Brasil Game Show Preview | Nintendo Switch Sports Resort Wants Us Back In Wuhu Island

Nintendo’s demo selection for the 2026 edition of Brasil Game Show, Latin America’s biggest video gaming fair, was heavily criticised by the public upon its first reveal. A staple of the show for over a decade, the company’s booth this year eschewed newer releases and favoured a slightly older, tried-and-true crop, including Pokémon Pokopia, Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, and that Star Fox remake nobody seemed to think much of past the first trailer.

That doesn’t mean no Switch 2 exclusive released or poised to release after June was invited to the party, though. Instead of the recent megahit Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave or the highly anticipated remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Nintendo went with a more casual crowd-pleaser.

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, set to release in late October, got both a large slice of the 1,000m2 booth for previews and the most coveted event souvenirs in the form of a branded visor (as in the brim-only hat tennis players use) and a drawstring bag (given exclusively to those who have MyNintendo).

It makes sense: before the company officially left the country in 2015 and subsequently returned in 2020, the Wii was hugely popular in Brazil, despite never even having menus in Portuguese. My generation, which rules the halls of BGS in their Genshin Impact cosplays and loaded itabags, remembers very well the thrill of getting their ass handed to them by Matt in Wii Sports boxing, over and over again.

Following Nintendo Switch Sports, a mostly unloved re-imagination of that game, Switch Resort, fully localised for us Brazilians, now aims to recapture the magic of the sequel. At BGS there were four out of twelve sports available for testing: archery, bowling (with 10 or 100 pins), power cruising, and thumb wars. 

Being alone, I was paired with Bruno Coelho Borges, a guy around my age who was training Grass Wonder in Umamusume while queueing up, and to whom I showed my Narita Taishin keychain. I’ll also admit that he beat me in all four sports. GG.

First up, archery, a favourite of mine in Wii Sports Resort but also paired with the nuisance of having to connect the Nunchuck. The Switch 2 already has a leg up against the original: a double Joy-Con setup is way less hassle. 

Naturally, you wield them like a bow and arrow, and the further you extend your dominant hand, the quicker the aim circle will close in on the target. It’s intuitive, albeit a little opaque when it comes to knowing where exactly your arrow will land. 

Something I’m curious about is if those secret shots from Resort are still around. I wish I had thought to check that at the time, but with a set time limit of 15 minutes per duo, there’s only so much you can check for. Alas!

We followed that up with power cruising. You know, I once ran a poll to my Tumblr followers about which of the 12 Wii Sports Resort sports they liked best, and out of 139 votes, power cruising only got one. (It still did better than basketball and canoeing, both of which got zero votes.) Pretty small sample size, but it does beg the question: why did this get to return for the Switch 2, while my beloved swordplay was totally ignored? Is it because chanbara already replaced boxing in Switch Sports? Ah, so it goes. 

Like archery, though, it does benefit from the new control setup. You hold the Joy-Cons horizontally and move about like you’re steering a jet ski. (I was informed you don’t have to extend your arms as far as I’m doing in the picture. “It’s the heat of the moment”, I explained then.) 

I attribute my L here to the fact I didn’t immediately clock how to start moving, while my partner did and left me eating dust from frame one. I’ve also never been good at racing games. Mario Kart is fun because I get to ruin the lives of those ahead of me, and now, in World, going off-course like I so tend to do isn’t an immediate death sentence. Power cruising is a purer experience, and I ain’t good at purer experiences. I kept missing those speed-boosting rings by just a hair. I guess I’m just not built for this.

Next up, a series classic, the one even Grandma likes: bowling. I remember when I bought Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics during the pandemic and held my younger brother hostage so he’d play the bowling game on that one with me. Good times. Here, we were both treated to the 100-pin version, and I enjoyed my closest defeat of the gauntlet. 

One thing, though, is that the controls were hard to grasp. I found this was a result of the staff accidentally giving me the wrong instructions on how to hold the Joy-Con, but man, it was weird following exact guidelines and not getting the results they should’ve yielded. I did get two strikes and a spare when this was fixed, so god couldn’t nerf me. 

(I’m also saddened to report that, like in Switch Sports, throwing the ball backwards by accident doesn’t give you that funny animation RTGame likes to mock.)

Finally, thumb wars, the only completely new sport of the mini-package. This one I found insipid. Rounds play out very quickly, and depend only on how fast you can shake your hand to free yourself from your opponent’s grasp. It definitely doesn’t sound very welcoming to anyone with wrist injuries, for one. 

Even for those healthy on that front, including me and presumably my boy Bruno, the motion gets tiring very easily. It’s intended to be a quick-paced clash of wills, but it doesn’t really stick the landing. You know what already served that purpose? Swordplay. I miss that one. I liked cutting those fruits, too. I’d keep going way after the cuts the game asked me to do. Well, I guess I’ll always have the original. 

Still speaking on modern-age changes, I find I don’t really object to the Sportspals as much as I did when they were first revealed. They’re nice, even though they’re not Miis (and you can still have your Miis in the game). Plus, playing with different modes of character creation is fun, actually! The most beloved Mii creators of the 2020s, found in the Miitopia remake and in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, got the public’s favour precisely because they allow for going beyond Miidom and into new frontiers. Why not let the Sportspals be a part of that universe?

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort didn’t blow my mind the way Wii Sports Resort did when I was a child. I mean, how could it, when I’ve seen it before? I don’t think that’s what it wants to do for me; rather, it wants to carry on that duty. It wants someone younger than me to feel as I did in ‘09. So far I definitely see the outline of that idea — but it’ll probably come closer to fruition when we get a look at those Air Sports. Those kids with free roam mode will get to realise all the dreams I had at their age.