The game launches with 12 motion-controlled sports, all using the Joy-Con 2 :
A Jump Rope minigame was shown in some early coverage but is not consistently listed among the 12 core sports .
The game is set on the beloved Wuhu Island, a fan-favorite tropical location from Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit. Its return in HD is considered a major selling point of the title .
The first clear images of Miis in the game appeared in a leaked Japanese magazine advertisement in July 2026 . The change is immediately visible:
Nintendo has not issued an official press release or blog post explaining the redesign. However, multiple gaming outlets — including VGC, OpenCritic, NintendoSoup, and My Nintendo News — report that the likely reason is practical: the Mii body was stretched to match the taller, more realistic proportions of the non-Mii Sportsmate avatars .
According to VGC, the change was made "to match the taller, more human-like proportions of the Sportsmate characters" . NintendoSoup similarly reported that the redesign "to better match the proportions of the non-Mii player avatars" was done to "make things easier on the developers for animations and other gameplay" . Rather than building two separate animation skeletons, Nintendo appears to have given Miis a stretched body that fits the existing Sportsmate framework .
It is important to note that Nintendo has not explicitly confirmed this reasoning in any press release or official post. The "match Sportsmate proportions" explanation is inferred by journalists based on the leaked images . All details currently come from the magazine leak and subsequent reporting.
The biggest complaint about 2022's Nintendo Switch Sports was the complete absence of playable Miis . Nintendo Switch Sports Resort directly remedies this by bringing Miis back as a fully playable character option alongside the standard Sportsmates . Players can choose between the two styles .
So while the new look may be controversial, the fact that Miis are available at all addresses the most significant community grievance from the previous title.
Fan reaction has been swift and strongly mixed:
Miis are back in Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, and while their appearance is a notable departure from the classic look, the move appears to be a pragmatic decision to fit within the game's character rigging. Whether fans love or hate the "lanky Mii," the bigger story is that Nintendo listened to the most common complaint from 2022 and made Miis playable again.
The game launches October 22, 2026 on Nintendo Switch 2.