Wii Sports was never meant to be a phenomenon. It was a pack-in, a tech demo for a strange new controller, yet it ended up in living rooms, care homes, and office break rooms worldwide. Two decades on, Nintendo is going back to that well: Nintendo Switch Sports Resort launches exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2 on October 22nd. With hands-on previews and Nintendo’s own overview now out, we have a much clearer picture of what’s in the box.

For the first time in the series, you can explore Wuhu Island by plane, skateboard, and jet ski, and players say that one change might fix most of what held the last game back. So today I’m going through everything we know: all twelve sports, the exploration, the modes that finally give solo players a reason to care, and what’s been cut.

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This series has been chasing one moment for twenty years.

Wii Sports was a cultural event in 2006. Wii Sports Resort followed in 2009 and gave us two things that stuck: Wii MotionPlus, which made motion controls far more precise, and Wuhu Island, which has since turned up in Pilotwings Resort, Mario Kart and Smash Bros.

Then, in 2022, Nintendo Switch Sports arrived. It sold well, but plenty of players found it thin. The hub, Spocco Square, was a menu dressed up as a location, and much of the longer-term progression leaned on playing online. The question for Resort is whether Nintendo has given the series a reason to exist beyond party night, and from everything we’ve seen this week, the answer looks like yes.

Wuhu Island is finally a place.

Nintendo describes Wuhu Island as an ocean resort where tourist attractions and sports facilities sit side by side, and that’s the headline change: the island isn’t just a backdrop anymore. In Skateboarding, Power Cruising, and Prop Plane, you can explore it freely by road, sea, and air at different times of day.

The island has been renovated, with a new resort hotel and landmarks rearranged. Scattered across it are Spocco Photos, which give you information about the island’s sightseeing spots, and Nintendo’s footage shows you chasing dolphins across the ocean and flying towards distant islands.

In previews, exploration ran in timed rounds packed with objectives, ending with an overhead map that traces your route and your co-op partner’s. There’s also reportedly an untimed free-play mode without collectables, though previewers described it rather than showing it. One previewer also spotted a second island with what looked like an entire town, but it’s still unconfirmed whether you can land there.

Skateboarding could be the best use of Switch 2’s mouse controls.

Skateboarding was the standout activity in this week’s previews. It uses the Joy-Con 2 mouse controls, one of Switch 2’s less celebrated features so far.

Rest a Joy-Con on its flat edge on a table and pull it toward you, like your foot kicking back against the ground. Find the rhythm to build speed; tilt to steer and flick up to jump. Nintendo confirms you can grind rails, slide around and pull off aerial tricks. The word that keeps coming up in impressions is hypnotic, and I think if Nintendo can make mouse controls feel essential in a family sports game, that’s a far better showcase for the feature than any tech demo.

Prop Plane and Power Cruising bring back some old DNA

Prop Plane is pure Pilotwings. You hold the Joy-Con like a paper aeroplane and tilt it to fly freely; you can speed up, roll and fire at balloons.

Power Cruising has you holding the controllers like handlebars to steer, and a twist gives you an instant speed boost. This is where impressions don’t quite line up. One previewer described racing friends on a dedicated course. At the same time, another wished Nintendo had included proper races for the plane, skateboard and jet ski, and Nintendo’s overview doesn’t mention racing at all. We’ll only know how deep that side goes on launch day.

The sports: twelve events, old favourites and some surprises

Nintendo confirms twelve sports: Archery, Basketball, Bowling, Boxing, Golf, Power Cruising, Prop Plane, Skateboarding, Table Tennis, Tennis, Thumb Wrestling and Volleyball. Nintendo also includes Jump Rope, which it presents as a warm-up rather than one of the twelve.

Bowling is as reliable as ever, and Nintendo confirms you twist the controller to add spin. In Archery’s special mode, the target is split into coloured sections, one per player. Hit someone else’s section, and you hand them the points, while the target rotates and resizes to pressure whoever’s leading.

Thumb Wrestling is the new event that’s got everyone laughing, and Nintendo’s overview clears up a detail the previews disagreed on. You press R to drop your thumb and try to pin your opponent’s, but you can also hold it down to power it up; the bigger it gets, the stronger you are. One previewer noted that a bigger thumb also gives your opponent a bigger target, so it’s both a risk and a reward.

Tennis centres on doubles rallies with topspin, backspin, and lobs, while golf lets you stop your swing early for backspin. Boxing returns for the first time since Wii Sports Club on Wii U, though one previewer said the motion detection struggled at times.

Island Crown and the mini-games give solo players a reason to stay.

If one mode answers the biggest criticism of the last game, it’s Island Crown. It’s new, it’s playable offline, and Nintendo says you’ll beat increasingly tough opponents to raise your rank, working up to the top-ranked Island Champions and possibly even Island Legends. Previews put that at 20 opponents across nine of the twelve sports, though Nintendo says only “some sports”.

Alongside it are plenty of mini-games with different rules. Return Challenge has you hitting a ball back at empty cans, Laid-back Match slows a sport down to a more relaxed pace, and the 100-Pin Game puts a comically huge lane in front of you. The 2022 game leaned heavily on online play for much of its progression; between Island Crown, the mini-games, and exploration, there’s now a real reason to play solo.

Dressing up and playing together

Playing earns points you can spend at the Item Centre on outfits, hairstyles, face paint, and sports equipment, including rare items. Locally, you pass a Joy-Con 2 to a friend; online, you can create rooms with friends, climb the ranked Pro League, or try casual online play, which serves random sports from the ones you’ve picked without affecting your rank.

What’s missing, and it stings a little

Not everyone is happy with the roster. Swordplay is gone, and that was one of the most loved events in the original Wii Sports Resort. Baseball still isn’t back, and with Tennis, Table Tennis and Volleyball, that’s three net sports out of twelve. Badminton, Football and Chambara from 2022 aren’t on Nintendo’s list either.

So here’s my question: if you could add one sport back, what would it be? Let me know in the comments; I want to know if Swordplay wins this by a mile.

This could be Switch 2’s most important holiday game.

Nintendo is reportedly bundling Switch Sports Resort with Switch 2 this holiday season. For a player with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Mario Party, and not much else, that would be an easy sell. Pre-orders are open now on the Nintendo eShop, at $50 in the US, and I’ll add UK pricing and bundle details to the pinned comment once they’re confirmed.

It won’t be the cultural moment Wii Sports was, but it doesn’t need to be. It needs to be the game on every family Switch 2 this Christmas, and based on everything we’ve seen, it has a real shot.

The verdict: cautiously excited

What we know is good. Wuhu Island is back, and bigger than ever, skateboarding looks like a brilliant surprise, and Island Crown and the mini-games finally give solo players something to chase. What’s still open is how deep the racing goes, whether you can explore those distant islands, and whether twelve sports, with some fan favourites missing, have enough variety to last.

Going into this week, I had Switch Sports Resort down as a nice bit of nostalgia. By the time I got through it, it looked like the most complete series yet.

It launches on October 22nd, and I’ll be covering it properly once it’s out. If you want a full breakdown of every sport, or a deep dive into Wuhu Island’s history, please tell me in the comments.

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Thanks for watching. I’ll see you on Wuhu Island.