Instant Sports All-Stars

Genre: Sports (Various) / Party Game

Players: 1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)

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Review:

Quite a while back, I reviewed Instant Sports, a game that appeared to be aiming for the role of Nintendo Switch’ take on Wii Sports (you know, before Nintendo Switch Sports gave us exactly that). For its follow up, Instant Sports All-Stars, released on Nintendo Switch in 2022, this game is going for more of a Party Game take on the genre, with sports-themed minigames. This game now includes 27 minigames, though you might instead view it as three variations each of nine minigames, each based on a different sport: Football, Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Hockey, Bowling, er…. more Bowling… Target Shooting, and… Food Assembly? Oh come on, guys, you’re really reaching here…

Players are presented with the option to use either traditional gamepad controls or motion controls for all of these games. I’ll make this easy for you: the motion controls for all of these games are terrible, even games that would seem like an obvious choice for motion controls, like Target Shooting. As such, I’ll be talking about these games based on their gamepad controls.

Here’s each of the minigames included here:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Grade
Football: Stadium	Auto-Runner	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	C
tl;dr This is a fairly straightforward game that has you moving left and right to dodge oncoming football players, trying to be the last one to survive. Not bad, but nothing especially noteworthy.
Football: City	Auto-Runner	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	C
tl;dr The same as Football: Stadium, but on a busy city street instead.
Football: City	Auto-Runner	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	C
tl;dr The same as Football: Stadium, but with a Wild West theme for some reason.
Soccer	Sports (Soccer)	1-4 Team Competitive (Local)	C+
tl;dr This is actually a competent, if short and simple, 2v2 Soccer game. Just be aware that if you’re facing off against AI opponents, they’re dumb as rocks.
Street Soccer	Sports (Soccer)	1-4 Team Competitive (Local)	C+
tl;dr This takes the basic Soccer gameplay of the above game, adds obstacles to the course like parked cars, makes the ball giant, and somehow makes the AI opponents even more inept. Still, if you’re playing in multiplayer, this makes for a fun alternate take on the sport.
Wild West Soccer	Sports (Soccer)	1-4 Team Competitive (Local)	C+
tl;dr This seems like the halfway point between the regular and street soccer modes above, with the ball small again and fewer obstacles.
Baseball: Hit Mania	Arcade	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	C
tl;dr This minigame has you hitting balls shot by a pitching machine, trying to have the best timing on your hit. While not bad, it is extremely simple.
Baseball: Traps	Arcade	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	C+
tl;dr Like the previous game, but now you’re not only trying to time your hits, but trying to avoid “trap” balls. It’s still a simple minigame, but this new element adds some much-needed variety to the gameplay.
Baseball: Demolition	Arcade	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	C
tl;dr Once again, you’re hitting balls tossed by a pitching machine, but now, the timing of your hits doesn’t determine whether your hit is better or worse, but the direction you’re hitting it as you aim for targets. It’s a decent idea, but there’s too much to keep track of, resulting in this seeming chaotic more than fun.
Basketball: Crazy Basket	Arcade	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	C
tl;dr This game has you aiming basketballs at numerous baskets, trying to score as many points as you can by hitting high-point baskets before others do. It’s a decent concept, but the controls take a lot of getting used to.
Basketball: Moving Basket	Arcade	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	C
tl;dr Like the previous game, but now instead of aiming at multiple baskets you’re aiming at one moving one. The controls are still difficult to get a grasp on, so this isn’t really an improvement.
Basketball: Pachinko	Arcade	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	C-
tl;dr I love the creativity that went into this minigame, trying to sink basketballs on holes in a tilted field filled with pegs. Unfortunately, the way the holes close up immediately after a basket is sunk makes it so the first lucky shot nullifies all others, making this seem less based on skill and more on luck.
Olympic Shooting	Shooting Gallery Game	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	C+
tl;dr This is just a target shooting game, but it works well, with controls that feel pretty good despite that you’re just moving a cursor (unlike the extremely laggy motion controls).
Bonus/Malus Shooting	Shooting Gallery Game	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	B-
tl;dr Another Shooting Gallery Game, but this one has you aiming at balloons popping in and out from behind scenery in a way that seems much more creative, and you have to avoid red balloons, adding more gameplay variety. Pretty good!
Cowboy Shooting	Shooting Gallery Game	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	C+
tl;dr Like the previous game, but in a wild West setting shooting flying coins and money bags. Not bad, but less varied than the previous game.
Speed Ice Cream: Stadium	Arcade	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	C
tl;dr This game has players trying to repeat the sequence of colors on-screen. Unfortunately, when multiple scoops of the same color are together, it can be difficult to tell how many there are.
Speed Burger: City	Arcade	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	C+
tl;dr This is just like the previous game, but with hamburger ingredients instead of ice cream. But at least this time it’s easier to see how many there are of each ingredient.
Speed Skewer: Western	Arcade	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	C+
tl;dr This is just like the previous two games, but with meat skewer ingredients instead of ice cream or hamburgers. Unlike the prior two, this one has all players trying to make the same recipes and racing to be the first for each, which is a decent change.
Giant Ice Hockey	Sports (Hockey)	1-4 Team Competitive (Local)	C-
tl;dr This is pretty much exactly the same as the previous game, but with your players shrunk down. I suppose this solves one of the problems of the previous game, but this is still far more chaotic than fun.
Roller Flipper	Sports (Hockey)	1-4 Team Competitive (Local)	C+
tl;dr Changing the giant puck to a smaller ball, adding Pinball-style bumpers, and unleashing multiple balls at once doesn’t cut down on the chaos, but it’s so over-the-top it’s hard not to like it. Plus, having multiple balls makes it harder for players to just guard the goal. This is definitely the most fun of the Hockey trio of games.
Bowling 5 Rounds	Sports (Bowling)	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	C
tl;dr The way targeting is done in this Bowling game makes it very hard to predict where your ball will go. Sadly, the motion controls are even worse, not properly detecting your motions.
Bowling 10 Rounds	Sports (Bowling)	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	C
tl;dr The same as the previous version of Bowling, but twice as long now.
Bowling Mania 5 Rounds	Sports (Bowling)	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	C
tl;dr Like standard Bowling, but with more pins and a “construction site” theme. A nice addition, but the indicators and controls are still lacking.
Bowling Mania 10 Rounds	Sports (Bowling)	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	C
tl;dr Like the previous game, but twice as long.
Cactus Bowling 5 Rounds	Sports (Bowling)	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	C-
tl;dr Like standard Bowling, but with obstacles in the way. The obstacles are so large it seems far too difficult to avoid them, and the indicators and controls are still lacking.
Cactus Bowling 10 Rounds	Sports (Bowling)	1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)	C-
tl;dr Once again, it’s the previous game, but with twice as many frames.

In short, there’s a whole lot of mediocre games in this Party game. Not any that are truly horrible, and a few that are decent, but most are just “meh”. Also, I have to say that it’s particularly disappointing to see the Bowling games here being so miserable, since that was the one bright spot in Instant Sports.

And beyond all the mediocre games, there’s also the issue of repetition. While some of the alternate versions of games here do genuinely offer something truly different, the Football games and food games are all extremely similar to each other, and half of the Bowling games are just “the same thing, but twice as long”. This definitely makes it seem like the number of minigames is being inflated here.

I should mention that the presentation uses colorful, slightly-cartoony 3D visuals that aren’t impressive but work well enough, and the soundtrack is decent enough for a Party Game but forgettable. Not really anything terrible or noteworthy in the presentation.

Overall, Instant Sports All-Stars is far from the worst Party Game I’ve ever played, but there’s far too much repetition here, and the truly good minigames are far and few between. The result is a game that I wouldn’t want to bring out at parties… or really ever. Players might find a bit of enjoyment out of the better games here, but you’re much better off going for a Party Game that’s actually good all the way through rather than hunting through one for scraps of something worthwhile.

tl;dr – Instant Sports All-Stars is a Sports-themed Party Game with 27 Sports-themed minigames… sorta’. It’s a stretch to call a few of these Sports, and many of the games here are copies of other games in the bundle, making it far less varied than that number seems. What’s more, nearly all the minigames are pretty mediocre. The result is a Party Game you won’t want to bring to a party of even the most enthusiastic sports fans.

Grade: C-

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