There are still a couple of months left until the release of the just announced Nintendo Switch Sportsspiritual continuation of Wii Sportsbut we got to, thanks to a demo online, to take a first look at the game. The so-called Online Play Test, open to all, it was designed with several limitations compared to the full title, but it has already given us the opportunity to evaluate its quality. So here are our impressions.
Our test of the Nintendo Switch Sports demo
The test was limited in many respects with respect to what will be the full game experience. You could only play online with other randomly chosen players, the choice of the avatar was limited to some predefined generic characters, there were only three sports available: tennis, chanbara (Japanese fencing) e bowling.
The real point of the test, that is the running-in of the game servers, it was a success. During the games we have never experienced slowdowns, lag or delays. We only had one disconnectionwhile searching for a match, possibly also due to the lack of players at that time.
Games
As anticipated, the games to try were solo three (chanbara, tennis e bowling) dei six total of the full version (also volleyball, soccer e badminton). Chanbara is a challenge one versus one of spadate above a suspended ring. The goal is to knock the opponent off the edge of the ring. You can hit from any direction, but also parry and counter. The style of play is also customizable based on the type of sword you choose (single or double hand). The feedback is optimaland playing by waving the joy con it really feels like you are challenging another person to a duel.
Same thing, even if slightly less intuitive, for the tennis. Even if it is one on one, it is still a match of double. For some reason we didn’t get to try a tutorial before the game, but the controls turned out to be enough nonetheless intuitivewith a very compelling final experience.
The most interesting, and even slightly longer, game was the bowling. The matches were in fact real tournaments, with the beginning 16 participants. After the first three laps only the first ones continued to play 8 players, after three more laps only the first five, and after three more laps the final for the first three places was held. The commands are slightly more complex, but are still very understandable and preciseperhaps too much.
In conclusion
Our first test with Nintendo Switch Sports was short ma very promising. Despite missing two months (the game will be released on April 29), the title already appears full e finished. The limitations due to the demo only made us want to see how it will actually be to try the game in all its possibilities, both for sports and for customization. And when we get to try it in this definitive form, we’ll definitely let you know ours.
More information on the official Nintendo website.