Nintendo Switch Sports Resort set for Oct. 22 launch with 12 sports and open-world island

The game is built around short arcade-style activities played with Joy-Con 2 motion controls. The lineup includes returning tennis, bowling, golf, volleyball, basketball, boxing, table tennis, and archery, plus leisure activities such as power cruising and prop plane. Two events are new to the series: skateboarding and thumb wrestling. TechRadar said all 12 sports were fun in roughly 15 hours of play, and that boxing has been refined with a stamina bar and more tactical punch timing. It called table tennis the most fun sport in the game and praised archery for precise aiming with the Joy-Con 2 controllers.

The Verge said the game's strength is simplicity: most activities take only a minute to learn, making the package work as a party game. It singled out thumb wrestling as intense in two-player mode, and said bowling retains the option to play with 100 pins at once. The review also said basketball still feels too complex and that it could not find a successful table tennis strategy, but that the 12-sport lineup is broad enough for players to find a few favorites.

The biggest structural change is an open-world island that hosts three exploration-focused activities: prop plane, power cruising, and skateboarding. The Verge said these modes add a different dimension to the sports collection, with a five-minute sightseeing mode that asks players to find landmarks and secrets across caves and hidden paths. Skateboarding uses the Joy-Con's mouse controls, and players can collect items to buy clothes and accessories. TechRadar said the island modes could be better, but that they add useful single-player depth through the Island Crown.

TechRadar called Nintendo Switch Sports Resort a considerable improvement over Nintendo Switch Sports, with more events, more single-player depth, and more ways to play, and said motion and mouse controls are responsive. It also said Badminton, Chambara, and Football have been cut, which it called a shame, and that the visual style feels slightly lacking in character. The Verge called Sports Resort the best version of the concept so far and said it will likely become a constant over the Switch 2's life.

The series has a high bar. The Verge noted that Wii Sports is the best-selling software Nintendo has ever made and helped rejuvenate the company, while Nintendo Switch Sports has sold more than 18 million copies. Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is due Oct. 22, between Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave and a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a crowded release window that The Verge said makes the sports game easy to overlook.