Having been a fan of multi-event sports titles since the very early days of the classic Summer Games series by Epyx, as well as arcade games like Track N Field, I’ll admit I’m always excited to see new entrants to this subgenre arrive on the eShop. More often than not they somewhat predictably tend to be a mixed bag, including some events that are a lot of fun and have some depth, as well as others that don’t feel like they’ve translated as well for whatever reason. One unfortunate truth about most of these games over the years, is that they don’t tend to be much fun as a solo experience, really needing some family or friends in place to help raise the stakes and get some trash talking going.

In the case of Instant Sports 2, overall I’d say it feels right on the nose in terms of how it fits into my typical expectations. Obviously geared more towards younger, or at least less seasoned gamers, it has some events that are hits, as well as some that may not be misses, but at least don’t fare as well in terms of their depth, controls, or general gameplay. In general, I do think they more often than not at least feel like they represent their respective sports reasonably well. I’m also happy to say that while many titles in this vein tend to pad their numbers with multiple events that control and feel very similar to one another, that this at least includes enough variety to keep things more interesting. 

Overall, I’d say that the top-tier events that are the most engaging, have controls that are pretty intuitive, and will challenge people to push themselves are skateboarding, wingsuit flying, baseball, and mountain biking. Each of these is just a bit more fun than the rest, manage to leave the impression that there’s some room to get better, and should generally get everyone a little more amped up. In the middle tier, whether due to a lack of overall excitement, more muddy controls, or sometimes just rules that don’t make much sense there’s mini golf, volleyball, and rugby. Again, not necessarily saying that they’re bad, just that they’re not as consistently fun above all. Then last, in what feels like the lower tier, I’d say you have rafting, padel, and boxing. Here, the complaint is just more that the controls and concept just don’t as easily result in a fun time, but even at the low end of the spectrum that isn’t to say there’s no fun to be had either. If you’re able to get together with some friends, especially if everyone is starting out at the same general level, there seems to be plenty here to enjoy for a number of hours, but I’d consider single player to likely be a bust in the end.