Don’t be fooled by the title of this game.  There aren’t really 40 full sports games on here.  Just multiplayer mini-games based on things you do in sports.  It feels like a title from a bygone era from the Wii days.  40 Sports Games in 1 is available on Switch and PS5, but reviewed on Switch here.

The first thing you’ll do is make an avatar using things like various clothes, accessories, hair, skin tone, and more.  Then you can choose modes like Quick Play, where you just jump right into one of the games.  There’s also Tournaments, where you play three or four games in a row and earn points depending on how well you place, and whoever has the most points at the end, wins.  The points you earn will also let you unlock new outfits and things for your avatar as well.

Up to four can play the mini-games and each one uses ideas from real sports, and most aren’t actually the full game.  Sometimes they are, like Squash (racquetball), but most aren’t.  For instance, Golf is just mini-golf but you only get one turn and whoever gets closest to the hole on each round wins.  Volleyball is just four people hitting the ball to each other and trying not to miss.  Reminds me of that one mini-game in Kirby where you whack a bomb back and forth with frying pans.  Football is just you running towards a field goal trying not to get tackled.  Boxing and fencing are just the same game where four people are in an arena at the same time and you get points for hitting others.  You can play games with button controls or motion controls as well.

I don’t want to say this is like Wii shovelware, because this game isn’t ALL bad.  It’s just a basic pick up and play multiplayer title.  Graphics are certainly simple enough to have belonged on the Wii.  It is a bit annoying that you have to watch the CPU opponents play while you wait for your turn again.  I wish they let you practice the games before playing for real, too.  It might be fun if you have a lot of people over to play, but I can certainly think of better games than this for that reason.

Kid Factor:

40 Sports Games in 1 is rated E-10 with an ESRB descriptor of Fantasy Violence.  You can hit cartoony people around in some of the games, and they’ll lie there on the ground with dizzy stars around their head, and that’s it.  Reading skill is helpful for the instructions, but not necessary just to play.

Tags: Game Reviews