Nintendo Switch Sports Resort Reviews Prove the Series Isn’t Winning Any Awards

From a critical standpoint, Nintendo has had zero misses when it comes to first-party Switch 2 games in 2026. Each of its games this year has, at the very least, reviewed pretty well. That trend has continued with Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, which is receiving some kudos from critics who are finding lots of fun in the minigame collection. That reception shouldn’t surprise you, though.

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort reviews are in

As of this writing, Nintendo Switch Sports Resort has an aggregate score of 79 on Metacritic. (It’s sitting at an 83 on Opencritic, but that site has yet to pull in some key reviews that should bring the score closer to 80.) That’s a big leap over 2022’s Nintendo Switch Sports, which topped out at a 72, but it’s very much in line with Wii Sports Resort, which sits at an 80. That might be the ceiling for the long-running series, it turns out.

There’s some high praise for the collection in reviews, to be clear. GameSpot’s Kurt Indovina awarded the game a 9/10, calling it a “greatest hits of the series’ best sports.” Indovina praised the variety of games and modes as well as tighter motion controls that make old ideas sing: “As someone who played the original Wii Sports when it first released, and was awed by the rudimentary real-life movements being mimicked on screen, Nintendo Switch Sports Resort allowed me to feel that all over again as an adult,” Indovina wrote.

While other critics were a little more conservative with their scoring, the sentiments are similar across the board. In a four-star review for Eurogamer, Matt Wales praised the collection’s trio of leisure sports, which allow players to roam around an open-world version of Wuhu Island. That’s what seems to be elevating the package over the compartively by-the-books Nintendo Switch Sports.

“Skateboarding is the clear standout, and might well be my favourite of the entire package,” Wales wrote. “It’s played using Switch 2’s mouse mode configuration, Joy-Con flat on a surface, as you pull back to gather speed, flick to jump, and tilt to steer. I LOVE it. It’s wonderfully responsive and surprisingly invigorating as you careen around Wuhu Island, the haptic rumble of wheels-on-tarmac perfectly completing the illusion.”

While minigames like Tennis offer some reliable fun, they still don’t have too much depth to them, according to Game Informer’s Brian Shea. In an 8/10 review, Shea took slight issue with the package’s single-player Island Crown mode, where players need to climb a ladder of opponents. While Shea enjoyed the mode overall, he noted that it reveals the limits of the game.

“Because these minigames are relatively surface level, they have diminishing returns once you reach a certain skill level,” Shea wrote. “While I loved it when my tennis opponents started challenging me to use better angles and my fellow golfers stopped air-mailing their tee shots straight into the trees, higher-skill opponents rarely energized me; instead, sports like bowling that include fun, off-the-wall variants were my favorite ladders to ascend, as they truly put my skills to the test as I was forced to adapt to moving obstacles and ramps. I just wish Nintendo injected more fun twists to keep the experiences fresh.”

Though IGN came in just a bit lower with a 7/10 review that criticized the hit-and-miss nature of minigames, critic Jesse Vitelli noted that the series still works simply because it’s still a joy to play with friends after all these years. Even weak minigames come alive in multiplayer, according to Vitelli.

“So much of the joy of these games is heightened when folks in the room are cheering, yelling, and getting so into it you need to remind everyone to keep the Joy-Con wrist strap on,” Vitelli wrote. “This has always been the spirit of the Nintendo Sports games, and Sports Resort is one of the best versions of it around when you’ve got the crew to play.”

Polygon’s own Oli Welsh concurred in his review, which calls Nintendo Switch Sports Resort a “masterpiece” of casual gaming. While it may not win any awards, it sounds like this is the one Switch 2 game that every player might want to add to their party rotation. If that’s the ceiling for the series, it’s a pretty high one.