There’s no better feeling than bowling a strike, both in real life and Nintendo Switch Sports. It’s a small, but satisfying athletic accomplishment that doesn’t require years of training and discipline to pull off. It can almost happen by accident, with physics taking the wheel as soon as the bowling ball smashes into the pins. No matter how many times I hit a strike in Nintendo Switch Sports, I always let out a silent fist pump without fail. That’s the lasting power of Nintendo’s now 16 year-old sports series. There’s nothing fundamentally different about bowling in Nintendo Switch Sports and Wii Sports, but there doesn’t have to be. Nintendo’s new package of sports minigames defies the normal expectation about modern games by remaining confident in its instantly gratifying gameplay instead of inventing new hooks to expand the experience. No real-life bowler has ever complained that the sport doesn’t add enough new features year after year, after all (imagine someone arguing that it’s...
Badminton is king; Precise motion controls; Perfect for multiplayer; Long-term potential;
Thin selection at launch; Soccer is a dud; Unrewarding solo play;