The BEST Year for Nintendo Switch (And the WORST)

When I started writing this blog post, I intended to list my top 10 favorite Switch games now that the Switch 2 is upon us. As I began outlining that list, it dawned on me that 10 wasn't going to cut it.  As I started to expand, I realized I would just be recapping the Switch first and third party exclusives at this point. So, I decided to go in a different direction: ranking each of the full years of the Switch running from 2017-2024. To get this out of the way: I am ranking each year based on exclusives only, including timed exclusives. In addition, I did not and do not intend to put an exhaustive list by year. I just captured what I felt to be the subjectively important successes, mediocre titles, and (rare) duds. I may not have the chance to talk about every title listed either. If your favorite game is not touched on I apologize in advance. 

One thing that stood out to me when compiling the list of titles released by year is how stacked most years were. Nintendo had a bevy of hits this generation augmented by some very smart timed deals (Hades was only on Switch for a year!) and Wii U ports to fill in slower months (not to mention the huge amount of third party ports which ranged in quality to the extreme). On the subject of Wii U ports, I tried to only include them if the Switch version had some additional content. It is completely possible I am mistaken there as well. With my personal criteria out of the way, onto the rankings!

8th Place: 2024

Notable Titles:

• Another Code: Recollection

• Mario vs Donkey Kong Remastered

• Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door Remastered

• Princess Peach: Showtime!

• Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

• Mario & Luigi: Brothership

• Luigi's Mansion 2 Remastered

Some of my choices in this article may prove controversial to the 5 people who read it, but 2024 shouldn't be one of them. This is clearly the year Nintendo decided to phone it in and told its customer base "surely you missed games from the past few years to play!" Speculation of a Switch 2 2024 release was rampant, so perhaps it got pushed back and they just had no backup plan for games on the original Switch. One thing is for sure, we will find out in 10 years! 

The standout title here is Echoes of Wisdom, which is a legitimate contender to crack the top 20 list. It is a fun reimagining of what 2D Zelda can be in the present day. My only gripe is that they could've done more both with the content of the world and the difficulty. A sequel will require more of a challenge. The other two big drops have been met with something of a shoulder shrug from fans: Mario & Luigi's cult classic RPG series returns, but the consensus seems to be that the game does too much to hold your hand which bogs it down. Princess Peach Showtime was very clearly made for children and it shows. Most everything else notable in 2024 are remasters of older Nintendo titles, and while some are stone cold classics (looking at you Paper Mario), the lack of titles this year makes 2024 an easy decision for last place.

7th Place: 2020

Notable Titles:

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons

• Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

• Paper Mario: Origami King

• Pikmin 3 Deluxe

• Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX

• Super Mario 3D All-Stars

• Super Mario 35

• Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition.

2020 was an interesting year for all of us, to say the least. That goes double for Nintendo. On the one hand, this was probably the most culturally dominant Nintendo has been since the Wii first dropped alongside New Super Mario Bros on the DS. On the other hand, this is a top heavy year with a lot of the other releases resting firmly in the "meh" category. This was also the year where Switches sold at such a fast clip that industry watchers began to speak of the console in the same breath as the PS2 and the DS.

Some of this comes down to timing. The PS4 and the XB1 were both winding down giving Nintendo a clear runway. But most of it comes down to one title: Animal Crossing. What had been a fairly niche franchise on past consoles really came into its own during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nintendo experimented with the traditional village based formula by placing us all on islands where we had complete control to terraform it, design it, and add villagers to it. Much like Stardew Valley, this allowed players to put countless hours in during lockdown (a break from the past where AC soft locked you from grinding). This vaulted AC:NH to the 2nd best selling game on the console, losing out only to the unofficial pack in title. 

Like the other years at the bottom here, 2020 gers ranked so low due to being heavy on remakes/remasters and more mediocre titles. Xenoblade Chronicles 1's gorgeous remake pushed the console to its limits, and the limited run Mario 3D All Stars took us back to some of our favorite Mario adventures, but games like Origami King and Age of Calamity fell short of the mark. Origami King had the potential for greatness with its storytelling and boss fights, but they forgot to make the random encounters meaningful. Fans seem to agree that Age of Calamity was a step down from the first Hyrule Warriors. Mario 35 was a ton of fun while it lasted, but it's still a small game. The fact that this is Nintendo's 2nd worst year for me says a lot about the console's output.

6th Place: 2018

Notable Titles:

• Kirby Star Allies

• Mario Tennis Aces

• Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu! / Let's Go Eevee!

• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

• Super Mario Party

• Octopath Traveler (timed exclusive)

• Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition

• Hades (timed exclusive)

• Bayonetta 2 

This one might land me in some hot water with the reading faithful. While this is a solid year of games, none of them reached out and grabbed me by the nutsack. I'll start with the elephant in the room: Smash Ultimate is the best and most culturally relevant Smash game since Melee. While I would've preferred a more robust single player campaign, I still put 70+ hours into it, mostly with friends. But much like with 2020, one game is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here. Hades is the other 200 lb gorilla, the surprise bestseller started its console life on the Switch which exposed it to a lot of people that likely didn't have much Roguelite experience. 

Octopath Traveler is a fine game by all accounts, and most importantly, it presaged a very productive relationship that Square's Team Asano and Nintendo would have. In my opinion, the HD2D titles on Switch are some of the finest works Square has had in a long, long time, and they were perfect for what the Switch was trying to do. Hyrule Warriors and Bayonetta 2 were smart Wii U ports that introduced the hit titles to the rest of the world. But there's some duds here. Pokemon Let's Go are notably the first 3D mainline Pokemon Games, but are otherwise remasters of a game we've already had remastered once. Mario Tennis and Party would showcase one of the few blackmarks of the Switch era for Nintendo: a majority of their multiplayer focused exclusives sorely lack in content and seem to be lazily pushed out to pad out slow seasons. There's more to do on the Gamecube variants of these games for crying out loud!

5th Place: 2021

Notable Titles:

• Super Mario 3D World & Bowser's Fury

• Bravely Default 2

• Famicom Detective Club

• Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD

• Mario Golf: Super Rush

• Mario Party Superstars

• Metroid Dread

• New Pokemon Snap

• Pokemon Brilliant Diamond / Shining Pearl

• Warioware: Get It Together

• Shin Megami Tensei V (timed exclusive)

• Monster Hunter Rise (timed exclusive).

2021 is most remembered as the year of the COVID hangover. Very few major titles released that year on PS5 or Xbox. But someone forgot to give Nintendo the memo. 2021 is the first year (on this list) where the console got quality titles all year long in my opinion. It started off with a bang: Mario 3D World is another excellent Wii U game that most people missed, and to top it off it came packed in with what is simultaneously a DLC campaign and a look at where 3D Mario goes from here. Imagine if the other Wii U ports had this kind of content. Buttressing this release are 3 third party RPGs that were highly rated by newcomers and veterans alike: MH Rise, SMT V, and BD2. Once again Nintendo showed a real savvy with the kind of third party exclusives they chose to pay for on their console.

As if that wasn't enough, the surprise return of 2D Metroid to a major Nintendo console was announced mid year. Up to that point all of the speculation had been on Prime 4. I think I speak for many when I say my hype was immeasurable, and Dread mostly lived up to the standard set by its predecessors. This is what really separates 2021 from the years just below it. What keeps this year from rising higher in my rankings is the other consistent black mark in the Switch's lifecycle: the Pokemon games. Snap and the Diamond/Pearl remakes are pretty obvious cash grabs. Mario Golf and Warioware also suffer from the same issues I mentioned previously: a lack of content (WarioWare desperately needed a DLC pack of levels rather than a 2nd game). We did get the DLC Mario Party should have gotten in Superstars. Ah well, you can't catch 'em all.

4th Place: 2022

Notable Titles:

• Kirby and the Forgotten Land

• Pokemon Legends: Arceus

• Bayonetta 3

• Splatoon 3

• Mario+Rabbids: Sparks of Hope

• Triangle Strategy

• Pokemon Scarlet / Violet

• Nintendo Switch Sports

• Mario Strikers: Battle League

• Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes

• Xenoblade Chronicles 3

• Live A Live (timed exclusive)

The next two years on this list are more of a 3A/3B ranking for me. They are both standout years with stellar titles. The differentiator is the games I had slightly more fun with. 2022 started strong with the only objectively good Pokemon game in Legends Arceus and it never let up from there. Pokemon is one of those series where a large open world is most welcome, and unlike Sword before it or Violet after it, this game is mostly baked (though it still looks like a Wii game). From there we got the first 3D Kirby game in years, and certainly the most ambitious title on a major console. Taking a page from Odyssey's book, Kirby's worlds are jam packed with collectibles and challenges that give you incentive to replay them. This is the game that nobody (except Mo) asked for, but everyone enjoyed. While also not my bag, Splatoon 3 continued to grow the popularity of one of Nintendo's strongest, and youngest, franchises.

From there we had two sleeper hits from Square: Triangle Strategy and Live A Live. Triangle Strategy gave me that FF Tactics gameplay I can't get enough of, and Live A Live is a highly experimental game that was only released in Japan on the SNES. It's hard to believe a game this unique came out back then, it could easily be mistaken for a modern indie game. The hits continued with Xenoblade Chronicles 3 coming out, for my money the best of the trilogy. This game tied in the narratives of its predecessors while pushing the Switch to its absolute graphical limits without performance issues. I highly recommend this particular game to anyone on the fence about the series. MonolithSoft are true wizards given that they were working on this AND Zelda.

The latter half of the year has some more controversial titles: Bayonetta 3 and Sparks of Hope, while good games, draw complaints for performance issues (Bayo) or going too easy compared to the first game (Sparks). These are good games if uneven. What's not good is Switch Sports, the only game I legitimately regret purchasing. It is basically Wii Sports. That was fun 19 years ago, but you need to update the formula today. The year closed with the much maligned Pokemon Scarlet/Violet which had the bones of an incredible game (I still liked it), and the optimization of Cyberpunk on the base PS4. What could've been a runaway success ended up turning people off with performance issues.

3rd Place: 2019

Notable Titles:

• Astral Chain

• Cadence of Hyrule

• Link's Awakening Remake

• Fire Emblem: Three Houses

• Luigi's Mansion 3

• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: Black Order

• New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe

• Pokemon Sword / Shield

• Ring Fit Adventure

• Super Mario Maker 2

• Dr Kawashima's Brain Training

• Tetris 99

• Yoshi's Crafted World

What makes 2019 special for me is that Nintendo, or their partners, put out 3 of my all time favorite games on the Switch using franchises most people, myself included, had little experience with (or entirely new ones). Fire Emblem: Three Houses leads the way for me. There are times where it is my favorite game on the system. The amount of content packed into this game is absurd, the battles are the right amount of difficult, and the story makes it worth your while to play at least 2 playthroughs like I did. Unlike many, I found the Persona like academy to be a nice change of pace, though it should have been skippable on replays. Link's Awakening Remake, another title nobody asked for, reminded those of us too young for the Game Boy why this is a Zelda classic.

Nintendo became notable for their surprise Direct announcements, and Luigi's Mansion 3 was one of those gems. The franchise was relatively unknown to the wider public, but 3 is a very polished game that has the right amount of puzzle solving and platforming while being a very unique experience: where else are you sucking up ghosts in a vacuum with Mario's cowardly brother? Astral Chain rounds out the pack with me as my favorite Platinum entry on the Switch. The nonstop action and killer soundtrack paired with slower, investigative sequences tickled a funny bone I didn't know I had. I eagerly await the sequel

While not my cup of tea, Mario Maker 2 is a fan favorite of many, often counted as the best new 2D Mario game on the Switch. Ring Fit Adventure came the closest to the Wii to getting people to actually exercise with their console. Brain Training is the real dud here, for most people it didn't capture the magic of the DS classics. And of course we got the first new mainline 3D Pokemon game ever, which, unfortunately, was the same as it ever was. But in 3D!!!!

2nd Place: 2023

Notable Titles:

• Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp

• Bayonetta Origins

• Fire Emblem Engage

• Kirby's Return to Dreamland Remastered

• Detective Pikachu Returns

• Tears of the Kingdom

• Metroid Prime Remastered

• Pikmin 4

• Super Mario RPG Remake

• Super Mario Bros. Wonder

• Warioware: Move It!

• Baten Kaitos 1-2 Remaster

• Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince

• Bayonetta 1 Remaster

• Pikmin 1 & 2 Collection

Of all the years we've gone through so far, 2023 is the only one that comes close to the release year for me. It feels like the Switch's swansong in a way that 2024 just hasn't. The year was led by Tears of the Kingdom, a surefire GOTY winner at any other time, and one of the best games on the Switch. Not only did it satisfyingly improve upon the gameplay of the original (and easily double the playtime), but it briefly broke out into the wider culture with people showing off all their unique inventions on social media. 

The pillars holding up this masterpiece are just as entertaining if a touch underrated: Pikmin 4 was announced early in the year along with a re-release of its GameCube predecessors, and its additions to the core gameplay loop would've made this a strong year even without TOTK. I spent as much time in Pikmin 4 as the other 3 games combined, and I particularly enjoyed the timed dungeons and night raids. Pikmin 4 is another example of Nintendo letting their lesser known franchises really shine. If only Sony could figure out how to do that they'd be in a much better place.

The other pillar is a mixed bag with me personally, but it's hard to deny the results: Mario Wonder was another runaway success. It didn't iterate enough on the NSMB formula for me, but with a better difficulty curve the next one could be an all timer. Rounding out this stacked year was a virtual shadow drop of Fire Emblem Engage, a game for the fans of the original formula of the series. It wasn't my absolute favorite game, but it's still 50+ hours of well thought out tactics maps. Smaller games like Bayonetta Origins and Dragon Quest Monsters also saw critical success: these are the kinds of games that would've shown up on the DS 20 years ago and it's nice that we're still getting them. Rounding out the year are remasters of good games that may have gone unnoticed in their time like Kirby's Return to Dreamland and Advance Wars. 

1st Place: 2017

Notable Titles:

• 1-2 Switch

• Arms

• Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

• Pokken Tournament DX

• Super Mario Odyssey

• Splatoon 2

• Xenoblade Chronicles 2

• Mario+Rabbids Kingdom Battle

• Golf Story

We all know the story by now. Nintendo was on the ropes with the Wii U—a massive failure. You know you're cooked when you're doing Sega Saturn numbers. Financially, they could go on (the 3DS was a slow burn hit by 2016), but a chorus of critics were asking the obvious question: why? Expectations for the Switch were low, and if you'd said "the Switch will catch up to the PS4 in a few years" everyone would've thought you a salty Xbox fan.

The pressure was on for Nintendo to deliver, and deliver they did. While 2023 is a worthy contender, it's hard to argue with the pound for pound quality that was the Switch's launch year. Breath of the Wild ended 6 years of fevered gossip and reinvented the Zelda franchise in the process. Mario Odyssey brought us the most complete and well crafted 3D Mario game since Galaxy. Splatoon 2 exploded into the mainstream granting one of Nintendo's newest franchises a permanent spot in the starting rotation. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 gave Nintendo a visually stunning and ambitious JRPG franchise of its own (yes I know the first game exists, but it did not sell well outside of Japan). Mario+Rabbids Kingdom Battle and Golf Story were both expertly crafted smaller scale titles that gave us a preview of the under the radar hits that would pad out the Switch's lineup year after year.

The weirdest one to put here was Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. It started out as a straight Wii U port with all of the unlockable tracks and characters there from the start. It did eventually get a series of DLC tracks large enough to constitute its own game, but this wasn't until halfway through the Switch's lifetime. Still, you really can't talk about the Switch without MK8. It's living proof that the Wii U did have amazing games, they were just locked on a moribund console. While the official pack in game was 1-2 Switch (yikes), for the vast majority of us, MK8 was the pack in title. Just about everyone got Zelda or Mario and then said "I guess I'll get Mario Kart too." This game is integrally tied up with Nintendo for over a decade now. I'd say they won't be able to top it, but it's dangerous to bet against Nintendo.

So, if you haven't decided to kill me by now for ignoring your favorite game or putting a year lower than you'd like on the ranking, let me know in the comments what your favorite year of Switch games is. It's hard to believe that 8 years have passed, nor that we're on the precipice of a Nintendo console reportedly up to the PS4 in power. The future is bright for the former trading card company, though there are some pitfalls. That, however, is for another article.