We’re holding our review until the game’s playable online, but this is already a treat.
Because of this we’re holding off on our actual review.
This isn’t a review, then, but good news - we think the game’s brilliant.
Nintendo Switch Sports launches with six sports.
Football, badminton and volleyball are new.
(Golf is coming as a free update in the autumn.)
Nintendo Switch Sports
Badminton is the most familiar of the new games.
It’s also the one which I’ve played the least so far.
It’s great: inevitably it feels like a lighter, faster tennis, which makes sense.
Badminton’s great as both a single and two-player game.
Volleyball is really interesting.
Volleyball as seen through this lens is all about timing.
Playing with a single Joy-Con you swipe up to serve, bump, set, and spike the ball.
More importantly it turns volleyball into a game that’s preoccupied with getting the timing just so.
There’s something properly beautiful about pitching the ball to a team-mate who then hammers it across the net.
This is quite an aggressive sport - my sister once broke a schoolfriend’s nose playing volleyball.
An accident, but still.
For all its cheeriness, Nintendo Switch Sports captures this aspect of the game.
Not the nose-breaking, but the way that volleyball gets your blood pumping.
Football is the final new sport and it’s probably my favourite.
Six sports may not sound like much on paper.
(Seven if you count golf, which is on the way.)
Because it just all feels entirely natural.
