Put about 1500 hours into this game as a kid. Still play it fairly often to this day. Game has one of the best soundtracks of any game of all time

Go Vacation 2 will forever be my dream

I think you somehow manage to capture this niche of gen Z comfort gaming in every video you make. Never stop my dude. One of my favorite passion channels ever

My friend and I have a tradition of playing Go Vacation every time she visits. We stay up late for hours just talking about life while we explore the resort. It never gets old, we love this game so much. The Wii-era graphics are super charming, and the sound design is exquisite. Sometimes we just sit on the ski lift and listen to the in-game radio, it's so relaxing and perfectly captures the minutiae of a vacation. Funnily enough, this was apparently one of the main goals for the developers. Not many people know this but there was actually an Iwata Asks interview for this game, which is just so unbelievably cool!

I don't know how many hours my best friend and I played this game as kids. The atmosphere of the game was on the one hand totally relaxing and decelerating, but could also be exciting and thrilling. The great thing was that you could always do what you wanted to do. For us, the activities were not in the foreground. Exploring was more our thing, even if we knew the complete map by heart. The only limit was our imagination. Since we are from Germany and therefore played the EU version, I can say that the music differs in some places from the US version. Personally, I think the soundtracks of the EU version are better, but that's probably because I grew up with them. I can't say much about the Switch port, I still think the Switch version seems kind of "lifeless". Especially the light in the different resorts looks much brighter and warmer on the wii. At least that's how I remember it. Finally, I can only say that we are now both adults and have not played the game for ages. There are so many emotions attached to this game, I can't even describe it. I would do anything to get back to that carefree time. Thank you so much for this little trip back to our childhood, when the world was still in order. ❤ Best wishes.

i hope nintendo makes an open world wuhu island one day :c

The best part for me was the secret areas-especially the snow resort hidden crystal/mushroom/lava cave that took you off the map! My sister and I would also spend hours trying to get up to the top of the mountain resort castle. We definitely rage quit that multiple times.

The menu music on Wii was actually totally different for EU copies - we never had that groovy tune back in the day! Great video as always and thanks for covering one of my favorite games :)

My sister and I played this all the time back on the Wii, and when our cousins came over, they'd join in. I purchased the Switch one and when my cousin saw it, she was like: "is that the skiing game?" (she loved the Snow resort the most as a kid), and yes, yes it is. I fully agree that this game is a lot of "make your own fun", which is fine. We did a thing called "penguin wrestling". You can have multiple villas, so all of us also had a penguin wrestling villa apart from our main ones. That means we only put a bunch of dining tables to make a "ring" and then we'd dress up in the penguin outfit and try to push each other off the ring. Ah, good times.

This game looks like exactly what my hopes were for Nintendo Switch Sports! Imagine being able to freely explore Wuhu Island, or heck, even Spocco Square with the minigames having the same amount of polish we've come to expect from the Wii sports series. Such a thing could probably be a true follow up to Wii Sports Resort, but unfortunately it doesn't look like we'll get that any time soon...

This game is awesome it's definitely one of my favorites. I'm glad it's getting more credit that it deserves

Man, I remember my niece and I playing the crap out of this game when we were kids. We could spend hours trying to go to the red dot on the map for the sport events while creating our own story along the way. Kind of playing house in each resort. Always found this game very underrated and it's great to see people still enjoy it.

Exactly! Such a shame we still don’t have something like this with Wuhu Island…

10:12 Nuh uh getting gold keys is my favourite memory of the game. It’s so fun trying tricky challenges to get a cool villa

What an incredible game! I've spent so much time back in 2012! Now i'm playing it on Nintendo Switch.

I played this game on the wii when i rented it on redbox and i was so obsessed my dad bought it for me for my birthday. This game was my childhood and although some gameplay values aren't great, It's still one of my top favorite wii games!

This game looks like a dream come true with how an open world wii sports game could have been. They just need to remake this game with modern qualitys and it would be a hit

I first saw this game when I got a news notification from my switch. When I first saw what this game was about, I immediately knew I had to get it. And when I booted up the game Christmas morning, I couldn't stop playing.

I actually really missed the gold key challenges from the new version. I loved grinding to 100% the wii version as a kid and switch version shifted away from a more completionist style of game. I was also very sad to see they didn’t expand the city resort but i still love both games 💖

There are no words to describe how much I love this game. It was the second game I picked up on switch as I couldn’t get enough of it as a kid. It’s just so adorable and is a perfect fuze between animal crossing and wii sports. Not to mention it’s a hidden gem. You never hear anyone talk about it

I'm glad you talked about this game. I got it for the Wii when I was six in 2013, and for the Switch a few days after its release in 2018. It's so nostalgic, exploring the resorts brings back so many memories and most minigames are fun even to this day. Especially when you grind to 100% percent the game, you are constantly motivated (this is more about the Switch Version). I really hope Bandai Namco hasn't forgotten about this game and we get another one in the future, be it a sequel or a port again.

My best friend had the game, and I remember both of us agreeing to play it every single time we saw each other when we were kids. I also remember both of us crying when we played this game for the last time before he moved out. As school children it was insane to have crazy adventures in split screen and open world. I have a very fond memory of when we found out that we could jump out of the huge waterfall in the mountain resort while still on horse back. Or just, talking about the weather while racing in the city on skateboards It's been years and we're both adults, but I'm shedding tears now for all of the memories linked to this game. May not seems like a lot but thank you for this video

I played this game with my siblings all the time as a kid. It's such a coincidence that I remembered that it even existed today, 1 day after this video was made. It brought me a lot of nostalgia, thanks 👍

I know a lot of time has passed, but I bought this game a week ago and I played it a lot. This review it's extremely great! I agree with everything said. You know maybe something that would've caught my attention even more? I'm afraid that once explored everything, there won't be anything left to appreciate. The fact that this game never had an update and does not have many online opportunities, it's kinda negative. You know, online interaction is always unique, and this could've made a pretty great difference. I don't know if someone will see this comment, but I hope to know your opinion! That's why my dream is that a "Go Vacation 2" will be released sometime. It's full of potential. I really hope this game will realize the great potential it has.

I don't know how I haven't heard of this game before. I just know if I had this game when I was a kid I would've been obsessed with it! Great review!

My favourite game of all time. I have so much nostalgia and many memories of this games. It’s amazing.

I played Wii ski and snowboard all the time as a kid, so when you mentioned Go Vacation in your “hypothetical Nintendo switch sports” video and it was a sequel, I knew I had to check it out! I’d never heard of it before then! But it’s so fun, I’m so glad I picked it up for the Wii : )

I played the original when it was released and was one of my favourite Christmas presents ever as a kid haha Loved this game, no idea it came to switch might pick it up for the right price one of these days

I was hoping that one day you'll talk about this game. I bought it on the Switch some years ago and I still love it! I'm gathering every now and then with friends to play. It's unfortunate that you can't play it online but it's still amazing! So many fan activities!

This game is my childhood in every definition of the word. I remember packing up my Wii to take to my friend's houses so that we could play together with a split screen, and to this day (even as recently as last week) I popped back in to earn trophies and decorate my villa I could get lost in the Snow Resort for hours during the night time, snowboarding down the hills nonstop, vibing in the ski lift for as long as it takes for me to get up the slopes - or fall down the waterfall in the Mountain Resort I will forever love this game and yearn for more of it, more to it, and share it with new friends to come

This game has sat on my wishlist for years now... I have been meaning to give it a try. Doesn't seem like Wii Sports Resort successor we want, but a pretty good attempt despite it's shortcomings. Nice breakdown!

My brothers and I still play the Wii version all the time. Excellent game and excellent video covering it!

My experience with the Wii version of this game was pretty much the same that you described. I basically ended up grinding each event for all the silver keys and ended up barely touching any of them afterwards. The reason for that is pretty much what you said, they work more like minigames than polished sports events that we know of the Wii Sports games (Or Mario Sport Mix, anyone remember that hidden gem?) The open world on the other hand kept me engaged way beyond completing all of the quest activities, gold key requirements, and collectibles (chests and photopoints), which I also all pushed to 100% completed. I even 100%ed the ones that aren't tracked like the giant soccer balls in each resort that have a more or less hidden goal that triggers fireworks. There's just so much to explore, it's awesome.

I love this game. I’ve spent so many hours just exploring the open world!

The memories I have of playing this with my older sister as kids are the greatest memories I’ve had with my Wii. The exploration and customization of the game more than made up for the somewhat unpolished mini games. The games and challenges just the two of us came up with in the open world were endless, and finding those gold key star challenges was actually so enjoyable. I will never forget doing races down the mountain and snow resorts, trying to reach secret areas, and finding all those treasure chests with her. Thank you Go Vacation!

I wasn’t sure weather to get this game but you’ve convinced me, even if it is just for roaming around the overworld it looks wonderfully relaxing. Thank you!

I love go vacation so much my comfort game

This game was so good. Brings back so many great memories :)

This game is truly underrated. It deserves more attention than it had right now. Thank you for making this video. But for real, this game would've been a lot more fun if it had Online support. But I still enjoy it the same way as I did with the Wii version.

Very well said. I hope this game's concept can continue to be improved!

Go Vacation is easily one of the best games of all time, mostly because of the City Resort.

"You may be wondering how there's a tropical sunny location on the same island as cold snowy mountains..." You'd be surprised, try looking up Cyprus for example, warm sunny beaches and a snowy mountain - even a ski resort.

it's sad to hear that the loading screens on switch take a lot of time cause one of the biggest Ws of the wii version was that you were always in the game no matter what

My younger brother and I had this growing up on the Wii, this video gets it exactly right, most of our time was spent goofing off in the open world

the amount of time i have spent on this game with friends is absurd. also, that menu theme is different depending on versions, the US version has the one you mentioned, but the other versions have a really fun tropical style thats just completely stuck in my brain.

This was my replacement before I was able to play GTA, I've spent literally countless hours with this game and I still know every little bit and detail about it years later, I literally can sing EVERY single song in this game and know where it belongs to. I recently just randomly heard the original Namco "Toy Pop" music for the first time and instantly thought of this game because I knew it from the train station at the mountain resort, never knew it was from another game.

Man, you dug up some real nostalgia right there. My sister and I used to play this game for hours on end. We spent most of our time just moving around in these large open areas, exploring all the hidden places and messing around with each other and the vehicles. It truly is a great experience with all it had to offer. I really feel like popping that disk in my Wii U now and relive those memories. Thank you for your video about it! A polished sequel on the upcoming Nintendo console would be amazing!

Go Vacation is even with it flaws my comfort game and will always have a place in my heart. I remember back in 2011 how I begged my mom to buy me a copy and I'm greatful she did that :)

Why have I never heard of this before D:

Oh wow, when my younger brother and I first saw this game at E3 2011, we went bonkers. Our young brains couldn't believe how good it looked, both in terms of fun and visuals. This is from someone who got sold on a Wii (literally) because of how much fun he had with Wii Sports Resort. So, seeing a game in a same vein take that concept and RUN so far with it, was amazing. We ate this up after it launched. I was absolutlely ecstatic when it relaunched again on Switch. Admittedly, I haven't nearly as much time into the Switch version as the Wii original, but I still have a soft spot for it. Just like you, I'd love to see this concept built upon and explored with a completely new, more complex engine. Seeing that Namco Bandai decided to double-dip and rerelease this on Switch, I'm surprised more steps weren't taken to properly remaster/remake it, or even just go for a sequel from the jump. This console was and still is set up perfectly for such a title, in terms of both power, motion controls, ease of multiplayer, online capabilities and hybrid functionality. Hopefully this isn't a one-and-done project.

Thank you for this video! I have spent soo much time in this game, both the Wii and Switch version. From time to time I also just ski downhill or go around the mountain resort or even take the tram, because it feels nice. This game receives too little love in my opinion. So I am happy seeing someone talk about it!

I will go work at Namco and make a sequel of Go Vacation that goes further. Mark my words. Amazing game.

I'm going down memory lane at the moment, and Go Vacation was one of the games my big sister and I used to play a lot as kids. We used to do stories with our characters, make them themed villas, do the hidden sidequests, unlock everything, go to the hidden areas... And do everything back again with a new set of characters. I loved this game and I have so many fond memories of it. I'm thinking of picking up the switch version, even though I still have the wii one lol

I think if 10 year old me knew there was a we ski and snowboard sequel my mind would have exploded, love the video! I think a big thing I enjoyed as a kid was these massive open worlds in older wii games, so much fun you can make for yourself, hell we ski and snowboard was literally ONLY an open world and I had sunk hundreds of hours into it as a kid. Gonna go pull out my wii and boot up some of my favorites now, great video!

used to play this game every weekend morning while my parents were either cleaning the house or working. This game holds so many fond memories. The open worldness of it. The minigames. The objectives. The easter eggs. I think this game is what got me into gaming all together. Seeing a video about it warms my heart :)

this game DID blow 10 year old me's mind. my sister and i both pitched in for that beefy $60 wii price tag and poured so many hours into this. thanks for giving it the love it deserves - messing around truly is the best part.

LOLL @ 5:31, I love how calm your voice was and then bam! This game looks pretty fun

thank you. go vacation wii is my favourite game

Great video about a great game. I loved when the DJs would comment on things in the game when in the city or snow mountain on the Wii, it's a shame the Switch version got rid of so much of that sort of audio extras that made it really feel like you were there. I still have a lot of fun on the Switch though, still a great time exploring the island.

This is the first game I played on switch

This was one of my all time favorite games when I was a kid, and I think it single-handedly cemented my love for open world games! Every time one of my friends came over I would get them to play this with me, and we usually ended up just exploring together or making up our own games (I remember hide and seek and tag being popular). On my own I loved climbing to the tallest point on all the maps (I specifically remember the top of the snow area and the top of the river in the mountains) and just going down the paths at top speed over and over again on different modes of transportation! This video reminded me that there was a Switch version, I'll have to go buy it!

I was so obsessed with this game when I was younger. I love it!!!

I am so happy to see people acknowledging this game. Its my personal favourite since the wii era and I can say: Multiplayer made this game for me. I played it eith friends and we'd roleplay all the time. Inbetween some dancing (which I love and am sad they had to remove) and snowman making (come on, making a snowman with a giant head and the smallest body is funny) and other stuff. This game just is so close to my heart. I have the switch version and played through all of it (only thing Im missing now is lvl 100) Still hoping they make a new one sometime or of course Wuhu Island in Go Vacation style (please give it to me! I want it, since the airplane mode on resorts and the wii fit stuff, give it us nintendo!) So yeah, so happy you made a video about this game that is amazing in its own way.

I loved this game as a kid, I remember exploring the map most of the time and rarely doing the activities yet it was still so fun.

Played this game for hours and hours as a kid. My older brother got me the switch port when it came out cuz he remembered how much I would play the original. Love this game and love this video!!

THIS IS THE MOST UNDERRATED GAME EVER

I remember getting this game on my switch, and I didn’t know this was originally on the wii! I still keep coming back to it to this day!

played way too much of this game as a kid on the wii, would absolutely love a sequel to fill that nostalgia i have for this game, love the vid

Wow the menu music from the Wii version really unlocked a core memory, good times

got this in christmas 2011 when i was 7 and i know it’s nostalgia tinted glasses but sometimes i still love how janky it is and i wish they did more with the switch port. the open world driving mini games in the city resort scream roleplay to me with all the houses and new roads to explore. damn love this one

I 100%ed this game as a kid because I loved it and played it so much. (Only game I've ever 100%ed) Loved playing it with my siblings as well. The scuba diving, sword fighting, and dance minigames were my favorites. Such a shame that 2 of those got cut. I always spent time roller skating in the city resort, riding a horse in the mountain one, and customizing my house. Great review. I would love to see another game like this with higher quality.

I have always been extremely nostalgic for this game, it was one of my favorites as a kid. I haven't gotten around to the Switch port yet, but since watching your video, I'll be looking to change that soon.

I haven’t seen the switch version before and I get they updated it to make it fit better with todays graphics and stuff but it just looks very weird. My sister (10 years older) and I used to play when I was young, although I didn’t know what I was doing properly all the time I always had fun. Later on I played myself and used to spend hours collecting stuff and customising everything. I also used to make random characters and make stories with them and upgrade so they all had villas. During Lockdown my cousin and I used to sit up on my little single bed and spend hours running around the worlds and exploring with our family members and a dog. Now I recently set up my wii again and I’ve been collecting stuff I missed when I was younger and again exploring places I somehow missed. The nostalgia on this game could never be beaten by anything. I don’t think I would purchase the switch version as I wouldn’t use it as much 😅

we skii was one of my fav wii games but i had somehow never heard of go vacation! seems like it captures the same energy so i'm hoping to buy it as it's on sale rn :D thanks for this video

The multiplayer in this game was amazing, I still play it with family to this day. It's one of my favourite games, if only there was more

Far from perfect, but grossly underappreciated nonetheless. I love Go Vacation!! Great video!!

I got a switch just for this game. I used to have it on wii and it has always stayed with me in my heart

Go vacation is one of my favourite sport games of all time to the amazing open world the very good minigames and sports all the way to you villa and its charm

13:55 No it doesn’t because they’re absolute bangers and it’s dynamic music like in a tense moment the music speeds up and the music is also really nostalgic and really good

I used to play the Wii Ski and wii ski and snowboarding games SO much, pretty sure its made by the same people, the hairstyles and anime faces are almost exactly the same, I loved these games

The level of exploring in this game was so cool when I was a kid and it's still unique. It's pure nostalgia. I wish there are more game in this style.

takes me back incredibly good video btw

I have been playing alot of this as a kid. Dam it brought me and my friends together. Best game of all ngl

This game was my entire childhood. Even though it's definitely not the perfect game I remember it being, I will always love it

I’m so glad I grew up with this - to having it on the wii, to playing it on the switch up until now, this is a beautiful game.

This game is a rare gem.

Playing this on the Wii was my childhood, the soundtrack is pure nostalgia, easily must've spent thousands of hours playing this masterpiece of a game, so much to do, what an incredible experience. Considering buying it for switch despite the removal of some of the best gamemodes (primarily dance)

I played this as a kid and newer knew you had so much mini games

FINALLY SOMEONE ACKNOWLEDGES THIS GAMMERE

We ended up playing Go Vacation at my cousins' house and we got it for ourselves. We played it so much. My favourite part was getting all the vehicles and the horses into ridiculous places like the ferry and on the train. I remember that one achievement where you had to run along the train tracks, I just cheated and stood on top of the train.

i got this game back when it came out on the wii when i was 6 and all my friends got it after playing it at my house, i miss this game so much

I heard about this game back in 2019 and got interested, I'd say, I never regret getting this on the Switch. Like you, I spent pretty much most of the time having a virtual vacation instead of playing the activities. I also like that the game sometimes pulls random Mii's from your Switch and adds them as NPC's you can have as companion in the resorts. I wish there's more interactivity with the resorts and the companions. Also the companions can only participate in very few activities, which is kinda wasted potential. It would be cool if you can have them in every activity that features CPU players and also have more interaction with them, maybe hugging, high-five, etc. It would also be cool if you could freedive underwater in the Marine Resort, maybe even taking pictures of fishes you can only find underwater. But still, I love this game and in my opinion, it treats the Mii's much better than Nintendo Switch Sports, that gave these weird korean F2P avatars more spotlight than the Mii's.

This combined with Switch Sports and Mario Kart scratch the sports/racing itch I get every so often. I need to get back into my other games. I have been so engrossed in Animal Crossing (New Leaf and New Horizons) lately.

i got this game a few months ago and i am addicted to it i think it deserves more attention

This is my favorite childhood game! Finally it gets the recognition it always deserved after the Switch edition was released.

Gosh i remember me and my sister, we were playing all Wednesday afternoon this game as parents weren't home so we could use the tv as much as we can , i miss that era

My sister and I used to always pick a random house in each resort and say it's ours😂 it was so much fun!

Bro I loved this game as a kid.

this video made my day, what a masterpiece of a game this is

I remember getting obsessed with this series in my early college years. I was surprised that We Ski even had sequels and that they actually evolved with each entry. Go vacation is definitely the Magic child of all 3 as it has it's own Iwata asks article, it's 2 of its own unique soundtrack (the other games had unique music but often borrowed music from other Namco Games the only reason I became a Katamari superfan) 11:15 is literally taken from soundtrack 2 Namco Music Saloon which was a Cover track turning several songs from obscure Namco games (and one licensed song) into charmingly cheesy romps about vacationing. The songs play diagetically in the overworld and probably were removed from the menu due to licensing (or because they liked the new menu) since the Namco Music Saloon isn't on Spotify while part of the game's main soundtrack is there (last time I checked since I dont use Spotify). Sure my friends weren't thrilled with this game but I have major respect for the ammount of time and care that was put into it.