This is going to hurt a bit if you’re an Edge reader of a certain vintage – sorry. There is no escaping it: people get nostalgic about Wii Sports now. Just as some of us experience warm, fuzzy feelings when thinking back to the 8- and 16bit eras, so many players’ rose-tinted gaming memories involve swinging a Wii Remote to play tennis with their families. For a generation of players, it is as much a foundational text as, say, Super Mario Bros is to another, sparking an interest in videogames that has since become a consuming passion.
How else to explain the response to Nintendo Switch Sports? As many people did, we watched the Direct announcement and figured: about time. An update to one of Nintendo’s biggest-ever successes has been an open goal for a while, particularly for a company so practised in repackaging its past. But it is easy to underestimate how big a deal this is to a swathe of Switch’s userbase. There was the kind of widespread delight you would expect to greet the announcement of a third Super Mario Galaxy. It has become accepted wisdom that the casual audience Wii Sports attracted largely moved on to mobile games afterward, but here was a reminder that a significant percentage of that group are more deeply invested in their hobby: the blue-ocean strategy made waves that continue to ripple 16 years on.
[https://magztertemp.s3.amazonaws.com/1387349800/1648040462/articles/62453e236be8f/1648704843255.jpg]
There were, as you’d expect, a few notes of caution – largely focused on the new avatars that have replaced the original’s rudimentary but characterful Miis. In practice, they’re not nearly as charmless as they initially seemed – they’re more animated and expressive and are a good fit for the pristine sports-complex setting. Nonparticipants mill around in the background or form an appreciative crowd. And those who don’t get on with the new designs can replace their faces with custom-made Miis anyway, though the combination looks incongruous.
Bowling and tennis both return, and – visuals aside – are largely unchanged, at least in terms of how they control. A single Joy-Con may feel a little different in the hands to a Wii Remote, but most players will quickly feel at home. As it ever was, tennis is the less nuanced of the two, shot trajectory is affected more by the timing of your swing than the direction, but it remains an entertaining throwback. The other, meanwhile, gets a new online mode. Survival Bowling is a skittle royale, if you will: after three frames, roughly half the field is eliminated, with more bowing out after six and nine, leaving a final trio fighting for glory in the tenth. The format is flawed in some ways since it’s possible for one player to go into that last frame with an unassailable lead, essentially turning the climax into a victory lap, but it’s a fun twist all the same.
[https://magztertemp.s3.amazonaws.com/1387349800/1648040462/articles/62453e236be8f/1648704914871.jpg]
Indeed, the fact the topmost menu option invites you to ‘play globally&rsq...
How else to explain the response to Nintendo Switch Sports? As many people did, we watched the Direct announcement and figured: about time. An update to one of Nintendo’s biggest-ever successes has been an open goal for a while, particularly for a company so practised in repackaging its past. But it is easy to underestimate how big a deal this is to a swathe of Switch’s userbase. There was the kind of widespread delight you would expect to greet the announcement of a third Super Mario Galaxy. It has become accepted wisdom that the casual audience Wii Sports attracted largely moved on to mobile games afterward, but here was a reminder that a significant percentage of that group are more deeply invested in their hobby: the blue-ocean strategy made waves that continue to ripple 16 years on.
[https://magztertemp.s3.amazonaws.com/1387349800/1648040462/articles/62453e236be8f/1648704843255.jpg]
There were, as you’d expect, a few notes of caution – largely focused on the new avatars that have replaced the original’s rudimentary but characterful Miis. In practice, they’re not nearly as charmless as they initially seemed – they’re more animated and expressive and are a good fit for the pristine sports-complex setting. Nonparticipants mill around in the background or form an appreciative crowd. And those who don’t get on with the new designs can replace their faces with custom-made Miis anyway, though the combination looks incongruous.
Bowling and tennis both return, and – visuals aside – are largely unchanged, at least in terms of how they control. A single Joy-Con may feel a little different in the hands to a Wii Remote, but most players will quickly feel at home. As it ever was, tennis is the less nuanced of the two, shot trajectory is affected more by the timing of your swing than the direction, but it remains an entertaining throwback. The other, meanwhile, gets a new online mode. Survival Bowling is a skittle royale, if you will: after three frames, roughly half the field is eliminated, with more bowing out after six and nine, leaving a final trio fighting for glory in the tenth. The format is flawed in some ways since it’s possible for one player to go into that last frame with an unassailable lead, essentially turning the climax into a victory lap, but it’s a fun twist all the same.
[https://magztertemp.s3.amazonaws.com/1387349800/1648040462/articles/62453e236be8f/1648704914871.jpg]
Indeed, the fact the topmost menu option invites you to ‘play globally&rsq...
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Edge Uk (Digital) - 1 Issue, May 2022