Review: Nintendo Switch Sports Resort - Power Workout

Casual games are always a welcome sight in my book. Having grown up when the Wii was the most talked-about console in the world, I can proudly say I logged an insane number of hours into that wonderful system's sports titles, and I will probably never forget the Friday night sleepover tennis tournaments with my two best friends from elementary school. Nintendo's sports series was revived for the first time since the Wii era in 2022 with the launch of Nintendo Switch Sports, which delivered a great, modernized take on the familiar formula. Therefore, it probably comes as no surprise that the newest entry in the series, Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, also pulls off a simply fantastic execution.

A Bit of Everything

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is quite possibly the ultimate sports game Nintendo has ever created, mainly because it feels like a title that learned from all its predecessors to deliver a precise, wildly fun, and simply great product. Right from the moment you boot up the game, it is easy to see the high level of effort Nintendo poured into it. That is wonderful, considering they could have easily delivered a basic, unexciting experience. After all, this is a sports game that mostly just requires you to physically move your body to play, meaning its target audience and quality expectations are completely different from those of the company's other titles. By the way, for the nostalgia fans out there, I don't know about you, but bringing Wuhu Island back to center stage as the game's map earns it at least a few bonus points in my book.

One of the game's key highlights is that it launches with no fewer than 12 different sports (some returning from the 2022 entry as well as older Nintendo sports titles). The 9 classic sports include archery, basketball, bowling, boxing, golf, table tennis, tennis, thumb wrestling (!), and beach volleyball, alongside jump rope, which serves as a Warm-up mode. Sure, some of these sports are ones we have seen before and feel pretty much the same as their previous iterations, but that is actually the beauty of these games. Nintendo's ability to preserve a motion-based gameplay formula across so many years and console generations amazes me every single time. When you combine that with the game's overall presentation, its customization options, and the sheer fun it provides despite being an incredibly simple game at its core, you get an excellent package that is very hard to argue with.

One of the most significant additions to this entry is the triumphant return of "Leisure Sports," which we haven't seen in a Nintendo sports title since 2009's Wii Sports Resort. There are 3 Leisure Sports here: jet skiing, light plane flying, and skateboarding, where the core experience revolves around playing in a connected open world that you can freely explore. These modes work well on several levels. First, they can be played with almost no physical body movement, making them great options for those of us who feel like moving a bit less. Second, they perfectly showcase the game world and just how gorgeous it is. I also loved that you can play them in multiplayer thanks to multiple sub-modes for each activity, putting them right on par with the rest of the game's sports when it comes to playing with others. Just like the experience they offered in 2009, their execution in 2026 is excellent, deeply enjoyable, and simply great.

If I have to nitpick, there are naturally a few sports that are less enjoyable than others (thumb wrestling is awesome, but at the end of the day it is more of a gimmick than a sport), and I was personally quite disappointed that baseball wasn't included (hopefully it arrives later via an update or expansion pack). Still, this isn't necessarily a major miss, especially since the base roster of sports is already very large and versatile.

Diving a bit deeper into the sports themselves, the quality and fun factor remain exceptionally high, largely thanks to several upgrades I personally really appreciated, such as the ability to play certain sports in different modes. For instance, some sports let you play in a "Casual" mode that is more forgiving with your accuracy and reaction times, while others include several different game types to keep the experience fresh every time (the free flight mode, for example, is amazing and highly recommended). Naturally, the game supports online multiplayer (excluding the Leisure Sports), so you can always take your skills to the international stage and compete against players around the world, or against your own friends even when you aren't standing next to each other. Online play also features a dedicated ranking system for each sport.

The World Is Yours

Switch Sports Resort also includes some interesting additions that I honestly didn't expect to find here. Chief among them is the "Island Crown" mode, which essentially serves as the game's single-player campaign. It lets you compete against the AI in each of the different sports (again, excluding the Leisure Sports) in a ranked ladder format. You start at 20th place in each sport and must defeat increasingly tough and challenging opponents until you reach the top spot on that sport's leaderboard. For me, this small addition turned out to be one of the best surprises the game had to offer, mainly because it did a wonderful job of filling the downtime when I wasn't playing with others, offering a mode that feels like a pleasant, rewarding progression path.

When it comes to progression and unlocking new content, the execution is great here as well. The game awards you points every time you finish a match in any of the sports, which you can spend on new clothes and various other items to customize your character. By the way, you can once again choose between using the updated body designs from the rebooted series or slapping on a face based on the iconic Mii designs from the Wii era. Either way, the result is charming and often pretty funny. Alongside this, there is a full system of Achievements that encourages you to play better, which is always a nice touch.

Jumping over to the technical side of things, the situation is nearly flawless here too. Starting with the positives, the graphics look simply fantastic, from the level of detail on the various character models to the fact that technological advancements have done wonders for Wuhu Island. The game is downright gorgeous whether you play in handheld or docked mode. Performance is also solid thanks to a smooth 60 frames per second at all times. My only complaint here, which is unfortunately a bit of a bummer, is that in some sports the responsiveness and accuracy of the Joy-Cons occasionally faltered. This happened to me a lot in tennis and basketball, and I honestly have no idea why.

The Bottom Line

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is another wonderful addition to the company's arsenal of sports titles. Just like its predecessors, this entry marks the best evolution of the series yet and sets a new standard for Nintendo's sports genre. It comes with a glowing recommendation for anyone who likes to get moving or simply enjoy some casual sports, whether you are playing solo or with family and kids.