Welcome to our master list of the top 50 best games ever released on Nintendo Switch, as ranked by you, now updated for 2024. As you can see, it offers a clear answer to the question ‘Which is best, BOTW or TOTK?’
Nintendo Switch has amassed a huge amount of great games since the console launched back in 2017. Of course, this abundance of riches leaves us in something of a pickle — too much software, not enough time to play it all. In fairness, it’s a lovely problem to have. Help! There are too many excellent games to choose from!
But what are the best games for Nintendo Switch? Well, we asked Nintendo Life readers to rate the top Nintendo Switch games since launch — the very best Switch games to play right now — and the list below is the result. As with our round-ups of the 50 Best Games from various consoles, years and series, the ranking is governed by each title’s User Rating in Nintendo Life’s games database and is subject to real-time change. This means our Best Switch Games list will always include new games as they are released.
If you’ve yet to score your favourites, simply click on each game’s rating below to score it from 1-10. A game needs a minimum of 50 ratings to become eligible, so it’s entirely possible to influence the best Switch games ranking below and get your favourites on the list.
Can’t see your favourite? If the game you want to rate isn’t in the top 50, feel free to find it using the search tool below and give it a score out of 10. If it’s bubbling under, it could very well pop into the ranking below.
Without further ado, let’s dive into this selection of the very best Nintendo Switch games you can play right now…
Publisher: Valve Corporation / Developer: Valve
It’s hard to overstate our satisfaction with Portal: Companion Collection. Portal and Portal 2 felt incredibly fresh when they first released, and the years since have not diminished their immense impact. To now have two of the most unique and mind-bending puzzle games on a Nintendo console, and on-the-go if you choose, is a pure joy. If it weren’t for the frequent load screens punctuating the experience, we’d have absolutely nothing to complain about here. The motion controls work like a dream, the games run at a near-rock-solid 60fps, you’ve got local co-op play available at the drop of a hat, and the writing remains as funny now as it did all those years ago. If you haven’t played the Portal games before, this should be a no-brainer. If you have… well, just play them again.
Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo
This beautiful Switch remake of the classic Game Boy entry rebuilds everything from the ground up. On top of the beautiful new art style, it added modern conveniences, a dungeon creator, amiibo support, and lots of little quality-of-life improvements whilst infusing every single square inch of Koholint – every secret passage, Piranha, Pokey, and Pig Warrior – with a level of detail and depth that totally reinvigorated both its timeless story and classic Zelda gameplay for a whole new generation of gamers.
If there’s anything holding The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening back, some minor frame rate issues might prove jarring for some players. Others may not even notice, but if you’re sensitive to dropped frames it’s possible you’ll find yourself distracted from the otherwise absorbing gameplay. It’s a little thing, but with the heritage of technical wizardry behind the Game Boy original, it is a small chink in this game’s otherwise glistening armour.
Publisher: Team17 / Developer: The Game Kitchen
Blasphemous 2 sticks with the exquisitely dark and gory style of its predecessor whilst building on the core combat and improving upon the platforming we saw the first time around. The Game Kitchen could have served us up more of the same and we’d have been perfectly happy. However, they’ve made meaningful upgrades here, with deeper and more satisfying combat and three upgradable weapon sets that combine perfectly with environmental puzzling that feels more cohesive and fluid overall. The Penitent One’s return to Cvstodia is an absolute banger.
Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Square Enix
Triangle Strategy is an absolute triumph for Artdink and Square Enix, a fantastic mix of satisfyingly strategic battles, an excellent choice-driven campaign narrative and top-notch world-building, all of which come together to form one of the finest tactical RPGs we’ve played in a very long time. There’s an absolute ton of content here, with a huge story featuring multiple paths to take depending on the choices you make and several properly impactful endings to enjoy on return visits. Serenoa Wollfort’s epic journey is a joy from start to finish, a grand and ambitious adventure that stands proud as one of the very finest examples of its genre on Switch.
Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo
Splatoon 3 is more of the same, but refined to borderline mechanical perfection. It’s the most fun we’ve had with an online shooter in years, and for series veterans it makes Splatoon 2 feel entirely redundant for all but its unique single-player content. It feels like the development team has solved every problem the Splatoon community was bleating on about, and then fixed some more that we didn’t even realise were problems until they were fixed. There’s nothing revolutionary about it compared to its predecessors, and it’s perhaps missing a Big New Idea™ that you might expect after five years, but Splatoon 3 is the pinnacle of the series, and the pinnacle of shooters on Switch.
Publisher: Whippoorwill / Developer: Adam Robinson-Yu
A Short Hike is a fat-free experience from top to bottom – or should we say bottom to top? It’s the kind of game that makes us just sigh with happiness when we recall our time with it, and even having played it through to its ostensible conclusion multiple times, we know for a fact there are still things to see and do on that mountain. What we have here is something of an apotheosis – a milestone in indie games akin to Cave Story, or Spelunky. The very best bits of multiple game genres, stripped of all padding and bloat, mixed perfectly into a delicious video game stew that only gets richer and richer the more you play. An exploration in every sense of the word, A Short Hike is cute without being twee, challenging without being obnoxious, and emotional without being cloying. A landmark game for all ages. Don’t miss this one.
Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Game Freak
Designated a mainline entry in the series by Game Freak itself, Pokémon Legends: Arceus feels like the result of the developers learning lessons for 25 years, refining the formula, and finally taking the franchise in a new, incredibly exciting direction. Technically it may stumble in places, but with an emphasis on extremely rewarding exploration, addictive catching mechanics, a fine roster of Pokémon, and a genuine sense of scale that’s unlike anything in the series, Pokémon Legends: Arceus is up there with the greatest Pokémon games ever made in our book.
Publisher: Rockstar Games / Developer: Rockstar San Diego
Red Dead Redemption on Switch is a straightforward port of 2010’s masterpiece with no added bells or whistles for a rather high price tag at launch. If you can get over that, this is a game we highly recommend digging into, especially if you’ve yet to experience it. Rockstar’s Western epic holds up surprisingly well, its story is as powerful as ever, its knockabout action still feels great, and it looks and plays perfectly well on Nintendo’s console. Multiplayer has been cut, which is a sore but understandable excision, and we’d really have liked to see effort put into adding gyro controls or touching up the graphics a little, but it is what it is. This is a proper all-timer ported successfully to Switch and, if you can stump up the cash, you’ll have a great time here regardless of the lack of TLC.
Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: PlatinumGames
Despite coming from the previous generation, Bayonetta 2 shines brightest on Nintendo Switch. It runs without a hitch at 60fps, looks incredible in both TV and tabletop modes, and offers an addictive free-flowing combat formula that sprinkles in platforming, light exploration and a ridiculous story to create something that you simply need to experience. If you’ve never played it before, you’re in for a treat. If you’ve already played it, it’s even more bewitching as a handheld gem.
Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: ArtePiazza
Super Mario RPG is here in all of its weird, wonderful glory for a new generation to experience, and sets a new standard for how to do a faithful remake right. Delivering a beautifully preserved, pure experience for fans of the original and an accessible entry-point for genre newcomers, the game’s infectious charm, writing, and polished gameplay do so much to elevate this beyond what might have been merely a simple RPG starring Mario.
Welcome to our master list of the top 50 best games ever released on Nintendo Switch, as ranked by you, now updated for 2024. As you can see, it offers a clear answer to the question ‘Which is best, BOTW or TOTK?’
Nintendo Switch has amassed a huge amount of great games since the console launched back in 2017. Of course, this abundance of riches leaves us in something of a pickle — too much software, not enough time to play it all. In fairness, it’s a lovely problem to have. Help! There are too many excellent games to choose from!
But what are the best games for Nintendo Switch? Well, we asked Nintendo Life readers to rate the top Nintendo Switch games since launch — the very best Switch games to play right now — and the list below is the result. As with our round-ups of the 50 Best Games from various consoles, years and series, the ranking is governed by each title’s User Rating in Nintendo Life’s games database and is subject to real-time change. This means our Best Switch Games list will always include new games as they are released.
If you’ve yet to score your favourites, simply click on each game’s rating below to score it from 1-10. A game needs a minimum of 50 ratings to become eligible, so it’s entirely possible to influence the best Switch games ranking below and get your favourites on the list.
Can’t see your favourite? If the game you want to rate isn’t in the top 50, feel free to find it using the search tool below and give it a score out of 10. If it’s bubbling under, it could very well pop into the ranking below.
Without further ado, let’s dive into this selection of the very best Nintendo Switch games you can play right now…
Publisher: Valve Corporation / Developer: Valve
It’s hard to overstate our satisfaction with Portal: Companion Collection. Portal and Portal 2 felt incredibly fresh when they first released, and the years since have not diminished their immense impact. To now have two of the most unique and mind-bending puzzle games on a Nintendo console, and on-the-go if you choose, is a pure joy. If it weren’t for the frequent load screens punctuating the experience, we’d have absolutely nothing to complain about here. The motion controls work like a dream, the games run at a near-rock-solid 60fps, you’ve got local co-op play available at the drop of a hat, and the writing remains as funny now as it did all those years ago. If you haven’t played the Portal games before, this should be a no-brainer. If you have… well, just play them again.
Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo
This beautiful Switch remake of the classic Game Boy entry rebuilds everything from the ground up. On top of the beautiful new art style, it added modern conveniences, a dungeon creator, amiibo support, and lots of little quality-of-life improvements whilst infusing every single square inch of Koholint – every secret passage, Piranha, Pokey, and Pig Warrior – with a level of detail and depth that totally reinvigorated both its timeless story and classic Zelda gameplay for a whole new generation of gamers.
If there’s anything holding The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening back, some minor frame rate issues might prove jarring for some players. Others may not even notice, but if you’re sensitive to dropped frames it’s possible you’ll find yourself distracted from the otherwise absorbing gameplay. It’s a little thing, but with the heritage of technical wizardry behind the Game Boy original, it is a small chink in this game’s otherwise glistening armour.
Publisher: Team17 / Developer: The Game Kitchen
Blasphemous 2 sticks with the exquisitely dark and gory style of its predecessor whilst building on the core combat and improving upon the platforming we saw the first time around. The Game Kitchen could have served us up more of the same and we’d have been perfectly happy. However, they’ve made meaningful upgrades here, with deeper and more satisfying combat and three upgradable weapon sets that combine perfectly with environmental puzzling that feels more cohesive and fluid overall. The Penitent One’s return to Cvstodia is an absolute banger.
Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Square Enix
Triangle Strategy is an absolute triumph for Artdink and Square Enix, a fantastic mix of satisfyingly strategic battles, an excellent choice-driven campaign narrative and top-notch world-building, all of which come together to form one of the finest tactical RPGs we’ve played in a very long time. There’s an absolute ton of content here, with a huge story featuring multiple paths to take depending on the choices you make and several properly impactful endings to enjoy on return visits. Serenoa Wollfort’s epic journey is a joy from start to finish, a grand and ambitious adventure that stands proud as one of the very finest examples of its genre on Switch.
Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo
Splatoon 3 is more of the same, but refined to borderline mechanical perfection. It’s the most fun we’ve had with an online shooter in years, and for series veterans it makes Splatoon 2 feel entirely redundant for all but its unique single-player content. It feels like the development team has solved every problem the Splatoon community was bleating on about, and then fixed some more that we didn’t even realise were problems until they were fixed. There’s nothing revolutionary about it compared to its predecessors, and it’s perhaps missing a Big New Idea™ that you might expect after five years, but Splatoon 3 is the pinnacle of the series, and the pinnacle of shooters on Switch.
Publisher: Whippoorwill / Developer: Adam Robinson-Yu
A Short Hike is a fat-free experience from top to bottom – or should we say bottom to top? It’s the kind of game that makes us just sigh with happiness when we recall our time with it, and even having played it through to its ostensible conclusion multiple times, we know for a fact there are still things to see and do on that mountain. What we have here is something of an apotheosis – a milestone in indie games akin to Cave Story, or Spelunky. The very best bits of multiple game genres, stripped of all padding and bloat, mixed perfectly into a delicious video game stew that only gets richer and richer the more you play. An exploration in every sense of the word, A Short Hike is cute without being twee, challenging without being obnoxious, and emotional without being cloying. A landmark game for all ages. Don’t miss this one.
Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Game Freak
Designated a mainline entry in the series by Game Freak itself, Pokémon Legends: Arceus feels like the result of the developers learning lessons for 25 years, refining the formula, and finally taking the franchise in a new, incredibly exciting direction. Technically it may stumble in places, but with an emphasis on extremely rewarding exploration, addictive catching mechanics, a fine roster of Pokémon, and a genuine sense of scale that’s unlike anything in the series, Pokémon Legends: Arceus is up there with the greatest Pokémon games ever made in our book.
Publisher: Rockstar Games / Developer: Rockstar San Diego
Red Dead Redemption on Switch is a straightforward port of 2010’s masterpiece with no added bells or whistles for a rather high price tag at launch. If you can get over that, this is a game we highly recommend digging into, especially if you’ve yet to experience it. Rockstar’s Western epic holds up surprisingly well, its story is as powerful as ever, its knockabout action still feels great, and it looks and plays perfectly well on Nintendo’s console. Multiplayer has been cut, which is a sore but understandable excision, and we’d really have liked to see effort put into adding gyro controls or touching up the graphics a little, but it is what it is. This is a proper all-timer ported successfully to Switch and, if you can stump up the cash, you’ll have a great time here regardless of the lack of TLC.
Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: PlatinumGames
Despite coming from the previous generation, Bayonetta 2 shines brightest on Nintendo Switch. It runs without a hitch at 60fps, looks incredible in both TV and tabletop modes, and offers an addictive free-flowing combat formula that sprinkles in platforming, light exploration and a ridiculous story to create something that you simply need to experience. If you’ve never played it before, you’re in for a treat. If you’ve already played it, it’s even more bewitching as a handheld gem.
Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: ArtePiazza
Super Mario RPG is here in all of its weird, wonderful glory for a new generation to experience, and sets a new standard for how to do a faithful remake right. Delivering a beautifully preserved, pure experience for fans of the original and an accessible entry-point for genre newcomers, the game’s infectious charm, writing, and polished gameplay do so much to elevate this beyond what might have been merely a simple RPG starring Mario.
