Critics weigh in on Nintendo Switch Sports Resort for Switch 2

Metacritic lists Nintendo Switch Sports Resort at 79 on Nintendo Switch 2, a leap over the 2022 Nintendo Switch Sports score of 72 and in line with Wii Sports Resort at 80. Opencritic lists it at 83, though Polygon said key reviews had yet to be pulled in and should pull the average closer to 80. Critics scored it from 9 out of 10 at GameSpot to 7 out of 10 at IGN, with Eurogamer at four stars, Game Informer at 8 out of 10, Polygon calling it a masterpiece of casual gaming, and Metro at 7 out of 10.

Polygon’s roundup puts the aggregate above the 72 scored by the 2022 Nintendo Switch Sports and matching Wii Sports Resort at 80. Opencritic lists it at 83, though Polygon said key reviews had yet to be pulled in and should pull the average closer to 80; Polygon figures 80 might cap the series over the long run.

Kurt Indovina of GameSpot scored the game 9 out of 10, calling it a compilation of the series’ best sports and saying it revived the awe of seeing real-life movements mimicked on screen as an adult. Polygon’s Oli Welsh embraced the game as a masterpiece of casual gaming.

Matt Wales of Eurogamer awarded four stars, Brian Shea of Game Informer rated it 8 out of 10, Jesse Vitelli of IGN scored it 7 out of 10, and Metro’s review put it at 7 out of 10. Shea said minigames deliver diminishing returns at higher skill levels, Vitelli knocked the hit-and-miss minigames but said the games stay fun with friends, and Metro deemed it fun but unambitious, praising its motion controls as the series’ best while noting few surprises.

Metro lists the game for release on Nov. 22, 2026, developed by Nintendo EPD, priced at £41.99, with an age rating of seven on Nintendo Switch 2. Metro faults the look as overly polished, missing the original’s pleasing weirdness.

Eurogamer counts 12 activities, or 13 including the rope-jump warm-up: four classics from Wii Sports, five more from Wii Sports Resort, plus three newcomers — thumb wrestling, volleyball and skateboarding. Metro confirms the return of tennis, archery, boxing, golf and basketball, with prop plane taking over from the aerial dogfight, jet skis from wakeboarding, and swordplay removed.

Metro praises exhaustive tutorials and a golf upgrade that adds a tracking camera and terrain map for more accurate putting, though waggling the Joy-Con with enthusiasm can still send tennis shots haywire. Points earned through play fund lucky-dip avatar customization drawn from themed collections. Island Crown lets players climb ranks to an Island Champion showdown styled like a Pokémon Gym Leader battle; Eurogamer says it pits players against 20 tougher opponents per sport, playable offline.

Metro also criticizes persistent hand-holding, a bland world, and unambitious skateboard and jet ski designs; the jet ski glides limply, and Metro notes Wave Race 64 turns 30 years old this year. Local play supports up to four people sharing one Joy-Con at home, and online play is also available.

Eurogamer calls online play robust, with friend lobbies holding up to eight people, two players to a console. Ranked play raises or lowers grades based on results, while casual matchmaking is unranked and open to all. GameChat supports friends-list communication, and stickers let players emote at strangers; Eurogamer says leisure sports stay offline unless played in a friend lobby.

Eurogamer points to daily login perks, rotating weekly and monthly cosmetic sets, and gacha-style drops as FOMO tricks, but stresses players spend no real-world money and the game hands out points generously. Players spend points earned on- and offline in the shop on avatar clothing, nameplate backgrounds, sports equipment and stickers, though claiming rewards means digging through submenus, an implementation Eurogamer calls awkward.

Cosmetic clothing works mainly on Sportsmates avatars, so Miis take a back seat; Eurogamer calls Sportsmates weirdly soulless, with few facial customization options. Prop Plane offers neither racing nor Pilotwings-style ring challenges, just a competitive balloon-collecting mode.

Wuhu Island anchors three leisure games — skateboarding, Power Cruising and Prop Plane — and Eurogamer calls skateboarding the standout. Using Switch 2’s mouse mode, players lay a Joy-Con flat on a surface, pull back to gather speed, flick to jump and tilt to steer; Matt Wales said it responds wonderfully. Free play carries no time limit, and curated tracks work as competitive races or solo time trials, with a sightseeing mode to hunt for photo spots.

Power Cruising offers Wave-Race-style water frolicking with tilt-your-body controls that Eurogamer says will divide players. In Prop Plane you tilt the device like a paper plane. Eurogamer says Nintendo should do more with Wuhu Island.

Eurogamer’s sport-by-sport verdict puts Tennis and Bowling at the gold standard, easy to press into anyone’s hands, while Table Tennis is subtler and a harder sell. Boxing mixes upper and lower cuts with dodge timing and stamina management, and Golf uses an on-screen power meter. Archery uses one controller for the bow and another for the string, and its special rules turn scoring into nailbiting risk and reward. Thumb Wrestling quickly becomes psychological warfare.

Basketball and Volleyball feel awkward because each phase demands its own Simon Says-style moves, though both have enjoyable variants — a frantic single-player hoop dash against the clock for basketball, and a rhythm-action twist for volleyball that bops balls to increasingly chaotic musical cues. Bowling includes a classic 100-pin take plus a mini-golf-like spin on shifting, undulating lanes. Generally one pair of Joy-Cons covers two players and two sets cover four, though four players on one console are not supported in every sport.

Metro notes it has been 20 years since the original Wii Sports and 17 years since Wii Sports Resort debuted. The new game is set at Spocco Resort and was designed specifically for Switch 2, with controls Metro says are miles ahead of anything Wii remotes offered. Miis with egg-shaped faces are out, replaced by cute, Disney-style human faces and unlockable outfits earned as records fall.

Polygon says every first-party Switch 2 game from 2026 has reviewed at least pretty well, with zero misses for Nintendo. Eurogamer disclosed that it received its review copy from Nintendo.