Sports: Renovations review

• Available on PC
• Released on 27 March 2025
• Developed by Goat Gamez

If you’ve ever lost hours to House Flipper and fancy something with a sporty twist, then Sports: Renovations might just be your next fix. Instead of sprucing up bathrooms and kitchens, you’re rolling up your sleeves to restore climbing gyms, basketball courts and even swimming pools. It’s a fun spin on the formula, and if you’re into the chill satisfaction of before-and-after transformations, this one’s got some charm.

This is the debut title from developer Goat Gamez, and to be fair, that does show in places. Things like painting and cleaning feel clunkier than in similar games: using a brush or painting tool isn’t as smooth as you’d hope, especially if you’re playing with a controller. Still, thanks to the more unusual locations, you can forgive a bit of awkwardness here and there. Renovating a derelict boxing gym or restoring a pool is just more interesting than repainting another dull hallway.

There’s a bit of a story running through it, too. You’re trying to save your local basketball team’s home court from being turned into a shopping mall (rude), and to do that, you’ve got to earn cash by fixing up other sports facilities. It’s a neat enough premise that gives some structure to the jobs you’re taking on.

Gameplay-wise, most tasks boil down to the same few actions: pick up trash, smash broken furniture, clean, and paint. There are occasional fun twists — like reassembling climbing walls or replacing pool tiles — but those are mostly reduced to holding down a button. It’s the simple stuff, like painting, that ends up being frustrating: using a controller, your whole camera moves with your brush, making it feel more fiddly than it should. You can thankfully auto-complete painting after hitting 50%, but you’ll probably wish you could just skip the whole thing sooner.

There are some light puzzle elements — turning on water valves, getting the power back on, that sort of thing — which add some welcome variety. But even those can be let down by finicky controls that make precise interactions harder than they need to be, especially if you’re not using a mouse and keyboard.

Still, despite the rough edges, there’s something satisfying about seeing a grubby sports center brought back to life. If you’re new to renovation sims, you’re better off starting with House Flipper. But if you’re already a fan of the genre and just want somewhere new to clean, smash and paint your way through, Sports: Renovations is worth checking out. Just don’t expect it to feel super polished.