Twelve sports. A fully explorable Wuhu Island. Its own Nintendo Switch 2 bundle. Yet the moment I posted my last video on Switch Sports Resort, one question kept coming back in the comments.

Where is baseball? You asked for baseball more than any other sport, and I think Nintendo left it out for a reason—a reason with a moustache.

So today’s video is a bit different. Every section comes straight from your comments: the sports you want back, your theories about why they’re missing, and the questions nobody has answered yet. I’ll tell you what’s confirmed, what’s my best guess, and where some of you have spotted something I missed. We’ll start with the big one, but first, thirty seconds of catch-up.

Wuhu Island is back, and so is the bundle.

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort launches on Thursday, 22nd October, exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2. It has twelve sports, a Wuhu Island you can explore freely by plane, skateboard and jet ski, and an offline mode called Island Crown that finally gives solo players something to work towards.

There’s one update since my last video. I said Nintendo was reportedly bundling the game with Switch 2, and that’s now confirmed. The Switch 2 and Switch Sports Resort bundle lands on the same day as the game, with a digital copy and three months of Nintendo Switch Online.

Quick one before we get going. Power-Up Direct is a small channel, and I’ve set myself a goal: 1,000 subscribers before the end of 2026. I wrote this video based on your comments. If you subscribe and comment, I could write the next one based on your suggestions.

Right. Baseball.

Baseball has been missing longer than you think. The history here is a bit surprising. Baseball was one of the original five sports in Wii Sports back in 2006. You held the Wii Remote like a bat, swung, and it worked. It came back in Wii Sports Club on Wii U.

Here’s the bit people forget, though. Wii Sports Resort, the 2009 game we’re all nostalgic for and the one that gave us Wuhu Island, never had baseball. When Nintendo Switch Sports came out in 2022, it skipped it too. So this isn’t a sport Nintendo has just cut. It’s a sport the series has left out for most of two decades. If you’re watching in the US, I understand why that stings.

My theory: Nintendo is saving baseball for Mario

When @mjfire asked for baseball, I replied with a theory: maybe Nintendo is holding baseball back because a new Mario Baseball game is in the works. Let me make that case properly, and then try to knock it down, because a theory is only worth anything if it survives us poking at it.

Mario Superstar Baseball came out on GameCube in 2005, developed by Namco with Now Production. It had 32 playable characters and a system called chemistry: characters who got along well played better together, and putting rivals on the same team made them let each other down.

Then in 2008 came Mario Super Sluggers on Wii. It had 41 characters, one of the biggest rosters Mario has ever had, and a Challenge Mode where you recruited players by clearing scout missions, which gave it an almost RPG feel. Its stadiums even switched between day and night.

Since then, baseball has turned up as one of five sports in Mario Sports Superstars on 3DS in 2017, and that’s it. That’s eighteen years without a standalone Mario Baseball game.

The case for the theory

Look at what Nintendo has done with Mario sports on the Switch. Tennis got Mario Tennis Aces. Golf got Mario Golf: Super Rush. Football got Mario Strikers: Battle League, and Switch 2 got Mario Tennis Fever earlier this year.

Baseball is the obvious gap. If Nintendo were planning a big family baseball game, it wouldn’t want a motion-controlled baseball mode in Switch Sports Resort.

The case against it

Here’s the problem: Nintendo doesn’t really avoid overlap. Switch Sports added golf in a free update in 2022, about a year after Mario Golf: Super Rush. Switch Sports Resort has tennis in the same year as Mario Tennis Fever. And back on Wii, Wii Sports had baseball, yet Mario Super Sluggers still came out on the same console two years later.

On top of that, Wii Sports Resort skipped baseball in 2009, long before any of this mattered. I also haven’t seen a single credible report of a new Mario Baseball game.

So here’s my verdict. The Mario Baseball theory is one to watch, not one to bet on. The simpler explanation is that Nintendo built this lineup around a resort holiday: watersports, flying, skating, and beach sports. Baseball has never fit that brief.

Is the Joy-Con the real problem?

@-unknown8566 had a different theory. The idea is that baseball and Swordplay are missing because they need a two-handed grip. On Wii, you held one Wii Remote with both hands, like a real bat. With Joy-Con, you’re holding something much smaller, and gripping it with both hands isn’t the same. Golf works, they pointed out, because you overlap your hands on a golf club anyway.

That’s a good point for baseball. A bat swing is a two-handed motion, and how a sport feels in your hands matters. I don’t think it explains Swordplay, though. In Wii Sports Resort, Swordplay used one Wii Remote, held in one hand like a sword. Nintendo Switch Sports also had its own swordplay event, Chambara, which worked with a single Joy-Con. The hardware can clearly do swordplay, so the explanation has to be something else.

Nintendo has left the 2022 sports behind.

Look at what’s gone: Chambara, the 2022 swordplay event, along with Badminton and Football. Those are the three sports from Nintendo Switch Sports that aren’t in Resort.

@laytonkiepe7262 made a point I hadn’t considered. Nintendo might be leaving those sports out deliberately, so the original game still has a reason to exist. Switch 2 plays original Switch games, so if you love football and Chambara, the 2022 game is still sitting there.

I think that’s the most convincing explanation. Resort isn’t Switch Sports 2; it’s a different game with its own identity, and Nintendo seems to be keeping the two separate.

Will Nintendo add sports after launch?

@madametj said football was one of their favourites and hoped it might come back in an update. @AndreMaxwell88 was more worried, expecting Wuhu Island to grow eventually but fearing Nintendo might let the game die first.

Here’s what history tells us. Nintendo Switch Sports launched with six sports. Golf arrived in a free update in November 2022, and Basketball followed in another free update in 2024. So there’s a clear precedent for Nintendo adding sports for free after launch.

What I can’t find is any announcement about post-launch plans for Resort. There’s no roadmap and no promised sports, so anything you hear before launch day is speculation.

@Lyve-or-liv made a fair point: if the game feels finished on day one, post-launch content becomes a bonus rather than a necessity. And @SkyeTheMobileGamer replied with the week’s most honest comment: every game will die eventually.

They’re not wrong. I’d still bet on at least one free sport arriving within a year, because Nintendo has done it before and Wuhu Island has plenty of room. If you want to know the moment one gets announced, this is a good time to hit subscribe. I’ll be covering it.

Your wildcard picks

Now for my favourite part of the comments: the sports nobody at Nintendo has announced, but you want anyway.

@TheNewSuperAGaming wants Parachuting, and I love this one. Wii Sports Resort introduced you to Wuhu Island with skydiving; you jumped out of a plane and fell toward the island. Resort already has Prop Plane, so the plane’s there. The jump just isn’t there yet.

@Chrigoe_TV suggested disc golf, and Wii Sports Resort had it. Frisbee Golf was part of the Frisbee event, alongside Frisbee Dog, so that’s a real piece of the old Resort that hasn’t come back.

@mjfire suggested sailing. Power Cruising covers the water, but sailing would be slower and more relaxed, which suits the island.

@JIMPENREVIEWS suggested skeet shooting, and then snorkelling. I said at the time that skeet shooting felt more like a winter sport than a sunny island holiday, and I still stand by that. Snorkelling is a different story: the exploration already has you chasing dolphins across the ocean, so it feels like a natural next step.

@Ugandabambai wants running, or a full fitness mode. Resort does have Jump Rope as a warm-up, and Nintendo added leg strap support to football in the 2022 game, so there’s a foundation there.

What’s interesting is what nobody mentioned. Wakeboarding, canoeing, and cycling were all in the original Wii Sports Resort; none are back, and no one asked for them.

The motion controls debate.

This one turned into a proper debate in the replies, so let’s settle it. @pinkspider28 said it’s a shame the Switch Joy-Con didn’t get Wii MotionPlus and a sensor bar, and called Metroid Prime 3 on Wii the gold standard for motion controls.

@TheCito replied with a correction, and they’re mostly right. Wii MotionPlus added a gyroscope to the Wii Remote, and the Joy-Con already has one built in. The missing piece is the sensor bar, which lets the Wii Remote point precisely at the screen.

This is where Nintendo’s answer gets interesting. Switch 2 has Joy-Con 2 mouse controls, and Resort’s skateboarding uses them: you rest the Joy-Con on a table and push it like your foot kicking against the ground. It isn’t a pointer at the TV, but it’s Nintendo finding a new kind of precision instead of bringing back an old one.

Whether it’s enough, we’ll see. One previewer said boxing’s motion detection struggled at times, so it doesn’t solve the problem.

@pinkspider28 also asked something I can’t answer yet: can you play the free roam exploration with normal button controls? Nintendo hasn’t said, and it’s top of my list to test on launch day.

Is Wedge Island the mystery island?

In my last video, I mentioned that a previewer spotted a second island in the distance, and it wasn’t clear whether you could land there. @Lyve-or-liv thinks it’s probably Wedge Island, the smaller island off Wuhu that’s been part of its map since the Wii days.

That would make sense. The one thing that doesn’t fit is that the previewer described what looked like an entire town, which is more than Wedge Island has ever had. Nintendo has renovated Wuhu, though, so it’s not impossible Wedge Island got the same treatment. For now it’s unconfirmed, and I’ll be flying straight there on day one.

My three-sport wishlist

If I could add three sports to Switch Sports Resort in a free update, here’s what I’d pick.

Number one is baseball, done the way @gogamego suggested: a simple three-inning game, plus a Home Run Derby. That’s quick enough for party night and deep enough to come back to.

Number two is Skydiving. Resort already has the plane, and it’s the most Wuhu Island sport there’s ever been.

Number three is Swordplay. It’s the event people remember most from Wii Sports Resort, and as we’ve just seen, the hardware can handle it.

Now I want yours. What three sports would you add? Put them in the comments, and I’ll put the most popular picks into a poll on the Community tab. The winner gets coverage in my launch-week post.

Switch Sports Resort launches next Thursday. I’ll be playing it and answering the questions from this video. Can you explore with normal controls? Where’s that mystery island? And how much racing is actually in there?

If this is your first Power-Up Direct video, hit subscribe. I cover Nintendo every week with news, previews, and features like this, and your comments really do shape what I make. I’m aiming for 1,000 subscribers before the end of the year, and every one counts.

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