I Played Switch Sports Resort: Motion Gaming Is Still Nintendo’s Secret Weapon

I pulled back my arms to aim and fired arrows into multicolored targets in an archery-meets-darts game, side by side with NPR games editor James Perkins Mastromarino. I played him in thumb wrestling, wiggling my little Joy-Con for leverage. I skateboarded across Wuhu Island by sliding the Joy-Con controller in mouse mode on my leg. I flew a plane around by aiming it in the air like a model airplane. My arms got tired, and I thought: Nintendo needs more of this. So do I.

It was a total throwback to play a bit of Nintendo’s upcoming $50 Switch Sports Resort game again. The Switch 2 exclusive arrives Oct. 22, but I got to check out nine of the 12 games in an early preview in New York. While I knew what to expect, I didn’t think I’d love it all again as much as I did. And, once again, I marveled that Nintendo has a whole doorway to motion gaming that still feels untapped.

Outside of the motion-focused viral phenomenon Nex Playground console, and VR gaming that leans on motion controls nearly constantly, the gaming world doesn’t touch active gaming much. Except, that is, for Nintendo.

Nintendo dips into motion games from time to time, emerging like a phoenix at odd moments. The original Wii Sports Resort came out way back in 2009 (when I was just starting out at CNET, and played it with then-colleague Jeff Bakalar). The game was also the debut of a more advanced motion-sensing add-on to the Wii controllers that allowed gyro-based movement. 

Fitness Boxing and Just Dance have been Switch standards for years, and I loved Ring Fit Adventure, a game that CNET’s Bridget Carey reminded me needs a comeback for Switch 2. Mario Party has motion game modes, too. But Switch Sports Resort is Nintendo’s most complete motion party package of them all.

Switch Sports came out for the Switch four years ago, and Resort is the better game. It has more activities (12 compared to eight on Switch Sports), plus it has a large island chain similar to the old game Pilotwings that can be flown through, or jet-skied around, or skateboarded across. In the free-moving modes, there are little extras to collect and secret items to grab. In sports modes, it’s all about competition.

I only got a taste of the surprises in store, but Switch Sports Resort has additions compared to the older Wii game. Skateboarding, which uses the Joy-Con in a mouse-based mode to slide over surfaces similar to the standalone Drag x Drive, tired my arms but was fun to slide around for a while. Thumb wrestling’s also new. It’s sort of absurd that thumb wrestling has been made into a game when it’s so easy to play for real, but the Switch 2 version almost feels like a simple thumb-based Punch-Out with tilting and power increases where you hold your thumb down to make it bigger and slam your opponent better (while hoping they don’t pin you first).

Some games are Switch Sports repeats, like Bowling, but this version adds a 100-pin mode that Wii Sports Resort lacked. Archery also has a new darts-like competitive score-based game compared to the Wii Sports Resort version. There’s also a single-player tournament mode where you can take on NPC players in tiered matches. I’m sure there are other secrets afoot, knowing Nintendo.

But the same-room multiplayer is where this game’s clearly meant to shine. And it made me get a little excited about trying this at home soon, too. Switch Sports Resort gives me just enough of that nearly VR-like motion gaming feel that brings me into headsets again and again, but in front of a TV, with others, goofing around, like the old Wii days. I miss the old familiar feeling that suddenly seemed new again.

I’ll have more thoughts when I do a review, but in the meantime, a question for Nintendo: How about some new motion games, too?