Basketball’s just arrived on Nintendo Switch Sports. A new sport means a new arena, so the most important question is: what’s the new restaurant like? Reader, it seems lovely. Behind the court there’s an elegant arc of a building, a kind of restrained Zaha Hadid number. Trailing plants hang down from above and at one end there’s a glass-fronted cafe lit by glowing amber overheads. At the other there’s a deck with seating exposed to the balmy skies. Sure, you risk getting a Spalding Size 7 in your cortado, but them’s the breaks.
Nintendo Switch Sports reviewPublisher: NintendoDeveloper: NintendoPlatform: Played on SwitchAvailability: Out now on Switch
And basketball itself is just as pleasant, to be honest. I love a free update to a game I already own, and this one’s a treat. The main event is two-on-two, which you can play alone, with friends, or online. Each team is split between offence and defence, and the most surprising takeaway so far is that defence might be the plum role of the two.
Offence is pretty fun, of course. Shake the Joy-Con to dribble, squeeze the trigger and raise it to ready yourself for a shot and then a flick of the wrist sends the ball home – or bouncing off the backboard. It’s fast and responsive and the physics are just gorgeous. It’s surprisingly fun to simply watch a ball bouncing around before deciding not to go in. Failure has never been so appealing.
When you’re in offence you can also pass to your partner, so long as they’ve made space, and then they can dribble and shoot or pass back. All fine. But when you switch to defence, basketball suddenly opens its eyes and also shows its teeth. It’s a bitter delight to be in defence.