Nintendo Switch: The Best Games!
Commercial success isn't necessarily an indicator of quality!
From 3 March 2017 until today, the Nintendo Switch has managed to exceed all expectations. The system previously known by the codename NX is responsible for the Kyoto company's financial salvation: it has sold over 152 million units, best expressed by the formula PlayStation 5 + Xbox Series S/X + 46 million… or PlayStation 4 + Xbox One minus 23 million.
And here we're only talking about the number of consoles that have flown out of warehouses and off store shelves. On the software side, Nintendo has recorded another gargantuan success: 1.39 billion games sold in approximately 8 years. That means, on average, each Switch owner has bought 9 different titles.
Practically the only gaming machine that looks better in statistics is the PlayStation 2… and we all know that a good part of those sales were due to its DVD player function.
But commercial success isn't necessarily an indicator of quality: it could be the mark of a triumphant marketing campaign, or it could be the result of a global epidemic that kept people locked in their homes for a couple of years. However, Nintendo, which in the Wii U era was struggling to maintain its market relevance and resorting to desperate measures (the launch of Mario games for iOS and Android represents the peak of this crisis), really needed a victory as resounding as the Wii or even the NES.
And yes, the Switch boasts some of the best games ever released: titles relevant both in the context of the series they belong to and in the history of interactive digital art. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild remains the most memorable and influential exploration experience of its generation – it influenced other masterpieces such as Elden Ring, Ghost of Tsushima, and Horizon: Forbidden West.
On the other hand, Super Mario Odyssey achieved the feat of refining and even perfecting the recipe for a three-dimensional platformer. Astro Bot and It Takes Two are clearly influenced by both the success and the gameplay mechanics introduced by Odyssey. And thanks to this adventure, the Super Mario 3D World remaster came bundled with a new game titled Bowser’s Fury. A true triumph on all fronts!
Nintendo didn't lag behind on the 2D front either: after implying the genre was already exhausted when it made level design accessible to the masses with Mario Maker 2, the Kyoto company pleasantly surprised us with Super Mario Wonder. Keeping the basic elements, the new game managed to bring a breath of freshness and innovation rarely found in such an old and standardised genre. Another 10/10 release, meant to rekindle our hope in creativity even where we least expect to find it.
Moreover, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 managed to take the concept of a JRPG with real-time battles in a vast world to the next level. Which is a bit ironic, because Square Enix (the creators of Final Fantasy) has been struggling for almost two decades to rediscover glory and has superior hardware offered by Sony PlayStation at their disposal. XC3 is effectively the contemporary equivalent of Chrono Trigger, but with battles and exploration elements that unfold on a much larger scale. And yes, the Nintendo Switch also holds this distinction of keeping the flame of JRPGs alive.
And since we're talking about adventures with heroes saving the entire planet from cosmic and eternal forces, the Switch had the honour of popularising the HD-2D style in games. Initially, Octopath Traveler was an exclusive launch for Nintendo's hybrid system. And its commercial success brought classic titles like Live A Live and the original Dragon Quest trilogy back to life.
Thanks to impressive sales on the Switch, several companies dusted off titles from their portfolios to resell them. Thus, the Batman Arkham trilogy, the BioShock Collection, the Borderlands series, and even absolute classics like DOOM (1993), Duke Nukem 3D (1996), and Quake (1996) enjoyed a new wave of public appreciation. In the first half of the decade, several studios were elbowing each other to port games to the Switch. Even Square Enix and Rockstar, who previously had reservations about collaborating with Nintendo, rushed to sell on the hybrid system.
Concurrently, we observed several phenomena manifesting in parallel. An excellent example is Splatoon: a seemingly simple and childish concept, but one that shook the foundations of the competitive third-person shooter scene. All you have to do is mark territory with your team's paint… but the ways you can alternate between brush and paint gun to overwhelm your enemies remain a subject of fascination for millions of colourful souls to this day.
The Pokémon universe didn't fare badly either: Let’s Go, Pikachu!/Eevee!, Sword & Shield, Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, Scarlet & Violet and Arceus took battles between adolescent Pokémon trainers to the next level. Even now, almost at the time of the original Switch's retirement, Nintendo and Game Freak are preparing Legends Z-A: a bold approach that brings new elements to the quasi-known capture and battle equation. We'll see the result in October 2025 and it will most likely mark the end of a memorable chapter.
Want to talk about remasters and remakes? After all, they represent an important market segment in a period when nostalgia sells better than most fresh ideas. The Switch debuted strong, with an improved version of Mario Kart 8 (titled, without much inspiration, the “Deluxe” edition). Yet this game sold 68.2 million units… meaning almost half of Switch owners bought it. But the frenzy of metamorphoses didn't stop there: The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, a beloved title for Game Boy owners from the mid-1990s, received a generous coat of fresh paint to shine again in the hands of gamers on buses. It also sold about 6.4 million units, almost as many as Black Myth: Wukong and Astro Bot combined on PS5. Skyward Sword HD, an attempt to resuscitate a Wii masterpiece, was no slouch either: it brought back a more precise version of wrist-based sword control and raised the standard of graphical fidelity for this Link adventure. It sold 1 million more copies than the original Wii – a fact that confirms the power the Switch has demonstrated from 2017 until today.
This effect of boosting profits by virtue of porting to Switch was also discovered by indie studios. Stardew Valley, Overcooked, Celeste, Hollow Knight, and Dead Cells extended their cultural relevance thanks to the “Nindies” campaign in 2017 and 2018. Obviously, the platform was not spared a flood of shovelware (bad, cheap, and hastily made games without rigorous quality control). But progress compared to previous moments in the company's history, when any release had to pass through an absurd filter based more on partnerships between studios than on quality, was felt. Nintendo learned from the Xbox Live Arcade lesson and came to convert independent believers to the red religion.
We also had, thank Miyamoto, increased attention paid to beloved but less popular series in terms of sales. Metroid Prime Remastered is the most eloquent example: an absolute masterpiece in terms of first-person exploration and puzzle-solving, which in 2023 showed no signs of its 21 years. I don't even know if it's such a good game or if the FPS genre simply hasn't progressed much in the last two decades.
The purpose of this article is not just to pay homage to the company that won the most recent console battle… nor to list a few games you've already heard about. I want you, at the end of reading, to go to Olx and Facebook Marketplace to find the most accessible way to explore the universe of the Hyrule kingdom. I want to make you want to order a Switch 2 – not necessarily for the new releases, but for the joy of discovering the magic of the original Switch on a faster and more powerful configuration. And, most importantly, I want to help you rediscover the joy of playing: without pretensions or prejudices, in the midst of an adventure that reminds you of the feelings of a Saturday morning in the late 1990s… in the times when a Rambo or Terminator 2 could unfold true Hollywood plots in your imagination.
The Nintendo Switch has a magic of its own that you can't understand by reading technical specifications or scrolling through lists of available games. The experience of playing anywhere, with the possibility of closing the system at any time to resume the adventure exactly where you left off, is truly special. The moments when you use the dock to connect the console to the TV are spectacular — especially when you realise how your small digital immersion has just taken on epic proportions. And the occasions when you share the Joy-Cons with a visiting friend will make you appreciate even more the fact that Nintendo thought of all situations and doesn't necessarily force you to buy a second controller. If you also manage to get your hands on a model with an OLED screen, don't be surprised if you end up preferring to play on the Switch over Xbox and PlayStation. Once you catch the exclusive bug or embark on a journey of rediscovering absolute classics from the 1990s and 2000s, it will be hard to put the console down… especially when portability allows you to enjoy playing anywhere, anytime you have a few free minutes.
For these reasons (and probably others I've forgotten), the Nintendo Switch is my favourite console of the last decade. It's the system for which I've bought and collected the most games… and my attachment to the platform prompted me to pre-order the new Switch 2 on day one. It has memorable titles, offers a unique experience of discovering some of the industry's gems, and reminds you at every step that games were made for enjoyment – not for counting frames or measuring resolution.
That being said, I present to you some personal rankings that I've structured as unnumbered top 10s. It was effectively difficult for me to establish hierarchies – but I will encourage you to choose the best games in each category. Now excuse me, but I'm going to check the status of my Switch 2 pre-order again… if all goes according to plan, I'll be unreachable for a good few days starting tomorrow!
TOP 10 – Best Exclusive Nintendo Switch Games:
10. Metroid Prime Remastered + Dread
9. Bayonetta 3
8. Splatoon 2 & 3
7. Xenoblade Chronicles 3
6. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
5. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
4. Kirby and the Forgotten Land
3. Super Mario Odyssey
2. Super Mario Bros. Wonder
1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild + Tears of the Kingdom
TOP 10 – Best Switch Exclusives (but NOT developed by Nintendo):
10. Astral Chain
9. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble
8. Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer
7. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle
6. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
5. Shin Megami Tensei V (exclusive for the first 3 years)
4. Monster Hunter Rise (exclusive for the first 10 months)
3. Octopath Traveler (exclusive for the first 11 months)
2. Triangle Strategy (exclusive for the first 7 months)
1. Luigi’s Mansion 3
TOP 10 – Phenomenal Indie Games on Nintendo Switch:
10. Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove
9. Cuphead
8. Undertale
7. Dead Cells
6. Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition
5. Hollow Knight
4. Celeste
3. Hades
2. Stardew Valley
1. A Short Hike
TOP 10 – Incredible Ports on Nintendo Switch:
10. DOOM (2016) + DOOM Eternal
9. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
8. Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy, Definitive Edition (the 2025 updated version)
7. Alien: Isolation
6. L.A. Noire
5. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
4. Nier: Automata
3. Persona 5 Royal
2. Crysis Remastered
1. BioShock: The Collection
TOP 10 – Remasters and Remakes on Nintendo Switch:
10. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
9. Super Mario 3D All-Stars
8. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
7. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
6. Pikmin 1+2 Remastered
5. Bayonetta 2
4. Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe
3. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD
2. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
1. Metroid Prime Remastered
TOP 10 – Immortal Classic Games available on Nintendo Switch:
10. DOOM (I, II, 64, 3)
9. Quake (I, II)
8. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
7. Sam & Max Save the World
6. Star Wars (Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, Knights of the Old Republic I + II, Dark Forces, Bounty Hunter, Republic Commando)
5. Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition
4. Final Fantasy (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XII)
3. Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition
2. Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour
1. Resident Evil (0, 1, 4, 5, 6, Revelations)
TOP 10 – Games available through the Nintendo Switch Online subscription:
10. Super Mario Bros. (1, 2, 3 – NES)
9. StarTropics (NES)
8. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
7. Super Metroid (SNES)
6. Pokémon Red and Blue (Game Boy)
5. GoldenEye 007 (Nintendo 64)
4. Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64)
3. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64)
2. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Mega Drive/Genesis)
1. Streets of Rage 2 (Sega Mega Drive/Genesis)
