Analysis Sports Story – Nintendo Switch: Many (more) sports!

After several years of waiting, we finally have here Sports Storythe direct sequel to Golf Story, which, once again, has been developed by Sidebar Games. Thus, it is time to continue exploring in nintendoswitch a world in which the elements of RPGs and the sportier side of video games once again go hand in hand. And it is that now we will try to reach the top in more than one discipline in which things will not be easy!

A mega company, the mafia and various conspiracies in between

Define the history of Sports history It’s complicated, basically because we don’t have a single plot line like in its predecessor, where we had to become the best golfers on the island. On this occasion, we have to try to excel for different reasons, mainly in three sports: golf, tennis and soccer.

What starts out as what we believe to be the main story in which a mega-corporation is taking control of everything (for the good of the sports world) and in which the dragon mafia is also at work, soon expands as we pass through the tennis academy and to be the best on the soccer field, and without neglecting our challenges as golfers. And they are not the only practices that appear, since we also practice, more sporadicallysome other sports that give more variety to the name of “sports”.

As we can see, despite being a direct sequel, we have a totally different approach, and this variety of sports means that we also have more mechanics, with exploration and puzzles where it is noticeable that there is more desEsports Extraswork, focusing not only on building a sports game with some RPG touches, but also expanding those elements that make us define a role-playing game. In factthe exploration is much greater, and we even have dungeons that make it difficult for us sometimes. And not only do we have to talk about new sports, we also have to talk about improvements in golf, with new balls that make our shots much more special.

This new approach is mostly positive, but I do have to say that the rest of the sports that appear, that is, those that are not in the group of “the big three”, are at least residual and casual. Yes, we have variety and there is volleyball, motocross and even cricket (to name a few), but these are limited to very specific minigames in some parts of the story. For example, speaking of cricket, in the early stages of the game we participate in a match, but this is limited to returning some balls and that’s it, so we don’t even get to feel the “emotion of the sport”, that is, that of winning or losing, see how we come back from the game, see how everything falls apart and we bite the dust, etc.

For this reason, and much to my regret, I have to say that here the game would have won more if the number of sports had been limited to only 3 in its main stories, because the quantity has translated into a decrease in the quality of sports more secondary. In golf, tennis and soccer we do feel that emotion, everything is said; and in the exploration a very clear evolution is noted; but the more secondary sports feel very shoddy.

What is quite a success is having included a menu of missions, since, having “so many open fronts” on some occasions, we can organize ourselves well and know where we have to go. But this mechanic doesn’t ruin our exploration, because it doesn’t give us too many clues and solves the puzzles for us as soon as we get a bit stuck, as happens in some recently released games that we can frame within the same genre.

And well, you can’t talk about this either sequel without mentioning the main and secondary characters that we meet on our journey. Once again, there are all kinds, but even the least important in history has a very charismatic personality that makes us smile from time to time. And we also have some protagonists from the first game back, so it does feel like a true sequel that picks up where we left off.

A ball, a ball and a ball that, for the moment, have holes

As I said at the beginning of the text, it has been several years of waiting since it was announced Sports Story, and there have also been a few delays along the way, but we finally have the game here. And should it have taken a little longer to arrive? Well, as much as the answer to this question is not liked, it must be said that yes, that a little more polishing time wouldn’t have hurt.

Regarding graphics and sound aspect, this continues the trail of Golf Story, even improving in some aspects such as animations (now more and better) or a soundtrack with more themes; but the main problem with the game is its development time, which feels short. In the two weeks that it took me to play the game and write the text, I have seen that an update has been released in which they have been corrected. Some bugs that he had experienced, which had caused me to either get stuck at times or have to restart the game, all spiced up with some dialogue not displaying correctly. Do I mean by all this that the game is “broken” and unplayable? Of course not, we can play it from start to finish, but with some problems that tarnish our experience.

Sports Story – A different approach to reach the top of sports

In Sports Story we meet a Totally different approach than its predecessor, now with more sports (its own name indicates it) and, above all, with an exploration and some puzzles in which it is noticeable that they wanted to take a step further than what has already been seen, in order to continue attracting players to a very colorful world full of charismatic characters and the most varied situations. However, in this case, more is not equal to better, since although we have 3 sports that are the main ones (golf, tennis and soccer), the rest of the sports that appear are limited to specific moments and specific mini-games, so they don’t quite shine either. Also, the rush to release the game has taken its toll, with some bugs that tarnish our progress (yes, at the time of publishing this analysis, a first update has already been released that corrects a large number of them).

Sports Story is neither better nor worse than Golf Storyits predecessor, but it does have a different approach that may not be exactly what those players who are more inclined towards sports games with RPG elements are looking for, since this time we feel that it is an exploration RPG with sports elements. But what cannot be denied is that the mechanics already present in the previous game are taken to a new level in this sequel. In any case, if we liked the previous one, we cannot miss the opportunity to give it a try.

We have analyzed “Sports Story” thanks to a digital download code provided by Sidebar Games. Analyzed version: 1.0.3

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