Once upon a time, recreational sports games with motion controls were all the rage. A decade ago, when the Wii was at the height of its mainstream popularity, there was a glut of forgettable and downright terrible games that somehow turned using a Wii Remote from a fun social experience into an exercise in unresponsive torture. Sports Party was one such abysmal box tick, so can its similarly-named reboot on Nintendo Switch make good using the far more accurate gyros contained within the Switch Joy-Con?
Once again, Sports Party (the 2018 edition) whisks you off to a sunny resort where you can participate in all manner of sporting events. Fancy a game of Beach Tennis or Frisbee on hot sands? How about a race around the cove on some Jet Skis? Perhaps a downhill competition on your Skateboard as you slalom through some cartoonish streets? With a much-improved set of disciplines to choose from - six in total, to be exact - Ubisoft’s own take on the Wii Sports formula already has one up on its decade-old ancestor.
Much like its predecessor, Sports Party is very much a local multiplayer experience, with no support for online play. However, there is the option to play the whole thing on your own with some AI participants should you find yourself at a loss when it comes to friends. You can access all six disciplines - Golf, Beach Tennis, Basketball, Skateboarding, Frisbee and Jet Ski - right from the off with a series of customisable avatars to choose from. You can personalise each one to your heart’s content, with new shoes, clothes and accessories periodically unlocked as you level up (this is a Ubisoft game, of course there are XP bars) and by completing simple in-game milestones, such as winning a race or hitting a certain number of targets in a single game.
You can play almost all of the game’s modes in handheld mode, but the real selling point here is how Sports Party makes the most of Switch Joy-Con gyro controls. In fact, some of these games - Beach Tennis, in particular - are automated to such an extent that using the analog sticks and the face buttons alone renders them barely playable. Instead, you and your friends can split some Joy-Con and use your HD Rumbling controller to perform in-game actions. So you can swing your arm to serve and return shots in Beach Tennis, or tilt a single Joy-Con to turn corners while riding your Jet Ski.
Skateboarding works really well when played in this way, as does target practice in Frisbee, and both are likely to be popular choices should this title make its way into your couch-play rotation. Annoyingly, you can’t play a traditional 2v2 game of Basketball using motion controls, but you can play a 3-Point Contest should you need to swish the net take you. It’s not going to challenge the likes of NBA 2K19 (or NBA 2K Playgrounds 2, for that matter), but it’s fun and competent recreation of on-court action.
Considering the lack of golfing simulators on Nintendo Switch, it’s great to have a way to take to the fairway on Ninty’s current generation of hardware, even if it’s a very shallow offering. You can play in three, six and nine-hole variants and there are nice little touches to help less experienced players - such as being able to test your swing prior to striking the ball - but there’s too little variety when it comes to courses, and the different clubs feel largely the same.
Of course, this isn’t a proper simulator of any the sports on offer, and it isn’t trying to be - but it typifies the issue that robs Sports Party of any real long-term investment. Yes, there are some new courses to unlock and plenty of extra items for personalising your avatar, but it doesn’t take long to discover just how shallow each one is. They’re fun for a while, and each one does a decent job of turning its given sporting discipline into an arcade-style outing, but unless these simplistic iterations really grab you and your friends, there’s nothing here to keep you playing in the long-term.
Conclusion
While it’s great to see Ubisoft finally giving Nintendo Switch a platform exclusive, it’s frustrating that it has to come in the form of a competent yet throwaway party game. Having said that, superior hardware and far more accurate motion controls make this the best Sports Party instalment yet, so if you’re looking for a new addition to your local multiplayer setup this Joy-Con-happy collection of simplified sports should tickle your fancy, in-between rounds of Super Mario Party, of course. However, there’s an almost crippling lack of depth to each discipline that anyone hoping for more than a casual party experience will be sadly disappointed.
Comments 27
Can't say I'm too surprised.
And here is the thing. Either this wont sell, and Ubisoft will say the Switch isn't a viable platform, or it will sell somewhat and Ubisoft will continue with their nonsense and keep giving us subpar party games on the system.
Lose lose for Switch owners. But Win-win for Ubisoft, because they can continue to put in between 0 effort and like 2% effort.
These games are basically for those who rely entirely on what’s on the box to decide. Therefore Ubisoft doesn’t actually has to put lots of time, effort or money to make these games; just have something that they can dangle in front of people to hook them.
My thoughts go out to the developers. They may actually have talented and hopeful individuals with good ideas but aren’t given the time, resources or freedom to make a genuinely good game.
Just six games? lol
I feel bad for Dom he had to play this crap, while there are so many great games out right now.
Hm....
I will check from Youtube first.
Until someone (cough - Nintendo - cough - with your little known Sports Resort etc - cough) puts out a well made competitor in this genre who can blame others for rehashing their sub-par stuff to fill the void?
It's like the article and the comments here forgot that it was Ubisoft that made M+R Kingdom Battle and put star fox in star link.
Just saying before we want to rip on Ubisoft without any nuances.
(Not saying that this game is a good game btw, I'm waiting out for a next Wii sports resorts from Nintendo)
So... is it a bearded lady on the golf course or a feminine dude?
Without blast processing it's impossible to tell.
GAH!!! MAN BUN!!!! DESTORY!!!!
If you can have the option of a stupid man bun, it should get 4/10
My shovelware senses are going off
@NewAdvent Not just you. I can't decide if they've stopped paying someone to monitor it or decided the whole world has gone to heck, which it has, and civil discourse was casualty 1, and the standards have been lowered, as in there are probably 1 or 2 words you still can't type but pretty much everything else is fair game.
Option 3, comment section is skewing younger, so whatever's OK in voice chat is OK on here. 😦 That may be a combination of 1 and 2 above.
NL is tired of giving out their 9/10 trophies now.
I'll wait a few years for it to hit a price of $10 or something.
@Heavyarms55 Wow, you have forgotten Mario & Rabbids and Starlink?
Must admit, I really want Go Vacation. This game, however, isn't inspiring at all.
Trying to compete on the same as other more popular games doesn't do well for this one. Glad I cancel my pre-orders for this one. I'll wait til they have closeout sale on this one before I decide.
I really wish someone would actually make a decent variety sports/activity game. I have fond memories of California Games on the NES.
I was looking forward to this game hoping to finally have a golf sim on Switch. Really disappointing controls, lack of courses and characters seem lifeless.
This could of been so much more if a little more effort and time were spent on it.
Go Vacation is fantastic fun but only has mini golf. The Switch is really missing Mario Golf.
Anybody know if A version of Pangya is on the cards for switch? That would be a dream come true for me along with Advance Wars.
@Heavyarms55 - Ubisoft saw huge (and well-deserved) success with Mario+Rabbids though, so I think they're confident in the viability of the Switch.
some poor person is going get this steaming pile of plastic for xmas
I'm really not interested in these types of games.
EXCEPT FOR GOLF WITH MOTION. I want to know how the golf is in this game. This review barely even mentioned it.
@SuperC142 @GrailUK Oh yeah, that was Ubisoft, wasn't it? Then it makes even less sense why they'd shovel us this trash!
Ubisoft must love Nintendo fans with their one [removed] exclusive and subpar releases so far. They don't even try to hide it anymore, smh. Starlink is probably the only decent game out of the bunch.
If Nintendo was smart, they’d remaster Wii sports or even better Wii Sports Resort!! Or combine the two into a nice package!
I'll get this when its cheap. I'm a sucker for motion-controlled sports.
@JaxonH This video shows off the golf gameplay at 17:16. No idea how well the motion controls are, though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3RiIjOScUc&feature=youtu.be&t=1036
@MongolRaider Please mind your language!
Shame you couldn't fit screens of all 6 events into the review.
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