This feels like the kind of admission that's liable to make Miyamoto cross me off his Christmas card list, but my favourite game in Nintendo Switch Sports Resort was the one that required absolutely no energetic prancing at all. A desk yes, which might be a problem in some living rooms, but gleeful flailing, no. Skateboarding is, however, just one of a bunch of activities where Nintendo's exercise-adjacent sports series allows for a more exploratory turn, and, after an hour playing at Gamescom, it's left me excited for more.

I might be getting a bit ahead of myself, though. Nintendo Switch Sports Resort (which, somewhat confusingly, is exclusive to Switch 2) includes a total of 12 motion-controlled events, six of them returning from 2022's Nintendo Switch Sports, six of them new. Or at least returning after a much longer absence, some having previously appeared back in 2009's Wii Sports Resort. Yes, I get the names confused too. Together, then, there's archery, basketball, bowling, boxing, golf, power cruising, prop plane, skateboarding, table tennis, tennis, thumb wrestling, and volleyball. And while my Gamescom hands-on time was far from exhaustive, it was split fairly evenly between traditional events and some of Wuhu Island's more exploratory free-form thrills.

Table tennis, for instance, fell into the former camp, playing a lot like Nintendo's much-loved take on tennis - just transposed to a little table. So if you know Wii Tennis and its successors, you know what to expect here. Switch 2's Joy-Cons do a fine job of translating your requisite paddle whips and wrist flicks onto the screen - which, admittedly, doesn't do you any favours if your table tennis prowess is as cack-handed as mine - but it's a fun time; a more contained counterpoint to tennis' energetic flailing.

Source link