Nintendo Switch Sports Resort Turns Wuhu Island Into an Open World

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort came out on 22 October 2026 as a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, with 12 sports and Wuhu Island carried over from the 2009 Wii Sports Resort. It is the third entry in a line that started with Wii Sports, the fourth best-selling game ever made and the one that moved 100 million consoles.

Nine of those sports are competitive, and the other three run on the island itself. Prop Plane, Skateboarding and Power Cruising drop you into Wuhu with no opponent, either in Free Play or in Sightseeing Tour, a five-minute hunt for photo spots, hidden missions and treasure. Polygon says that leisure trio is the actual reason to pick up the collection, and the same outlet’s review goes further and calls the whole thing a masterpiece.

Wuhu holds up because every sport has a real address on it. Skate far enough and you pass the open-air bowling alley where you roll strikes. Fly out to sea and the whole golf course sits below you, hole by hole, with hidden resorts, caves and landmarks tucked in between. The soundtrack keeps up the act with cheerful muzak, gulls and applause under crystal blue skies. The photo collectibles carry text about the customs of the island, which turns a menu of minigames into a place with a culture attached.

Bigger worlds already run on the hardware. Elden Ring released on Switch 2 on 28 August 2026 as a 50 GB Tarnished Edition at $79.99, bundling Shadow of the Erdtree and the new Tarnished Pack into one purchase. That port targets 30fps with no 60fps mode, which tells you where the ceiling sits on this machine for a world that size.

Double Eleven, the studio that handled the Red Dead Redemption port, is hiring a lead C++ programmer and a low-level graphics specialist, which has fed another rumour about a GTA 6 release on Nintendo Switch 2. Rockstar ships that game on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on 19 November and has confirmed no other platform, so nothing is likely to be said about ports until 2027.

A Ubisoft Montreal job listing for a 3D programmer asks for shipped Switch 2 experience, which makes Assassin’s Creed Codename Hexe on Switch 2 read as a planned platform rather than a later port. Insider reports put that release in the second half of next year at the earliest and describe a large open world with varied locations.

Back on Wuhu, the controls carry the three leisure sports. Skateboarding runs on Joy-Con 2 mouse input: swipe back to push, tilt to steer, tip the controller onto its end for manuals, lift to jump, flick for tricks that pay out speed when you land, hold ZR to slide to a stop. Prop Plane has you holding the Joy-Con like a paper plane and tilting it through caves, and Power Cruising turns it into a jet ski handle you twist to accelerate. The hands-on write-up argues the skating deserves a full game built on it, and admits to wanting a Pilotwings revival after hours spent in the air. I have been putting off a Switch 2 for months, and free-roam skating is the first thing on the console that reads as a reason to buy rather than a nice extra.

The comparison everyone reaches for is Mario Kart World’s Free Roam, and the hands-on piece admits it did not get that mode at first, writing it off last June for thin activities and weak rewards. Wuhu fixes the density problem. Balloons wait in the air for Prop Plane, dolphins swim off the coast for Power Cruising to chase, and photo logs cover the ground, so a five-minute run rarely crosses the dead space that sat between Mario Kart’s P-Switch missions.

Bowser’s Fury did the same job for 3D Mario, sketching out what the world looks like between the levels, and Free Roam did it for Mario Kart’s tracks. The difference on Wuhu is that the sports furnish the map themselves. Nintendo is keeping these early Switch 2 worlds small on purpose instead of padding them with time-consuming filler, and Kirby and the World Beyond is the next test of that approach.

Island Crown handles the competitive half. You start 20th in each of the nine sports and climb a ladder of named opponents, among them a silver-haired table tennis player called Michel and an archery matriarch called Florence, and in boxing those opponents double as a tutorial, teaching counters through their own styles and weak spots. A single-player track with real progression is new to this series, and it sits next to an achievements system and the Sightseeing logs.

The roster itself trades wins for losses, as it always does. Boxing is back for the first time since the original Wii Sports, rebuilt around measured jabs instead of flailing. Archery and table tennis return from the Wii Sports Resort era, tennis, basketball and volleyball come over from Switch Sports, and bowling and golf stay where they always are. Chambara and badminton are gone, and thumb wrestling, the one brand new competitive event, is a joke with little under it.

Most sports ship with a variant that teaches the control scheme sideways. Archery hands each player a slice of the target, so a greedy shot at the centre can gift points to an opponent. Bowling has a 100-pin lane, volleyball has a rhythm mode called Bump to the Beat, and table tennis asks you to knock over soda cans with placed returns. Online, the nine competitive sports run in Casual Online Play and a ranked Pro League, with golf and bowling supporting eight players and friend lobbies that split into smaller huddles and regroup afterwards.

The collection is still pointed at the audience the Wii era brought in and the Switch years lost. The reviewer’s seven-year-old got stressed by some of the competitive sports and spent the session skating around Free Play instead, and the in-laws who visited during the review stopped to buy a Switch 2 on the way home.

Customization points now come from any kind of play rather than online matches alone, and they buy outfits, titles, nameplates, custom gear and stamps used as quick emotes during a match. The five-minute clock in Sightseeing Tour is the part I expect to bounce off, because a countdown turns wandering into an errand. Free Play drops the timer entirely, and that is the mode my girlfriend would pick over a ranked table tennis ladder.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake new footage landed last week with rebuilt environments and character models, full voice acting, a free camera and fresh dialogue for the townspeople. It arrives on 5 November, also exclusive to Switch 2, and now qualifies for The Game Awards 2026 under the 20 November cutoff.

The Legend of Zelda’s 40th anniversary Switch 2 limited console arrives a week earlier, on 29 October, in black with dark green Joy-Con grips and a broken Triforce pattern in gold on the back panel. A matching Pro Controller, carrying case and screen protector launch with it, and Nintendo has not announced a price for any of them.