Update 08/17/2020: Sports Story has been delayed from its mid-2020 release, with no new release window announced.
Developer Sidebar Games explained on Twitter that, "The game has become rather ambitious and we are excited about how it could turn out. But the price is currently being paid as we try to make our plans into reality."
A lovely in-game trailer explaining the delay (below) teases some of the features the team's still working on, including a "squid thing", a golf pinball machine, a secret hotel level, playing football with a dog, vampires, pirates, an evil corporation, and regal exile.
We've prepared a Sports Story update video to shed some more light on the situation. pic.twitter.com/FpGPVyFhD3
— Sidebar Games (@sidebargames) August 17, 2020
Sports Story, a sequel to 2017 Switch exclusive Golf Story, was announced during Nintendo’s latest Indie World Showcase.
Set to arrive sometime mid-2020 also as a Switch exclusive, Sports Story will feature far more than just golf. Its reveal trailer shows glimpses of tennis, soccer, volleyball, baseball, and more (including, yes, still golf).
The same trailer mentions that your character will compete in something called the “Decasportathon,” so we can likely assume there will 10 main sports to be played in total. Golf Story branched out slightly from traditional golf itself, with some levels having you play disc golf instead.
For those unfamiliar, Golf Story (and Sports Story, since it will seemingly follow a similar basic structure) is a mix of top-down sports game and RPG, allowing you to level up your golf skills and early better clubs as you progress through a linear story. Sports story will also have dungeons, espionage, and plenty of non-sports related activities to pair with that.
I reviewed Golf Story at launch and gave it a 7.5, saying its “clever writing and sound golf fundamentals keep it entertaining, even through some stale and repetitive moments.” It could be that the inclusion of nearly a dozen different sports will help this sequel avoid the same issues with repetition.
You can read through every announcement from Tuesday’s Nintendo Indie World Showcase, including the reveal of Axiom verge 2, and read our full Golf Story review here.
Tom Marks is IGN's Deputy Reviews Editor and resident pie maker. You can follow him on Twitter.
https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/12/10/sports-story-announcement-trailer