Back in 2017, the Switch library was still in its early stages and had relatively little competition, so indie projects like Blossom Tales and Blaster Master Zero had far more visibility than the current crowded marketplace. . Another big early winner on the eShop was Golf Story. It’s a goofy and offbeat take on a golf RPG, reminiscent of Game Boy Color’s excellent Mario Golf, and proved surprisingly appealing to a wide audience. To capitalize on this newfound success, Sidebar Games soon announced a sequel, Sports Story. This expands the gameplay to other sports such as his BMX bike, soccer (no, it’s not called soccer), and tennis. After more than five years, this long-awaited sequel has finally arrived, two days before Christmas when Shadow He dropped. Sports Story isn’t a bad game by any means, but it’s a very disappointing one, given what it was.
Sports Story follows the characters from Golf Story as they travel to a scenic island with their coach and friends. many Budget for sports activities. You come there to play golf, but it doesn’t take long to get hooked on the many other sports’ academies and competitions.
The plot makes very little sense, but that’s kind of the point. Helping a band of ax enthusiasts find legendary wood chips somewhere on the golf course, or helping adults and children Even if you go to a tennis boarding school, there’s always something interesting to push the event forward.
As mentioned earlier, Sports Story goes far beyond golf and incorporates many other sports.Although this still feels like a golf game beginning, the diversity of ideas offered helps create more diverse gameplay loops. Trade the paced for a fast-paced tactical one. Among the mixes here, you’re sure to find one that’s perfect for you. For sports that don’t, you don’t have to wait too long before your focus shifts to something else. other than that.
The downside to this, however, is that it can sometimes feel like your gameplay loop is congested. For example, early on, you give a brief (and rather confusing) introduction to volleyball, but you quickly walk away and don’t get a chance to play it again for a few hours. And while tennis feels the deepest of the new additions, others like football feel shallower and more superficial. I wish I had narrowed it down to just one or two and focused on making them as fun as the original game golf. Its ambition is certainly laudable, but with so many gameplay concepts not properly explored, it feels pretty futile.
Another unfortunate trend noted in game design is the emphasis on fetch quests and boring, miscellaneous tasks that have little to do with sports. Sure, one of Golf Story’s biggest selling points is that it can get off the wall for other purposes, but Sports Story feels like it’s gone too far in this direction. Most people probably won’t pick up a game like this in hopes of running around to do basic, unnecessary errands for NPCs, but Sports Story forces players to do just that. Busy work can be moderately cute – and to the game’s credit, it feels a little more focused on sports after things open up a little – but Sports Story It would have benefited from an overall streamlining and slimming down of the arduous quest.
Related to the hassle of completing quests is a general lack of direction. We are often given vague goals and not told where to go, how to do it, or even what our purpose is. can Do at this point in progress.sometimes there is another A subquest or objective that must be completed first before starting the quest you just obtained. Occasionally, unremarkable NPCs or poorly marked areas can become a bottleneck to progress. Ultimately it can be worked out through blind trial and error, but I felt that a lot of my time was spent figuring out what to do next rather than simply thinking about it. playing game. RPG staples like quest markers, more helpful NPCs, or journals that provide details of objectives are desperately needed here.Without it, a simple map All right. Without a doubt, Sports Story is certainly fun once you get hooked on it, but the fun gameplay bits are often interspersed with long deserts of tedious backtracking and confusion.
In terms of presentation, Sports Story borrows the same 16-bit art style from its predecessor, but adds some nice details to flesh it out even further. Whether you’re exploring dank caves, autumn-colored forests, or rainy swamps, the retro aesthetic feels well executed without being overly gimmicky. This is one area where Sidebar Games feels like it’s built entirely on the strong foundation it laid in its first release.
The soundtrack, on the other hand, is a bit unimpressive, but it does an excellent job of setting a quirky and somewhat laid-back vibe with its use of 80s-inspired synths and an overall EarthBound-esque tone. There aren’t many standout tracks here, but the overall audio felt like it matched the visuals and gameplay effectively.
Unfortunately, Sports Story is suffering very A little bit in the performance department. Framerate drops, visual bugs, softlocks and occasional crashes are comparable to a course here. There have been many cases where the ball has been sent to the bunker due to the ball coming off the ball. In another case, pressing the “Y” button would normally line up the character for a shot, but suddenly it did nothing.For some reason I press ‘A’ afterwards did This meant I couldn’t interact or talk to anyone until I reset the game. Another time I had to step into the outline part of the ground to start a mini-game, only to find myself trapped in a room with no outline visible.
Sidebar Games upcoming patch It sorts out a few issues, but the truth is that the studio has certainly cut its work short. We recommend waiting for a patch or two before opting for this one.
Conclusion
Compared to Golf Story’s unexpected highlights, Sports Story is woefully mediocre. The script is as good as ever and the visuals are a nice upgrade, but performance issues, annoying fetch quests, and occasionally confusing gameplay all hold this game back quite a bit. certainly has some fun games on offer, but you’ll have to decide for yourself whether it’s worth the negatives, especially considering the Switch eShop is lousy with great games these days. While you’ll find Story to be a fun enough sequel, there’s no denying that after waiting so many years it feels pretty disappointing. Assuming Sidebar can fix the worst technical issues, I’d lightly recommend Sports Story to anyone looking for a quirky sports RPG, but it deserves a spot at the top of your list. plug.