In 2006, Nintendo released the original Wii Sports for the Wii as a pack-in title, with its simplistic gameplay functioning as a tech demo of sorts for the new motion control technology. Wii Sports helped sell millions of Wii consoles, becoming a fad in and of itself, and spawning a series of its own. Nintendo followed it up with Wii Sports Resort, which focused on the new Motion Plus accessory, while Wii Sports U brought the series to the Wii U. Nintendo Switch Sports is the latest installment, but unfortunately, it's the worst game in the series so far.

Nintendo Switch Sports is the same concept as its predecessors. It's basically a mini-game compilation with each mini-game based on a real-world sport. Instead of traditional button inputs, each sport is played with motion controls using the Switch Joy-Con controllers. There are a variety of sports for Nintendo Switch Sports players to try, with some returning fan favorites as well as some new ones.

The three returning sports in Nintendo Switch Sports are bowling, tennis, and chambara, aka swordfighting. Each sport functions pretty close to how they did in the previous installments, though bowling requires players keep the trigger held in longer than they had to in Wii Sports. There's no new tech being showcased here, and so the novelty of Nintendo Switch Sports runs out quick. Anyone that has played Wii Sports extensively will likely grow bored of the returning sports before too long, though they are still fun enough when played with the right group of friends.

The three new sports in Nintendo Switch Sports are badminton, volleyball, and soccer. Badminton scratches a similar itch as tennis, but it's still different enough in terms of how it's played that it doesn't feel like a wasted slot. Badminton in Nintendo Switch Sports requires players to be more mindful of how hard they are swinging the controller, as mistiming a big swing can result in one falling on the ground, leaving them defenseless when their opponent returns the birdie.

Volleyball is a bit more involved than some of the other sports on deck, requiring a greater variety of motion control inputs besides simply swinging the controller back and forth. In volleyball, Nintendo Switch Sports players have to perform different motions to bump, set, and spike the ball. Volleyball is still simple enough that players can safely skip the tutorial, but there's enough variety that it clearly stands out from most of the other sports.

And finally, soccer is the highlight of the Nintendo Switch Sports experience, with it being the only sport that players take direct control of their character. Players are free to move their character around the field, with different swings of the Joy-Con controllers resulting in different kinds of kicks.

Soccer in Nintendo Switch Sports is the most fleshed-out sport on offer, but it gets old before too long. All of the sports are shallow, and with three of the sports being repeats from previous games, it's likely that most Nintendo Switch Sports players will have their fill after only a few hours of play. Nintendo Switch Sports is fun to pick up and play every once in a while, but the game is not going to have the same kind of staying power as Wii Sports did back in the day.

Besides the shallowness of the sports, Nintendo Switch Sports simply does not have a compelling reason for players to return to it frequently. The Wii Fitness Age from the original Wii Sports is gone, which doesn't give players any reasons to log in regularly. The replay value is supposed to come from the cosmetics that players unlock to customize their Mii characters and Sportsmates, but there is a big problem with how that works.

For some bizarre reason, unlocking cosmetic options is locked behind online play, which itself is restricted to two players on a single console. The appeal of a game like Nintendo Switch Sports is to play it with friends, so this limitation is head-scratching. It would be one thing if Nintendo wanted to make sure that unlockables and the like were only coming from competitive matches with real online players, but it's no secret that the game sometimes matches players with bots.

Limiting the unlockables to online play is problematic for another reason, and that is everyone must have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to play with others. Let's say player 1 has a Nintendo Switch Online subscription and they want to team up with their friend to play others in online tennis. The second player also needs to have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, otherwise they're going to get paired up with bots. The unlockable content can still be earned, but this is nevertheless a bizarre restriction that severely undercuts the game's fun.

It's baffling why Nintendo decided to restrict unlockables to the game's online mode, in turn hurting the experience for those who play with more than two people on one console, which many of the sports are designed to do anyway. Combine this with the lack of Wii Fitness Age and the shallowness of the sports, and one will find little reason to keep playing Nintendo Switch Sports beyond a few hours.

It's possible that Nintendo will improve Nintendo Switch Sports with future updates, but that remains to be seen. It's known that Nintendo Switch Sports is adding golf in a future update, but otherwise Nintendo's post-launch plans for the game remain a mystery. There's a lot of work to be done to make Nintendo Switch Sports even half as fun as its predecessors, and as it stands now, it's a game that Switch owners can safely skip.

Nintendo Switch Sports is out now, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.