Nintendo Switch Sports review: Some things never get old

digitaltrends.com:

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 time to add an 11th pin).

When Nintendo Switch Sports is focused on reinforcing already intuitive gameplay with more precise motion controls, it’s every bit as addictive as Wii Sports. It only loses points when it strives to be more complex than it needs to be.

This time around, Nintendo’s anthology of sports games contains six activities at launch: Bowling, tennis, badminton, chambara, volleyball, and soccer. There are more highlights than duds in the package, and there’s a trend between the hits. Most of the best minigames (with one exception) require no explanation.

Every time I swing, I’m surprised that the ball always goes exactly where I intended.

Badminton, the collection’s crown jewel, is the perfect example of that. It’s a more