Developer: BANDAI NAMCO Studios Inc.
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: July 27th, 2018 (NA/PAL/JP)
Price: $49.99/£34.99/€49.99/￥7,789
Genre: Open-World Minigame Collection
Multiplayer: Up to 4 players, either on 1 Switch or multiple through Local Wireless play in both minigames and free roam; NO ONLINE PLAY
Compatible Controllers: Sideways Joy-Con, Dual Joy-Cons, and Pro Controller while in docked/tabletop mode; In multiplayer, all players must use Sideway JC or Dual JC/Pro Controller, No mix-and-match
HD Rumble: Yes
Languages: English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Simplified Chinese
File Size: 8.8GB
Official Site
At first glace, Go Vacation may seem like a simple minigame collection trying to ride off the success of Wii Sports Resort. That's true, but the real highlight of the game are the four resorts you can explore to find the 50+ activities and abundant secrets this game has to offer.
Surfing, Sky Diving, and Scuba Diving make this resort a tropical paradise for fans of watersports. You can frolic on the beach, then search for the ancient Mystic Jungle and a secret activity.
Some of the activities found here include:
- Surfboarding
- Waterskiing
- ATV Races
- Water Gun Fights
- Scuba Diving
- Skydiving
- Plus free use of ATVs and marine bikes
Zip through this multi-level resort on inline skates or a skateboard to find activities like Table Hockey, Mini Golf, and Street Racing. You can grind on rails throughout the city to spot secrets on the tops of buildings.
The best resort includes some of these activities:
- Skateboarding
- Inline Skating
- Street Racing
- Carnival Games
- Minigolf
- Air Hockey
- Plus free use of skateboards and rollerskates
Snowball Fights, Snow Tricks, and Dog Sledding are just a few of the activities you can play on this giant snowy mountain. There are hidden pathways and caverns to discover, too.
This cool place has some activities like:
- Snowboarding
- Skiing
- Snow Tubing
- Dog Sledding
- Snowball Fights
- Snowmobile Races
- Plus free use of snowboards, skis, snow tubes, and snowmobiles
Outdoor activities like Tennis, Horseback Riding, and Kayaking take you all over this beautiful resort. There's a lake to explore and royal secrets to uncover at the castle on the lake.
Although the mountainside river is the best part of this resort, it also has activities like:
- Horseback Riding
- Rafting
- Kayaking
- Off-Road Races
- Tennis
- Plus free use of horses, kayaks, and off-road cars
Once you complete enough activities in all four of the resorts, you unlock your villa, a place where you can make your own house Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer-style. You also get to choose your own dog to travel along with you!
If you didn't know already, Go Vacation is a remaster of a 2011 Wii game. Not only did they (kinda) spruce up the visuals and implement HD Rumble, they also added some new activities and features not present in the original game.
- New fishing spots were added to the Marine and Mountain Resorts, allowing you to fish for over 30 different types of fish.
- Friends (seemingly online?) can have their characters show up within the world, allowing you to challenge their best times in minigames.
- New photograph spots in all four resorts allow you to take pictures of animals in their natural habitats. There's over 160 animals to view across the four resorts.
- Planes can airdrop crates full of rewards onto various parts of the island.
- New daily challenges appear on each island in sets of three, which can help you unlock clothing and different breeds of dogs.
- Button controls are now available alongside the existing waggle controls.
Announcement Trailer
Overview Trailer
Screenshots
Metacritic:
66
Nintendo World Report — 7/10
Go Vacation has remained the fun experience that it was ages ago. Naturally, it hasn't aged well from a graphical perspective, but it does a lot of good in its totality.
Nintendo Life — 6/10
Go Vacation presents a world full of games and activities that feel consistently average, with common flaws across the board making each game similarly dull, tiresome, and not worth the asking price. The game's setting itself provides a welcome break from this, though, with an impressive amount of things to see and do at your own leisure injecting a much-needed dose of fun into the proceedings. Strangely, this is a multiplayer sports game that probably suits those looking for decent single-player exploration the most.
My Nintendo News — 5/10
While the staggering amount of things to do may be appreciated by some, it's another example that demonstrates how quantity shouldn't always be a priority over quality.
Tired Old Hack — Unscored
On the Wii, Go Vacation was trying to enter homes that most likely already had at least two sporting mini-game titles in their library. What we have now on the Switch is a situation where there's no Wii Sports, no Wii Sports Resort and nothing else decent that's really like them. In this day and age, Go Vacation stands alone as the sole option for anyone who fancies dipping back into the Wii days. And those who do will be more than happy with what they find.
