Sports Party under test

When Nintendo released the title Wii Sports in 2006 with its newly released console, no one could have guessed what a stone the comparatively unspectacular game would set in motion with its innovative motion control. From now on everyone could pretend to master golf, tennis, baseball, bowling or boxing and in fact it felt to the inexperienced athlete as if he was practicing this sport. Many have tried to achieve success and just as many have failed. Now Ubisoft wants to change this with the sequel of his Wii game Sports Party for Nintendo Switch.

Everything takes place on an island that offers you a multitude of possibilities, specifically Ubisoft packs you six sports into the game. Sports Party promises a lot of fun and unfortunately can’t keep much of it. These are Frisbee, Golf, Jet Ski, Basketball, Skateboard and Beach Tennis. Each of these sports can be played with up to four players, which allows exciting competitions among friends, both in front of the home TV, or, thanks to Switch, on the go – perhaps even directly on the beach. You are always free to play the respective discipline by means of button input or motion control, but this always applies to all players. But this is also good, because otherwise it is unbalanced, because depending on the sport one or the other method is advantageous.

Golf

The classic among the sports games should of course not be missing. You can choose whether you want to play 3, 6 or 9 holes of the course to prove your skills as a golf professional. But that’s not as easy as you might think, because besides the usual factors like wind, ground and racket, the steering is the biggest obstacle you have to fight with. If you use the button controls, everything is a bit easier. So you can set the direction and choose the racket as you are used to in this kind of games. It takes a bit of getting used to hitting, but the learning curve is very steep and you master it very quickly. But if we are honest with ourselves, then we don’t want to play something like this with buttons, but rather switch on the motion control and feel like Tiger Woods. Unfortunately here was a lot of slopping.

This starts with the keys being assigned functions without being explained to you in the manual. So the button ZR/ZL is responsible for the change between practice and real shot, which makes sense, but at the same time the keys SR/SL do exactly the same, which leads now to the fact that if you grab the Joy-Con too tightly – it is after all a racket, you inevitably go to the shot without wanting it. But that’s not the only tedious thing, you have to keep a button pressed during the whole movement to execute a shot, which makes the shot very unpleasant. And as if that wasn’t enough already, the detection of the movement is also very spongy and requires a perfect movement, which makes it almost impossible to dose the force accurately.

Frisbee

An all-time favorite among beach sports is probably the Frisbee throwing and so it had to be on board of course. The game principle is simple, there are three courses, one on the left, one on the right and one in the middle. There appear in the lanes hit circles that want to be hit. Depending on their value, they can earn up to 3 points, but can also result in minus points. The first player to hit his Frisbee in the circle gets the points and the player with the most points after the time has expired is the winner. It can’t get any simpler – until you’re confronted with the controls. With the buttons it’s still easy, you steer in the direction you want to throw and press the throw button. The motion control looks a bit different. Throwing works with one throw movement, but the direction must be confirmed by holding the button. One begins to ask oneself: Is movement control merely a stepchild in the game?

?

Jet Ski

Of course, the speed junkies need a race and what is better than jet skiing. You can take one of three courses and after three laps you should be the first to cross the finish line. On the track there are obstacles, shortcuts, ski jumps and boost capsules, which you have to use to your advantage. Here one has come much closer to the task of a usable control system than it appears so far. With the buttons it is as easy as possible, you steer with the analog stick and accelerate with a button. The same applies to the motion control, because you accelerate with the same button and tilt the Joy-Con in the direction you want to drive. But even this was done without love, because you don’t have the whole 90° in every direction at your disposal, as you would expect, but only about 45°, if you turn over this angle, the Jet Ski just goes straight ahead.

Beach Tennis

A tennis must of course be there and if you are already at the beach, beach tennis is obvious. Again, the rules are simple, if the ball lands in the sand, the opponent gets one point and who has eleven points first wins. Beach tennis can be played in 1 vs. 1 or 2 vs. 2. But the drama of the controls doesn’t end here either. With the analog stick you can define the direction of the beat and with a press on the button you can hit – the better the timing of the beat, the more targeted and powerful it becomes. And we’re already mourning missed opportunities for motion control. Contrary to the frisbee throwing you can now control the direction of the ball with the stroke movement, but you have to guess the right timing of the stroke more or less. The figure doesn’t do anything when you make a movement, only when the ball is with you will you know if your timing fits or not. This leads to some confusion, because one always believes that the Joy-Con has not registered the movement and begins to flail wildly.

skateboard

Skateboarding, like jet skiing, is one of the fastest racing events in Sports Party. You’ll be the first to cross the finish line as you plunge death-defyingly down a mountain stretch. As with jet skiing, there are shortcuts, obstacles and acceleration lanes that can help or block you on your way to the finish line. The control system is also mixed here. The button control is very simple. You have a button to accelerate and a button to brake, as well as the direction, which you set with the analog stick. In the motion control it looks similar, you tilt the Joy-Con to the left or right to steer and press the ZL/ZR button to accelerate and R/L to brake. But be careful not to tilt too violently otherwise no steering movement will be performed.

basketball

In basketball you can choose between a 2 vs. 2 game or the 3-point challenge. In the 3-Point Challenge you have to throw as many baskets as you can in one minute. In 2 vs. 2 mode you and one partner compete against another team. As an exception, the implementation of the control system took a little more time here. So in the 3-Point Challenge it is a pure timing thing to throw the ball at the right time and that’s how it was implemented in the motion control. You indicate that you are ready for the ball and throw it at the highest point. As simple and correct as it was implemented here, it would have been needed throughout the game.

Does it suit me?

With every round you complete – whether alone or with friends – you collect stars. Six stars are possible per player and round. These will wander into a pool and increase your level, and you will receive a special garment to personalize your avatar. For a little more variety you can also compete in a championship. In 3, 6 or 9 rounds you can become the king of the island

The real comic

The graphic style in Sports Party, is a very successful mix between reality and comic. The characters seem very real, but thanks to the slight comic influences they don’t take themselves too seriously, so that you get the impression that Beach Boys and Girls are having fun here. Also with the distances, courses and places one has created a suitable world in the same style, which unfortunately by the missing dynamics in the background a little negatively attracts attention .

FAZIT

Sports Party promises a lot of fun and unfortunately can’t keep much of it. The animations and the design would actually be very promising. Even the chosen disciplines would not stand in the way of an action-packed sports event and yet, due to the sluggish, almost unimaginative controls, all of this is ruined and instead of a party you have to be content with simple controller sports.

What is Sports Party? A Sports Games Collection.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Tested: Nintendo Switch
Developer / Publisher: Ubisoft / Ubisoft
Release: October 30, 2018
Link: Official Website