It has been six years since Ring Match Journey, the Nintendo Change health recreation that requested gamers to defeat monsters (and a horny dragon) by way of train. The exercise recreation used the Pleasure-Cons’ accelerometers to measure your actions and translate them into health assaults on display. It’s bizarre, it’s wacky, however it labored.
I performed fairly a little bit of Ring Match through the COVID-19 lockdown. What can I say: Nintendo stored me energetic at a time after I wasn’t doing a lot else. And it didn’t take lengthy for me to note that I felt stronger. Workout routines like squats or leg lifts, which had been extremely tough in my first week, obtained simpler.
Even now that the world has opened up once more, as a power miser, I hesitate to affix a health club or a yoga studio. On the finish of the day, I can’t assist however suppose: We have now Ring Match at residence. (I don’t endorse this mindset, however I do personal it.)
However because the years have passed by, a creeping worry has grown at the back of my thoughts. And now, within the early weeks of the Change 2’s launch, it appears plain: They’re not making a Ring Match 2, are they?
Nintendo ought to make Ring Match 2
Picture: Nintendo
Ring Match Journey was a blockbuster recreation for the Nintendo Change. Through the pandemic, determined gamers snatched the sport off retailer cabinets or overpaid for it on eBay. In 2022, it was one in every of Nintendo’s best-selling video games.
The identical was true of Wii Match for the Nintendo Wii, which reportedly offered out in shops even earlier than it was launched. However its follow-up, Wii Match U, didn’t achieve this scorching — it didn’t crack the highest 10 titles for the beleaguered console.
Possibly that is what Nintendo is attempting to keep away from. However the Change 2 isn’t similar to the Wii U in terms of gross sales. There are 3.5 million items within the wild proper now, however scant few console exclusives. I can’t complain that almost all Change video games are playable on the Change 2 (together with the unique Ring Match Journey, extra on that later), however it appears affordable that an viewers for a brand new health recreation exists.
A part of the attraction of Nintendo’s health video games has all the time been their visible quirks. In some Wii Match workouts, your bean-shaped Mii is the on-screen avatar, and so they do step workouts onstage in entrance of cheering crowds. The avatars in Ring Match Journey are extra subtle, however the narrative is filled with cartoonish characters and situations.
The lighthearted aesthetic, and Ring Match Journey’s low-commitment mannequin, make understanding really feel extra enjoyable than a chore. It solely takes about 10 minutes to finish a stage. When you can actually do extra in a session, I can’t let you know what number of occasions I satisfied myself to get off the sofa and work out as a result of “it’ll solely be 10 minutes!”
Nintendo hasn’t utterly deserted health video games. In December, it launched Health Boxing 3 for the unique Change. As an train recreation, it’s undoubtedly useful. However its laser-focus on boxing and a extra easy health club setting doesn’t fairly scratch the itch that Ring Match Journey did.
Theoretically, you possibly can play Ring Match Journey ceaselessly. As soon as the primary quest is over, you possibly can basically do a New Recreation Plus run by crafting customized exercises. Armen B. at CGI Espresso did a complete yr of Ring Match Journey, and reported that the {hardware} holds up, even after a whole lot of reps.
It feels improper to be asking — nay, begging — Nintendo to let me give them extra money, once they’ve already launched an costly console and populated it with choose $80 exclusives. However even when Ring Match Journey is a ceaselessly recreation, absolutely Nintendo left one thing on the desk?
A second installment of Ring Match’s narrative might carry lapsed gamers like me again to the fold — and introduce new ones to the health recreation. Please, my atrophying thigh muscle tissue are begging for it!
Ring Match 2 would want new {hardware}
The excellent news is that Ring Match Journey continues to be suitable with the Nintendo Change 2. However the {hardware} isn’t. In its compatibility information, Nintendo notes that the brand new Pleasure-Cons received’t match within the Ring-Con or the leg strap. Gamers can nonetheless use the unique Pleasure-Cons to play, which is nice. However given how prone they’re to float, it’s not precisely enjoyable to think about shopping for a complete new console and nonetheless presumably needing to shell out for substitute controllers for the outdated one in the event that they break, simply to play a health recreation.
It could be nice to see a brand new Ring Match Journey, constructed for the Nintendo Change 2 and its upgraded {hardware}. I’ve all the time appreciated Nintendo’s dedication to health, and I hope we received’t have to attend too lengthy to see what it might do with the Nintendo Change 2.
