Oh, I remember this. Move the sofa. Push back the chairs. And then every game begins with something that takes me back almost 40 years, to Music and Movement at infants school. Find a space, reach out your arms to make sure you don’t touch anything and knock anyone over. You’re ready. Just the thought of this is enough to bring back the smell of every school hall that has ever existed: floor polish, dust, feet.
But that isn’t how this would smell. This would smell of pot pourri and corporate perfume wafting in from hidden vents. This would smell of marshmallow and candied fruit and sandalwood. That’s one of the biggest surprises of Nintendo Switch Sports, actually. For me at least. How beautiful it all is.
Nintendo Switch Sports reviewPublisher: NintendoDeveloper: NintendoPlatform: Played on SwitchAvailability: Out now on Switch
The latest game in the Wii Sports series contains six games, three new, three returning, which might seem a little too slim a collection on paper, even after you factor in Golf, which is arriving in Autumn as a free update. This was all known in advance. What I didn’t register, though, is that the game unfolds across a sort of idealised urban campus, with each sport having its own grounds.
I have become obsessed with the grounds. From the staircases and exposed brickwork that house the pool for chambara – whenever I knock an opponent into the water I always spot an old lady stood on a gantry cheering me on – to the glimpse of a promising Boxpark you can see when playing badminton, all those coffee shops and whatnot arranged in old shipping crates, Nintendo Switch Sports is like working for Google or one of those wild tech companies where they do your laundry and serve lobster thermidor at your desk every evening.