Nintendo recently shared some screenshots of Spocco Square, and these pictures make the Nintendo Switch Sports home base look really impressive. Each building looks beautifully detailed, and the various NPCs hanging out in each building make them seem alive. This level of detail creates the perfect opportunity to add a free-roam mode to Nintendo Switch Sports where players simply walk around Spocco Square, get to know the other local athletes, and discover all kinds of useful things. Previous Wii Sports games may limited the player’s ability to explore, but Nintendo Switch Sports doesn’t have to do the same.
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The Potential in Exploring Spocco Square
Nintendo Switch Sports isn’t the first game in the Wii Sports family to have a unique setting. Wii Sports Resort featured Wuhu Island, the heart of a resort archipelago that featured all 15 of the game’s sports categories. While players usually only saw parts of Wuhu Island while playing certain games, the Island Flyover mode of Wii Sports Resort’s Air Sports allowed players to view the wonderfully detailed island from above and discover several secrets. Still, flying over the island on a plane meant that a certain amount of distance between players and the island was inevitable. Wii Sports Resort’s details could’ve been appreciated better with an additional Hiking option that encouraged careful exploration.
Spocco Square provides Nintendo with an opportunity to let players explore on foot, and there’s plenty that players could get out of that experience. For instance, players could get the opportunity to meet NPC athletes who provide strategy tips on Nintendo Switch Sports’ various game modes and even tease sports that Nintendo will add to Nintendo Switch Sports later. Players might also get the chance to find exclusive clothing items and other cosmetics while walking around Spocco Square. Walking around this athletic park would be an immersive experience in its own right, but there’s plenty of mechanical benefits to be had.
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Nintendo Switch Sports Has New Ideas
There may be hope that players can explore in this way. According to Nintendo Switch Sports playtesters, players can get jobs in the game, which could very well involve physically looking for work in Spocco Square or walking around the square while doing work tasks. Nintendo Switch Sports also reportedly features restaurants and clothing stores, both of which could be in-game locations, rather than simply menus that players interact with. These features, alongside free-form exploration, would certainly make Spocco Square feel like a real community.
So far, Nintendo Switch Sports seems like it has quite a few new ideas built in, which is a good thing. Even though Wii Sports is a classic franchise, Nintendo Switch Sports wouldn’t have been nearly as interesting if it just rehashed all of its predecessor’s ideas. Nintendo needed to innovate in order to revive this franchise, and between new sports and cosmetic options, Nintendo has innovated pretty well so far. Hopefully there’s plenty of other features that Nintendo Switch Sports hasn’t showed off yet, though. Surprising and useful features like manual exploration will help push the boundaries of Nintendo sports games while contributing more ideas to any possible future games.
Nintendo Switch Sports releases April 29, 2022 for Nintendo Switch.
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