Switch Sports Review in Progress: A bare bones experience without online

videogameschronicle.com:

Earlier this year it was revealed that the Switch had overtaken the Wii in terms of total sales, making it the company’s best selling home console ever.

One of the driving factors behind Wii’s success was the global appeal of Wii Sports, one of the most influential, accessible and inclusive launch games for any console.

With Switch Sports, it’s clear that Nintendo is hoping to replicate that success for a new generation, but at this exact moment, we can’t quite determine whether it’s managed to pull it off yet.

At the time of writing this review, Nintendo has still yet to turn on the online servers for Switch Sports, meaning our time with the game has been offline-only.

This wouldn’t necessarily have been an issue with previous Wii Sports games, but because the offline component of Switch Sports is probably the least feature-packed of any game in the series, we really do have to wait until we can test the online modes before we can deliver a definitive verdict on this one.

For now, we can at least take a look at the six sports on offer as local-only experiences.

The first is volleyball, which can be played by 1-4 players and is a strictly doubles affair. The aim here is to get the timing right when performing the pass, set and spike moves, all of which are done by flicking the Joy-Con. If you can time two or three of them well, it’ll increase the power of the spike.

Of the three net-based sports in the game, this is the only one where you have some degree of control over your character. If you’re defending at the net you can move left and right before jumping up to try and block a spike.

Volleyball is one of the weaker sports in the game. Once you get the timing down right there isn’t really much more to it, and you don’t really