9 Nintendo Switch 2 Games, Played and Ranked: Our Most Anticipated Titles
Donkey Kong Bananza! Mario Kart World! Metroid Prime 4! Cyberpunk 2077!
The Nintendo Switch 2 is almost here — and we’ve already played the best of the Switch 2 launch games and early releases. Want to know which new Nintendo titles should be on your pre-order list? You’ve come to the right place.
Nintendo’s lined-up a cracking list of games for when its new-and-improved hybrid handheld releases on June 5th, with more than 20 games ready to play on day one.
And, unlike other Nintendo console launches, it’s a healthy balance of first-party and third-party titles of all different genres on the way. From the arcade racing thrills of Mario Kart World to the scuzzy future-noir of Cyberpunk 2077, there’s something for everyone, with later summer releases like platformer Donkey Kong Bananza keeping the hype train rolling through the year.
Having spent most of a day with the Nintendo Switch 2 and about a dozen of its games, here’s the nine we’re most excited about, ranked from least to most anticipated.
Our 9 Most Anticipated Nintendo Switch 2 Games
9. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour
A charming digital tour of the features of the new console, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour lets you guide a miniature person around a Switch 2-turned-museum, letting you learn all the cool new things your console can do. Full of trivia and minigames and a clean toy-town like isometric design, there’s some ingenious explanations of the console’s new tricks, such as playing the very first ever 2D Mario level in a tiny pixel-perfect resolution that unfurls across the span of a modern 4K screen.
It’s looking great — the only reason it’s heading up the bottom of this list is that it feels a bit stingy for this to not be a pack-in title with the console, as per Wii Sports, or the PS5’s excellent Astro’s Playroom.
Out: 5th June (launch)
8. Gamecube Retro Titles
Nintendo Switch Online subscribers have been crying out for GameCube titles to be added to the service’s retro gaming library, and with the launch of Switch 2, Nintendo will deliver. At launch, players will be able to dive into classics including The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, F-Zero GX and Soul Calibur 2 — we’ve also seen Super Mario Strikers in action on the console, though it’s not yet confirmed as a launch-day release.
They’re then followed up throughout the year with Super Mario Sunshine, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, Luigi’s Mansion, Pokémon Colosseum, and Chibi Robot.
Some of these games are incredibly difficult to track down now, so having an official outlet to experience them once again is excellent. Nintendo has put a decent amount of effort into porting them to Switch 2, too, with upscaled visuals, save state support, and auto-widescreen configurations where available. It’s a bit of a bummer that it means we’re now unlikely to see the superior Wind Waker HD port hit Switch anytime soon, but as a subscription value-add, it’s a winner.
Out: Roll out begins 5th June (launch)
7. Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
Both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom Switch Zelda games are getting a Switch 2 glow re-release — and they represent two of the finest games ever made. We’re picking Breath of the Wild for our most-wanted list here, though for two reasons — firstly, it’s the older of the two, so we’re just about ready again to dive into its gigantic adventure. Secondly, being the older title, originally built for the Wii U, it’s the one that has most to gain in terms of performance from a Switch 2 remaster.
We had a quick 10 minute run around Breath of the Wild’s Hyrule, and it looked great. Higher frame rates, sharper resolutions, quicker loading times — the game looks as gorgeous as ever, but it’s all smoother and snappier. A new accompanying app will also let you repair damaged items (a controversial, divisive omission from the original release), as well as hunt down secrets with something akin to a GPS system. If you’ve never had the joy of trying the game before, you are in for a superlative treat here. For everyone else, it’s a perfect excuse to go Korok hunting once again.
Out: 5th June (launch)
6. Mario Party Jamboree - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV
Another Switch 2 Edition re-release, this is classic Mario Party action, with a Switch 2 twist. Players face off across mini-game filled boards with familiar Nintendo characters, earning coins and game-winning stars for their efforts.
Where Jamboree gets a Switch 2 refresh is in its new mini-games. Mouse-based challenges, such as an electric buzzer wire loop-alike and a spray-paint face off, are fun examples of the potential of Nintendo’s new control scheme. The all-new Jamboree TV is an even bigger departure — it uses the new camera accessory to put you in a deadly game show with Bowser, where your onscreen movements and shouts will determine your success.
The jury’s out on some of the new camera features headed to the console, but Nintendo’s got some interesting ideas on show here that remix the classic Mario Party formula.
Out: July 24th, 2025
5. Drag x Drive
Now for something completely different. Drag x Drive uses the Nintendo Switch 2’s Joy-Con mice feature to great effect, with a dual-handed control scheme that mimics steering a wheelchair. Pitting two teams of three against each other, it’s essentially wheelchair basketball by way of Rocket League.
Players spin the wheels and propel themselves forward by dragging the Joy-Con 2 mice back and forth, and toss the ball to the hoop with a flick of the wrist. Though the visual style is a bit dull, the game itself is manic and a unique multiplayer experience.
Perhaps best of all is that, as this concept is so fresh, there’s going to be a totally level playing field, competitively speaking, when this game launches. Mastery of previous video game control schemes won’t make a difference here, so even gaming novices can pick this up on day one and have a chance of being king of the Drag x Drive court.
Out: “Summer 2025”
4. Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition
The original Switch had its fair share of ‘impossible ports’ — Doom Eternal, The Witcher 3 to name just a couple. But Cyberpunk 2077 takes things to a whole new level.
Here’s a game that was so demanding at launch, even high-end PC gamers had to scrap their systems and rebuild them for it to run at the level of detail the game demanded. PS4 and Xbox One consoles could barely keep up.
But here in 2025? You can play Cyberpunk 2077 on the back of a bus, on a handheld, thanks to the Nintendo Switch 2. And, somewhat shockingly, it works! Developers CD Projekt RED have managed to squeeze the game onto Nintendo’s new machine relatively unscathed. The cyborg-packed open world is all there, and looking pretty darn great — to the point where this might be the best-looking handheld game ever released.
Are there concessions here? Sure — resolution dynamic scaling can be spikey, and frame rate can be equally varied. But it remains very playable, there’s time yet ahead of release for further optimisations, and it’s going to be a trip hooking up with Keanu Reeve’s Johnny Silverhand on the toilet.
Out: 5th June (launch)
3. Mario Kart World
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe perfected the form of the arcade racer. So where does Nintendo go from there?
Off-road, of course.
Mario Kart World is the series biggest departure from its standard mascot-on-mascot, shell-slinging roots since Double Dash’s dual racer gimmick, with World giving drivers a massive map to bomb around in, beyond the confines of traditional Mario Kart tracks.
Yeah, you’ve still got tarmac to burn rubber on, but there’s the promise here of a secret-filled map to explore, and less downtime between races as you go off the beaten path while competitive lobbies fill.
New racers include the Moo Moo Meadows cow, while you’re also able to grind pipes and poles to find new shortcuts across the multi-layered maps. A new battle-royale knockout-style competition is the star of the show though — a 24 racer point-to-point challenge that sees those at the back of the pack whittled away in a tense ongoing battle for pole position. Think Outrun with Blue shells, and you’ll be on the right lines.
A unique spin on a classic formula, we’re ready for Mario Kart World to take over our lives this summer.
Out: 5th June (launch)
2. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond shot up our most-wanted list following our Nintendo Switch 2 play session — a surprise for us, given how excited we were about Mario Kart World going into the event.
What Metroid brought to the table, however, was a real sense of surprise. Though its development has had to keep the original Switch hardware in mind (it’s coming out on both generations), seeing it run in silky-smooth 120fps was revelatory, and not the sort of cutting-edge performance we’re used to seeing from Nintendo hardware.
A first-person shooter at its heart, it’s a great example of the potential of the Joy-Cons-as-mice hook the new console is pushing. Aiming bounty hunter Samus’s crosshairs with a swipe of the ‘mouse’ was natural and instinctive — even if getting used to the repositioned buttons when the Joy-Con is held like that will take some getting used to. It helped us imagine a time when twitchy competitive shooters could hold their own on the Switch 2 hardware — a point of hardware separation that the PS5 and Xbox consoles can’t naturally match with first-party input options.
What was missing from our hands-on play was the signature sense of isolation on an alien world that Metroid is known for. A pretty linear section from the opening of the game, there were loads of baddies to blast, but little exploration. Likewise, there was a Halo-like supporting cast of space soldiers we were fighting alongside, in an environment more military than other worldly. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will undoubtedly inject some of that old eerie energy further into the game — we’re just hoping the balance is in favour of that stranger-in-a-strange land feeling of previous entries rather than the bombastic space opera that the demo presented.
Out: ‘2025’
1. Donkey Kong Bananza
Way out in front of the pack, our most-wanted Nintendo Switch 2 game is easily Donkey Kong Bananza — and that’s as much based on what we haven’t seen, as what we have.
Seemingly developed by Nintendo’s EDP Tokyo — the same gang that made Mario Odyssey — though yet to be confirmed, it’s a huge departure from Nintendo’s previous 3D platformers, be they from the plumber or his buddy-come-nemesis simian counterpart.
Where Mario games are about precision and athleticism, Donkey Kong Bananza is all about destruction and brute force. The titular ape gets a new look for this, his first 3D outing since 1994’s Donkey Kong 64, and a whole new moveset unlike anything we’ve seen from the character before. Donkey tears up the landscape — literally. He can smash his way through rock walls, deforming the levels around him, and even making makeshift projectiles from the ground he rips apart.
A short hands-on session let us embrace the chaos, but we still don’t know quite how the game will play out in full. Donkey’s moveset would break other games — what sort of platforming challenges can be created when you can smash up everything they’re built upon? But there’s charm in spades here, loads of energy, and a near-launch title that we can’t wait to see more of.
Out: July 27th
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