Going back to my earlier days in the Commodore-64 era, I have fond memories of enjoying some great multi-event sports titles both solo and with my friends. Typically the titles of choice would be from the Epyx Games series, with our favorites being both Summer Games II and Winter Games, but there were other titles like the iconic Skate or Die that come to mind as well. On the Switch we’ve tended to see some releases around the Olympics of varying quality, and I’d say 40 Sports Games in 1 itself fits that description well.

To be clear, this is a follow-up to 34 Sports Games - World Edition, also by the same developer, and for the most part this has that same basic core with some new events added. The presentation has been updated a little, but for the most part returning to the same events will prompt a serious sense of deja vu if you’ve played the previous title. For everyone else though, it could be a fresh start and there are quite a lot of events to experience, and generally enjoy. 

You’ll be able to tackle events individually, or in tournaments that tend to pair different sports on a general theme. One great feature is that it really feels like there was an effort to choose as many diverse events as possible, avoiding the trap of too many track and field challenges that could make many activities feel too redundant. The bad news is that with so many styles of play that come with those diverse events, the control schemes and the quality of their implementation can also vary pretty wildly between sports. You’ll be killing it on rollerskates in one event and then utterly baffled on what you’re doing wrong in one on horseback. While there’s an attempt at some on-screen directions, they can be very hit and miss. Thankfully many events tend to be pretty intuitive so after a few moments what you need to do will make sense, but in other cases repeated attempts never really made the controls feel any more sensible.

What you’re then left with is a mix ranging from moderately fun to utterly confounding. The fact that the game’s overall look is quite dated also does it few favors. If you’re able to play it with bigger groups I suppose it would more likely lead to some fun, if nothing else since everyone could struggle with the ups and downs of the different control schemes together. It’s a step up from its predecessor, at least offering more content, but it still isn’t going to be standing on any medal platforms.