It’s been almost two years since the last major Nintendo Switch Sports update with the addition of Golf. The patch made us feel decidedly “excited” — it was a nice addition, but nothing special after playing Wii Sports and its Resort sequel. With basketball, the latest sport to join the list, we expected more of the same. And after checking out all the game modes in single player and local multiplayer, we were right to be confident in our assumptions.
Like the other seven sports available, Basketball offers a toned-down take on shooting hoops with simple controls that get you up and playing in minutes. Move the Joy-Con up and down to dribble the ball, press ‘X’ to pass the ball, hold ZR and slide your wrist to shoot the ball. You’re better off looking for those post-crossover moves and alley-oop games elsewhere (though even NBA 2K has recently dipped into the Switch), but if you’re looking to hit the virtual court with everyone from your friends to your parents, then the Switch’s simplicity Sports is still hard to beat.
The update offers a decent number of game modes — even if the main difference is “you can dribble the ball” or “you can’t dribble the ball.” There are ‘Two-on-Two’ and ‘Three-Point Challenge’ in single player and additionally ‘Three-Point Contest’ and ‘Five-Streak Battle’ in multiplayer. The last three of these are about sinking as many shots as possible from three-point range, so don’t expect any drastically changes in the gameplay department, but at least some snazzy new basketball gear means your avatar will look the part.
As is the case with every sport on the Switch, basketball is best played with others. The shake-the-Joy-Con-to-move control, which had us rolling our eyes with erratic response times when playing solo, was a fun equalizer in multiplayer. Even the five-streak challenge — which, as you might guess, involves draining five shots in a row — includes enough laughs on game night as balls bounce off each other and disrupt basket routes when shot at the same time.
Everything looks a lot like basketball in Wii Sports Resort, and that’s because it is. The controls feel a bit clunky and the game is still very stop and start in the Two-on-Two matches because everything stops and resets after every shot or flip), making this more of a trip down memory lane for those who have played the 2009 sequel rather than anything particularly new.
It’s true that pesky network errors on our end mean we haven’t been able to play any of the online match modes at the time of writing (the biggest difference to the Wii counterpart), but we can’t see the added ability to play with ballplayers from around the world, making this series veteran the Switch Sports MVP. However, we’ll be sure to keep you updated with our online impressions as soon as we get a chance to try it out.
Like Golf in 2022, it’s hard to make Basketball a free update. It’s a whole bonus sport and it’s free. Plus, we’d be lying if we said the Nintendo Switch Sports bundle didn’t get a little more appealing upon its arrival – after all, eight sports are better than six. But unless the game mode was your absolute favorite on the Wii, this isn’t going to be the addition that gets you to run out and spend £50 on the game.
We really hope there’s a lot more to come for Nintendo Switch Sports in the future (Baseball still seems like a no-brainer), because there’s still a lot of fun to be had here, and the Basketball update only adds to that. However, if this is the end, then it seems only fitting that it ends on the same, secure note it began 2022 with.
