It’s been almost two years since the last major update to Nintendo Switch Sports with the addition of Golf. The patch left us decidedly “thrilled” — 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 of the game’s single-player and local multiplayer modes, we were rightfully confident in our assumptions.
Like the other seven sports available, basketball offers a watered down view of shooting baskets with simple controls that allow you to start playing in minutes. Move the Joy-Con up and down to dribble the ball, press ‘X’ to pass the ball, hold ZR and flick your wrist to shoot the ball. Those post-crossing moves and street play are better sought elsewhere (though even NBA 2K has taken a bit of a dip on the Switch lately), but if you want to hit the virtual court with everyone from friends to parents, then the simplicity of Switch Sports is still hard to beat.
The update offers a decent number of game modes — even if the central 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 from three-point range as possible, so don’t expect anything drastic changes in the gameplay department, but at least some snazzy new basketball gear means your avatar will look on point.
As with every sport on the Switch, basketball is best played with others. The ‘shake the Joy-Con to move’ control that made us roll our eyes at our inconsistent reaction times when playing solo was a fun level in the multiplayer game. Even the Five-Streak Challenge — which, as you might guess, consists of draining five shots in a row — provides plenty of laughs throughout the game as balls bounce off each other and disrupt basket paths when hit simultaneously.
It all looks a lot like basketball on Wii Sports Resort, and that’s because it is. The controls are a bit clunky and the gameplay is still very stop-and-go in Two-on-Two matches as everything stops and undoes after every shot or loose ball), making this more of a trip down memory lane for those who have played a sequel from 2009, but something particularly new.
Admittedly, pesky network errors on our end meant we couldn’t 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 opportunity to play with players from around the world turning this veteran series in Switch Sports MVP. That said, we’ll be sure to update you on our online impressions as soon as we get a chance to try it out.
Much like Golf 2022, it’s hard to drop Basketball as a free update. It’s a whole bonus sport and it’s free. We’d also be lying if we said the Nintendo Switch Sports bundle didn’t get any more attractive with 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 add-on that makes you run out of games and spend £50 on a game.
We really hope there’s more 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. If, however, this is the end, then it seems fitting to end it on the same, safe note it started on way back in 2022.
