on a smaller field, thus avoiding making it suffer from slowness between two transverse passes. The rest is more classic with the 1v1 on a small field, the training allowing you to sharpen your shots and movements and, finally, the only football mode requiring you to really move: the shots on goal.

Using the strap to attach to your strong leg and into which you will insert the left Joy-Con, this last exercise will ask you to kick a volley ball in front of a goal. In 1v1 against the computer, you will need to score more goals than him to claim victory. If this mode would have benefited from being able to be played alone, it has the merit of being rather satisfactory when you score despite the shrinking of the cages over your goals.

By the summer of 2022, Nintendo will add functionality to football allowing the strap to be used to play matches, thus promising to get us moving a little more in this sport. It's hard to know how this can be properly integrated, as football already requires you to be quite concentrated at the slightest strike (at least during the first matches played), but this mode could eventually be particularly complete if Nintendo looks into it. .

A technique that has nothing to be ashamed of

A game of this caliber is not necessarily expected for its technique, but the work provided by the development teams is present. During our test, we had absolutely no technical problems to deplore, nor even a drop in framerate, delayed loading of textures or excessive blurring. The game looks very nice for the Nintendo Switch and, even if it doesn't seem very greedy, it is particularly pleasant to take advantage of the simple and controlled artistic direction. Only the split-screen game with more than two players will start to hurt the console, sometimes displaying much less pretty visuals.

JVFR

One thing to note, Nintendo Switch Sports supports AMD's FidelityFX technology, in all likelihood and as stated in the official user agreement. It's hard to know on which elements this feature is used, but we have noticed a bit more sharpness than usual during our hours of play.

What about the online dimension of the game?

Nintendo Switch Sports' online mode doesn't just connect you with other players around the world. Using a system of ranks like in many other online games, it will allow you in this sequel to Wii Sports to face players who get stronger and stronger over the course of your games, if that is so. your own level improves over time. If you can't, you'll stay in lower “divisions” and if you really are an ace, then you'll go all the way up. To start going up or down in the divisions, you will first have to participate in about ten online matches for the desired sport or sports.

In addition to this possibility of rising among the elite of each sport, accumulating online games also allows you to unlock visual elements for your avatar: glasses, emotes, accessories, clothing or even titles, you will be able to unlock them randomly one element for every 100 points earned (points accumulate automatically at the end of each game). For now, two “collections” are offered by the game for a defined time, each containing 12 items that will be unlocked randomly, like a kind of “loot box” with a lot of transparency on everything that can be won.

But the most important thing for the entire online part of Nintendo Switch Sports is obviously the challenge. Alone, some sports can quickly become boring, especially football which does not have a very trained “AI”. If everyone is not Ronaldo online, it must be admitted that everything is more rhythmic, in this sport as in the others. The challenge also rises over the divisions climbed.

Will Nintendo Switch Sports really get you moving?

This is a question that we can legitimately ask ourselves. But the answer is unfortunately rather negative. You have to take Nintendo Switch Sports as a family and fun game, a party game taking advantage of the recognition of Joy-Con movements. Admittedly, after two hours of play, you will have had the impression of having spent yourself, but we are obviously very far from what Ring Fit Adventure offers, for example.

JVFR

We can say that it was expected and that we all knew it, that this game was not designed to make us work the different muscles of the body intensively. But it is good to remember the first episode of Wii Sports which offered a very rhythmic discipline, which could make you sweat profusely after a few minutes if you are not particularly accustomed to physical activities: the so-called boxing. Will Nintendo add it later, like golf planned for fall 2022? Good question, but being able to let off steam in this sport could have been another great argument for Nintendo Switch Sports.

Nintendo Switch Sports: the opinion of JVFR

Overall, Nintendo Switch Sports is a good game with quite a variety of activities. Some sports are very simple, while others offer different modes that lengthen the fun. But we should not expect a complete reinvention of the very principle of Wii Sports: everything remains accessible and not necessarily very rhythmic, even if none of the six sports will bore you deeply.

We are still counting on Nintendo to update the game in the coming months, adding a feature to football as well as a complete sport, namely golf; while hoping that these will only be the first additions of a long list. If Nintendo makes Switch Sports a popular game like Splatoon 2, then the €39.99 (recommended price) spent will be very well invested.

nintendo switch sports

If you are looking for a fun game to play with others locally or online, then Nintendo Switch Sports is probably a very good pick. But if you plan to play alone, the too slow pace of certain sports could become frustrating over the games, as the computer will never be as rhythmic as a living game partner. Special mention to the football mode which has good potential if Nintendo decides to make it more lively.