How Switch Sports Failed Where Wii Sports Succeeded 

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It feels like Nintendo is giving us less and less content in each of their games now, and it really sucks

Fun Wuhu Island fact: It was not first seen in Wii Fit, but actually all the way back in the original reveal for Wii Sports. The original Wii Sports was intended to have a flight game (Much like the island flyover in Resort), however they had to scrap the idea at the time. Wuhu Island later came back in Wii Fit, looking much fancier and with a proper name.

Back in 2009 or so Miyamoto was in an interview where it was brought up how Nintendo hadn't created a new, iconic, character since Pikmin. Miyamoto responded with the belief that Wuhu Island was a character in itself. Of course one could look at this as a deflection, but whenever I see footage of that place... It feels like meeting an old friend for the first time in years. Seeing my friends, family, pop culture icons and freaky self-made abominations all gathered in this... home. Broke my heart to have it back in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Smash only for there to be no user created Miis in the background. That was a huge part of the magic. I'm running a race and "oh look! Darth Vader is cheering me on!" All I want for Christmas is a Mii adventure game set on Wuhu Island.

one of my bigger gripes w spocco square is how it feels so corporate n gentrified. like you said the branding is pretty offputting, and a lot of the visual design around the game is closely akin to current design trends. don't get me wrong, the contemporary design of the complex itself is fantastic im an absolute sucker for shipping container cafes n colorful greenery, but if nintendo wanted to go urban w switch sports i would've much preferred at least a more familiar city environment rather than what looks like an income-based recently developed harbor area.

I'm in my 40s, I didn't know I could get nostalgic for Wii, 3DS and Wii U games! Lovely video, Maria.

You did a fantastic job capturing the magic of Wuhu Island and Wii Sports Resort! I totally agree with you that Switch Sports is fun, but nowhere near as great as Resort. And I have no idea why Spocco Square isn't an explorable hub area. There's a certain cozy vibe to playing sports as Miis on Wuhu Island, and I don't understand why Nintendo would abandon one of their greatest creations so easily. But luckily we can always go back and play basketball in Wuhu Town, fly around and explore in a plane, or relax with a game of golf.

The second I saw the iconic and charming look of the original Mii's be replaced with these new lifeless doll-like ones, I was like, "Yep they're trying to take all the life and magic out of this console." I know that might be a little petty and the look of the Mii's might not be a huge deal for a lot of you, but it just immediately tells me that Nintendo doesn't know what the fans love about their games and consoles in the first place. We don't want a "modern" take. We want the fun, simple, and comfortable aesthetic we got from early games and consoles. I'm all for innovation, but not when it sucks all the life out of the whole thing. Edit: Amazing video btw I forgot to say that lol. Thanks for the trip down memory lane with Resort

I've always been really sad that the Switch had less focus on Mii customization, especially since they had already added hundreds of clothing assets in the Miitomo app, and seeing the Sportsmates replace them was the main reason I passed on Switch Sports. In a vacuum, though, I do like that style, and I think the setting would be really cozy if they just added in some of the same exploration/verisimilitude aspects that Wuhu had.

Man I loved Wii Sports Resort. I remember getting it for my Dad's birthday so we had something we could both play together, and it really surpassed my expectations. I still remember being blown away by that Island Flyover mode. It was so surprising in the context of Wii Sports. Needless to say I spent way more time playing it than my Dad did! 😅 Great video

Wuhu Island feels like Summer Vacation. Spocco Square feels like Gentrification. Anyways, Great Video as always!!

Great video! Wish I had played Resort when it came out, I can feel the nostalgia I'm missing out on. Still can't believe they went with the name 'Sportsmates'....

At the height of lockdowns, I played a lot of Wii Fit and I came to appreciate Wuhu Island. I was so surprised to see that there were lots of people online that have fond memories of that place too. Sad to hear the new game doesn’t quite capture the same feeling.

Free roaming around a hub area would add so much to Spocco Square! I do really miss Woohoo Island though, and you did such an incredible job capturing why

Miis and Wuhu island have been permanently etched into my memory as low poly wonders that manage to look rad as all hell *because* they're abstractions, not because they perfectly represent what they try to imitate. They realize they can't perfectly imitate reality, and manage to turn that simplicity into an artistic style that I don't think would hold up now.

Even after I'd found every point of interest in Wuhu's flyover mode I logged dozens more hours just exploring the island. The vibes were too immaculate to ignore.

Spot on. i miss how quirky and deep these games used to be. It definitely feels like nintendo have changed their intentions for us and hopefully they do bring some changes to the space so we can explore

Totally agree on the lack of content and sterilisation in Switch Sports, it’s the reason I haven’t picked it up. But your points on Wuhu Island were fantastic, I adore that island and still return periodically to the flight mode just to take a trip down memory lane. Remember flying into the volcano?! So cool!

Switch Sports feels like work... you know those modern offices that try to keep you at work, almost replacing outside office activities by providing them inside...

there's also just something about how the sportsmates move that doesn't have that wii charm, if that makes sense. they are so stiff, especially with the swordsplay mode in switch sports. they're just so stiff and don't have the silliness of miis? everyone sort of just moves the same and you can't do anything goofy like have your character flail around with all these unique movements that capture the motion control. like you said, the game just seems so sterile. you can't express yourself and the designs are clearly meant to be more human and they just aren't versatile like miis who sometimes have arms, sometimes don't, sometimes have no legs, etc. there's nothing to make the sportsmates unique. they have no personality.

Just stumbled across your channel, and I'll say this is a great video you got here. I feel like both Wuhu Island and Spocco Square have their own charm to them, like I can definitely recall seeing some buildings in real life as a kid that Spocco Square reminds me of, which gives it sort of a nostalgic feeling to me, but Wuhu Island just exuded that laid back personality that the Mii games like Sports and Fit were filled with. Another part of why it's hard to get as connected to the new place is that it doesn't give you much of a chance to get connected to it. To try and keep things fair, I'll ignore all of Wuhu's other appearances and just focus on its Resort appearance, that opening left such an impression, the island flyover let you see how everything connected together from overhead, and you even got to see glimpses of other parts of the island and even other events from areas like the Sword Fighting's Showdown mode. Really the main thing Spocco needs is some sort of exploration feature, I don't think planes would work good but maybe a walk around mode where you can get on small vehicles like bikes or something, just to give you a chance to feel like this space is a memorable location instead of "the place where the events are" y'know? A walk around feature similar to that Go Vacation game, which I also think had some nice little locations to go through in a similar manner to Wuhu, albeit not as well done imo. Either way, great video!

As someone who still plays and thinks about Wii sports and how lacking switch sports feels in comparison, this essay truly spoke to me. This is a banger video!!

I never owned wii sports resort but it was always the game me and my cousins would play when visiting over the summer, alot of the wii titles had this simple charm to them and oddly more feature rich than some current releases.

Id love for them to release an ultimate mii game. Wuhu island would be the explorable hub/lobby where if you go to each specific area, you'd get the option to play the sport there. Youd also have the option to play the fit games too. And additionally youd get an apartment room to decorate like in miitomo or tomodachi life, where you could share pics you take on the island with your friends

Still proving to be my favorite youtuber! Atmosphere is so freaking important and the new sports title really just feels like it was created in a business board meeting rather than by artists.

I love watching your videos. You talk in such a cozy and comforting way, and your videos are usually about cozy topics or games. I feel comforted here 😊

Imagine having a casual yet soulful, iconic, popular franchise to suddenly make it soulless as hell. Just like Switch menu.

2:14 It’s enough to make a grown man cry :’) Admittedly, the reason my family bought a Wii way back when was because my brother and I played Wii Sports Resort at a cousin’s house and we absolutely fell in love with the game. Bundle alongside our brand new Wii, needless to say, we were not disappointed.

Nintendo really massacred what I loved. The Miis were a great selling point to the Wii imo, because of the endless customisation. They almost had it with Miitopia but then they screwed it up again in Switch Sports. It’s saddening, and makes me feel less and less interested in the Switch overall.

Man, what a lovely video. I have been enamoured with the vibe of wuhu island since i've first played a demo on the 3ds in a random store. This essay really captures the essence of that feeling and gets me back to those cozy days of exploration.

This brought back some pleasant memories. I spent so much time playing Wii Sports and Resort with friends and family. I’m glad you mentioned 100-pin bowling. That was the greatest bonus mode! So satisfying to hear all the pins topple over. 😁 It’s a shame it sounds like this new iteration just doesn’t have the charm of those titles.

I really miss the miis. It feels like all of Nintendo’s games have a little less charm to them these days. Every year they feel more like any other studio. Thank you for helping me but some of these feelings into words

i really want them to just make a fully blown open world wii sports resort sequel. they could really just call it Mii Sports Resort because it's obviously not on the Wii anymore

I've never played any Wii Sports game, but man, that intro sold me the island and the game. So cozy. I need to give it a try one of these days.

That intro description so tapped into some core memories of mine, man resort was such a good game that all my family enjoyed

I thought I had no memory left of resort but seeing you going back to the island and just cruise around brought a lot of it back. It really was a fun sandbox :) Great video as always!

I would love to see your take on VR: Rec Room, as I feel like it does a great job of recreating the vibes of classic Wii Sports, while expanding and building on it. Just last week, I spent over an hour climbing a massive wall within Rec Room with a friend of mine-as we talked and genuinely felt like we were hanging out together, while not even in the same building. The many sports in Rec Room have an emphasis on collaboration, as well as goofy chill-especially with the fact that you can literally pull out a box of donuts, pizza, or other food ideas and pretend to eat and chill together within the sports spaces.

I have divorced parents and have since a baby. We had a wii at my mother but the only game we really had was wii sports resort. My mom and I would play together all the time and it was my absolute favorite thingy to just fly around. Still haven't completed it to this day. Ontop of that, I would be able to go to my father's and play the original wii sports. And when I went back to my mother's it was magical to see those places shown around the map. Thank you for this video. Brings so many good memories back to me

You pretty much nailed what I felt about Switch Sports to a tee, brilliant video!

I complete forgot how good of an Intro was Wii Sports. Unfortunately, big companies are moving from games to have fun and have friends to a hyper-competitive fast in and out games. Everybody wants to be able to play in 2 clicks and being better than everybody else instead of playing with everybody else. I recently decide to come back to the PS2-Dreamcast-Gamecube era as I didn't have the latest two mentioned consoles, and I'm having such an amazing time, so many fun, dumb and amazing games in an era that look like is not coming back, but at least we know we can always come back. Great video it's really well presented and your love for Wuhu island can be felt and I'm happy you share it with us

I remember playing Wii Sports Resort as a kid and pretending to be a Jedi in that sword fighting mode…so many good memories of that game

I’ve always said since I was a wee little lad that if there was one place I could go, it would be Wuhu Island.

Great job! You made me feel nostalgic for Wuhu Island even though I only ever played Wii Sports.

I glad I looked up “wuhu island” and found your great channel!

Switch Sports always felt too clean and corporate to me. Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort felt like an idea that was built upon, and are very charming to play with a personal edge thanks to the Miis. Switch Sports felt like Nintendo was like “well, I guess we should make a remake for Switch”. I absolutely loved Wuhu Island as a kid; it felt very peaceful and like somewhere I wanted to go. In fact, I played the running game so much that I actually took up running in real life.

A virtual Wuhu Island would be very welcome.

It's the plane game that does it for me. You know you've made a great game location when you can have one of the minigames just be flying around looking at various points of interest.

I really miss Wii sports resort. That music is just so iconic.

It's crazy that Nintendo created the most original sports game ever and then made the most soulless knock-off 10 years later

I feel like an animal crossing esque thing coulda worked here. As a change to island, its a small town, with playing by yourself feeling like a local park (perhaps spicing up the small town to be one that is clearly a walkable place and where its clear that healthy habits are encouraged) for singleplayer runs, a local community center or more closed field (think about where intramuaral sports are played) for local multiplayer, and that you "travel" to a bigger city/closer to the current map for online games.

I remember doing Wii Fit Plus and doing the Bike Riding and enjoying the free roam mode as I got to enjoy cycling all across Wuhu Island

Took me forever though but I finally found all 80 Ipoints during all times

id love to see an open world wuhu island some day :/

You and Fudj are my current favourite indie content-creators.

You have no idea how invested i was in this game, like i loved everything about wuhu island,I rememeber making up little scenarios in my head about my mii characters interacting with each other on the island and it really made me want to do my own take on the wii franchise, I want to tell a whole story about my mii characters on the island just interacting with the world around them,inrtereact the the cpu miis and over all tell a good story some people may not be on the same level as me cause "that games old no one plays WSR anymore)but for me i just get a lot so fort out of playing the game and just imagining what it would be like to live on the island

7:17 shadow in the background having a ptsd flashback

Very comfy video, thank you! I haven't owned a Nintendo console since the original NES, so this was also very informative. The skydiving intro to Wuhu Island is fantastic, and now I kinda want to go there iRL. :) The idea of Nintendo Sports being an online ranked competitive game is hilarious to me. That's not at all what the brand is in my mind. I do have an actual question, though. At 12:54 you mention "I really wish you could play on the same team with friends online." Does this mean you can't group queue at all and getting in the same lobby as your friends is RNG? Or does it mean that you can only "challenge" your friends, not play with them? If you play with your friends, you are always forced on different teams?

I always wanted the ultimate Wuhu Island experience on the Switch, take the activities of Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit Plus, Wii Fit U, Pilotwings Resort, as well as add new activities such as swimming we would have the ultimate package. It would be cool to have a free roam mode where you can walk, jog, swim, freedive, drive, fly around in Wuhu Island, interact with it and the Mii's you can find (which are of course from your Switch and original Mii's from the series) as well as hang out with them or have them company you. I mean, this is sort of possible with GO Vacation (and I played tons of hours of that because of this!), so why not the iconic Wuhu Island, too?

Spocco Square is cool but had so much potential and I want Wuhu Island to be in a the game

Another great video! Not surprising at all. Your article on Sable in Lock-on Vol 3 was also very well written 🙌

The Wii games also had more silly personality. Little things, like throwing the bowling ball backwards, or hitting your opponent's face in table tennis.

I’ve had this exact video idea rolling around in my brain for a while now and I’m so glad you made it

Never fails, you make a video about the exact same topic, then a month later someone comes over and makes a better one 💪

I think it will be cool if the switch sports city is actually on wuhu island or nearby

The Island Flyover and Dogfight game modes were my favourites! What a nostalgic trip.

I've always wanted a game that let you explore around Wuhu Island at your own pace and maybe even have a home there, akin to Animal Crossing. Heck, maybe even an adventure game where you go around the island and solve mysteries that goes into some of the history of the ruins there. It's sad that Nintendo seems to be slowly moving away from the miis though, to the point that it feels almost like something they feel obligated to include rather than having them as a fun and charming way to make your games feel more personal to you.

I never had a nintendo console 'cause they didnt like the country im from and it was quite rare here, but even i feel a little nostalgic about Wuhu island now. I wish i had this kind of experience when i was a child. Agreed on everything u said about switch sports!! thank you for your video.

If only Iwata was still here he wouldn’t stand for this :(

This is a very well structured video. I was excited but also worried about Switch Sports, but in my opinion, nothing was beating Wii Sports Resort. If Nintendo made the changes you mentioned in the video, it would boost it tremendously, but at the end of the day, there is no beating Wii Sports Resort without copying it detail for detail.

My family only ever had wii sports, not wii sports resort, so when we decided to get switch sports nearly everything about it was an upgrade. But knowing now about wuhu island makes me kinda sad I never got to experience then.

yes. thank you for this video. it showed me that wii resort isn't nostalgia colored, and the passion and love made in it is evident from the intro, to the inviting atmosphere, and its unapologetic desire for you to explore what it has to offer. switch sports just feels so corporate/basic. the sports mates all look too similar to each other, whereas miis are so expressively different in face and sizes. im fine with trying out new things like replacing the miis, but that doesnt meant i dont like the miis or that itll even be easy to replace them. its just that if you are gonna do it, which i dont even see a reason to, you had better do it good, because we love the miis. along with them, once again, likely drip feeding us and will call it extra content. and im someone who likes to give benefit of the doubt, but i just cant with this drip feed thing. previous games started off with so much content at launch, which feels like it has the same amount of content as a game thats done with its drip feeding like mario tennis aces, star allies, animal crossing, etc.

I wish Wuhu island was real 😭

Love your vids! Happy to see you upload again and I’m sure this vid’ll be another great one :)

Wuhu Island is probably the greatest thing to happen to any of us. Idk y Nintendo hates it now. Even if I didn’t play Wii Sports Resort when it came out, it’s still one of my favorite games of all time. Nintendo needed to realize that we didn’t play the Wii Sports series for the sports themselves but the asthetic of the overall series. We never needed another Wii Sports, what we needed is Wii Sports Resort: Deluxe with an open world Wuhu Island. The Wii era was just amazing for a reason. In the Switch era, Nintendo just is focusing on money and profit, not creativity. Wow! I just can’t believe a whole essay on my thoughts on Switch Sports. I can’t even get all A’s

Babe wake up new eurothug dropped

The game could’ve been so good if it was like splatoon with shops. Instead of the score card thing, you got coins that you could spend. The house you own could showcase trophies you’ve gotten from reaching a certain rank in a sport. If they had like bikes and stuff, you could have different bikes or skateboards to display. The game could’ve be so good and fun with free roam

Spocco Square reminds me of the very early aesthetics of PlayStation Home, but better realized.

When I got the Wii console it came with a disc with both Wii Sports and Wii Sports resort. Althought my father is a gamer since the arcade machines, he was having trouble finding a modern videogame to enjoy after the job. When we obtained the Wii, times of family where better! And even my dad found a new videogame to play... he is still unbeatable on Archery and Basketball. While my mom is unbeatable on table tenis and swordfight. Every time I turn on the Wii console...when I'm not in the mood to play Sonic Unleashed or the Just Dance I escape into Wuhu Island and try to be better and stay calm with It's environment...

THANK YOU. Also the mii’s new body is……

Seeing this video makes me miss the good old days especially with wuhu island. The switch sports is fine but I hate how Nintendo gave miis a comeback last year with miitopia switch and then purposely betrayed them with those stupid sportsmates avatars for this game that's from the Wii sports series where the miis debuted.

Last time I played a Nintendo was in the 90s, it must have been Killer Instinct on the SNES. When Final Fantasy 7 was cancelled on N64, I made my mind and chose to buy a PS1 instead of a N64. i really don't know anything about these games and avatars you are talking about, but damn! I already miss them.

lovely video maria i love wii sports and sadly never got to try resort it looked like alotta fun and i probs would have loved the island as well ^_^

Amazing video. I would have never thought about this until you brought it up. I only played a little of Wii Sports but that's it when it comes to these titles. Still, I bet there are so many people feel the same as you and I hope Nintendo can learn from this since Wuhu Island seemed way more magical than I ever knew!

The switch changed a lot of things on the Nintendo aesthetic. The switch menu doesn't even have music. Everything seem more serious and less fun... More professional in a way but less fun

That was such an incredible insight in the difference between Wii Sports Resort and Switch Sports! Love your videos as always!

I think it was ok to make a new hub for the sports but there still should have been a way to go to Wuhu Island in the game. They could have expanded on the flyover and made it you fly around the city and can fly off the map to Wuhu Island. Or do the flyover to the Wii Sports locations in their own map that connects them. They could add this in Switch Sports Resort?

You should be able to change to the wii gui, island and miis. It should be a choice between the wii OGs (like me), and the people new to nintendo! We should all have the ability to customise our games our way. I haven't gotten a switch yet but i am really looking foward to play this year.

I just want Wuhu Island back 😭

never played wii sports resort. But it looks many times more charming/interesting/fun that switch sports. Jogging around the island sounds like a lot of fun

Playing island flyover in Wii sports resort is max comfy. I always loved Wuhu Island and was always excited when it showed up in a new game and they could flush it out more

With the recent Sept 2023 Nintendo Direct, there are a few HD remakes so I'm hoping we get Wii Sports Resort HD.

15:00 thankfully this seems to have stopped as games this year and last have had hardly any updates. Kirby for example is still at 1.0 I think. Contrast that to star allies and well.. Yeah

Switch sports should've been Wii Sport resort +. So, have the lore be the resort had seen a spike of tourism, and so expanded a fair bit, while sacrificing some old areas. IE, the hotel area could be the new sports plaza, or in the space between the town square and volcano. For the games, you'd keep stuff like the bowling, swordplay, golf, archery, and cycling. Then they could bring in content from the Wii Fit games, like the parade, jogging and free roam cycling. Then, the old games from Wii Sport, mainly the boxing and tennis. There already is a full tennis court in Wuhu island. Games like basketball could either be replaced with netball and badminton, or have them as other game modes for the net area. Swordplay would gain the new sword types, and maybe the showdown mode could be replaced with a multiplayer royale fight. Cycling Vs could become a more friendly cycle round the island together, with optional race format. With online play, you wouldn't even need to limit it to 2 players. Imagine a 20 player limit, with you all cycling or racing together around the massive Wuhu island. They wouldn't need to completely copy over all the old sport games, because we have Wii Sport Resort for that. But bring in the games that would work best with the Switch's dual controllers, and it would be a chance to get all the old popular games in one title. It would've been a great tech demo, by going "You remember that massively popular game we made for the Wii? Well with the new hardware of the Switch, here it is 10 years later." Instead, they've basically gone "Yeah, you remember that massive island with 15 different games, where each often had 3 different modes inside? Here's 6 in a city somewhere.

am i the only who feels like wuhu island is a battle royal setup ?

I played the flying mini game in Resort over and over and over. Best game

now i wanna see a vr wuhu island i miss the flyover mode

when i was young i used to religiously play the flying mini game, i'd just spend hours flying all over

Amazing Video, I hate to admit it, but I've slowly stopped buying Nintendo games solely because they're practically releasing games that aren't 100% complete. I, too, miss the simple days of just throwing in a game disc and being able to INSTANTLY have the months and sometimes YEARS of work developers poured into these games. Makin me all sad man :(

i wish they just added wii sports on switch. switch sports could never stand a chance

Man... I really want to see Wuhu Island come back. I’ll be honest, if it wasn’t for the Sqirrel Suit, I wouldn’t be playing Switch Sports lol