The best Nintendo Switch games in 2024

Here it is. The master sword of Switch games. Whether you’ve never played a Zelda game before or slogged through every entry, the Breath of the Wild is a dazzlingly fresh sandbox. Hyrule is open in front of you from the get go, making whichever direction you go in a true adventure. Taming a horse for the first time, uncovering a shrine, cooking a new dish, big or small, everything you do here feels incredible. A masterpiece.

There’s no getting around it. Mario Kart 8 is perfect on Nintendo Switch. There’s nothing like handing a friend (or indeed enemy) a single Joy Con before huddling around the Switch screen together, loading up Sunshine Airport or Baby Park, and trying not to swear in public when the shells come out to play. Eye-meltingly pretty on the big screen as well as the small, Mario Kart 8 defines the joy of the console with its perfect racing experience.

Everyone’s favourite Italian plumber got some new headwear for his first multi-dimensional adventure since Super Mario 3D World. The adorable Cappy lifts Super Mario Odyssey to, errr, heady new heights for the series as Mario possesses enemies with a throw of his hat. Bowser has nabbed Princess Peach again but with all new locations like New Donk City and a raft of new moves Odyssey effortlessly keeps Mario the King of the 3D platformers.

For the fighting game’s first entry on Switch, Nintendo took a Pokemon approach and just played catch ‘em all with game characters. From Metal Gear’s Solid Snake to Final Fantasy’s Cloud, this is a chaotic brawler to scratch every pop culture face-off itch. Importantly, Smash Bros. Ultimate is accessible for new players, but peer beneath the surface and the granularity on offer for the competitive set hands over a different game altogether.

And there was you thinking that Mario was the key brother - play this game and it will make you reconsider. This game involves teamwork. While you might not have someone to play with (your mate is a gooey doppelganger) don't worry as the computer does a brilliant job as you race through a haunted mansion sucking up ghouls.

This is the game the world needs right now. Continuing a franchise that's some 18 years old now, New Horizons sees you go on a Deserted Island Getaway Package, courtesy of Nook Inc. This means you are whisked off to an island and from there you slowly but surely build a life for yourself. It's such a warming, lovely game to play. It is deceptively easy as well - the beauty of it is interacting with others who are all trying to create their own, peaceful lives (a far cry from where we are right now IRL. Wonderful stuff.

One of the best RPGs ever made has made an impressive transition to the Switch and a resurgence in people's minds, thanks to the successful Netflix sho. Yes, the graphics have reduced but if you get the complete edition then there is so much packed into this game that you will have trouble finding time for any other Switch game - not that we are complaining.

If all the bright colours of this list have been giving you a headache, don’t worry. Hollow Knight has a “one Tim Burton drew earlier” flavour. It is a beautifully atmospheric 2D Metroidvania full of charming characters and dexterity-testing wall jumps. The hand-drawn setting of Hallowsnest is incredible to explore, and constantly challenging for your tiny bug hero armed with a mere nail instead of a sword. D’awwww

This is a gem of a game. It's strategy lead, where you play a goose that has a checklist of things to do which causes havoc with the residents of a small village. It's beautiful to look at, the score is perfect and the controls and difficulty just right. This is one of those games taking the Switch world by storm right now and is well worth the investment - it's just brilliant, innocent fun.

Sometimes games are like maths. In this case XCOM + Mario + Ubisoft’s zany Rabbids = Kingdom Battle. In so many ways it just shouldn’t work but the turn based combat, beautiful Mario worlds, and ridiculous humour fit together perfectly. Even if you’re not an XCOM fan, you’ll find yourself gazing at each level for hours, prepping meticulously for your next bout of Rabbid-flavour madness. And if you thought you hated them? This will make you think again.

The Nintendo Switch version of Stardew Valley is potentially the farming sim in its most dangerous and potent of form. It can be taken anywhere, played wherever you are, and, unlike the mobile version, doesn’t need your thumbs all over the screen you’re trying to hoe perfectly. The pull of ‘just one more day’ of looking after your pixel-perfect fruit, vegetables, and chickens you named after serial killers is almost terrifyingly addictive. Consider this a warning.

Metroid Dread sees Samus Aran back where she belongs, in an achingly hard 2D adventure. This side-scrolling platformer is a real rush, offering much in the way of danger but enough power-ups to help you get through the various melees. The boss battles are brutal, the level designs sublime, Metroid Dread really is a must-have Nintendo Switch game

The first main entry Pokemon game to land on Switch, Let’s Go is a glorious redesign of 1998’s Pokemon Yellow. Whether you choose Eevee or Pikachu, Let’s Go is a beautiful adventure that takes many of its cues from Niantic’s Pokemon Go. Reducing the grind, you don’t need to battle wild Pokemon, only throw Poke Balls using the intuitive motion controls. You can even transfer ‘mon from the mobile title to fill out your Pokedex.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild revolutionised both Zelda as a series and open-world games as a whole. Topping it was a tall order. Somehow, Nintendo managed it with Tears of the Kingdom. Rather than whisking Link off to a completely different fantasy world, Tears of the Kingdom adds to what was already there in its beloved predecessor. While you explore a familiar Hyrule, the sequel introduces an entire network of sky islands and an underground (and much scarier) replica of the landscape above it. Then there are Link’s new abilities, like Ultrahand and Ascend, without which we can’t imagine playing another Zelda game like this again.

This new addition to the fantastic Streets of Rage franchise has been created with care and dedication by publisher and co-developer Dotemu. The game has much more in keeping with Streets of Rage 2, coupled with a number of different ways you can play. The best thing about the game is that it really 'feels' like Streets of Rage, packing one hell of a nostalgia punch.

2D Mario games were once the main event in gaming, but they’ve played second fiddle to the plumber’s 3D outings since he first made the leap on the N64. Or they did until 2023’s Super Mario Wonder, which is every bit as inventive, surprising and downright fun to play as the best 3D entries. The big addition here is the Wonder Seed power-up, which transforms levels and allows for some decidedly bonkers and often trippy platforming sequences. Wonder is easily the best 2D Mario game since the SNES glory days.

Get ready to block and load. It’s time for Battle Royale Tetris. Yes, seriously, and it’s really, really good. Pitting you against 98 other online players, the free Tetris 99 takes your block spinning skills to a whole new level. While you are of course clearing lines of tetrominoes as usual, you can choose to send those lines directly to other players. Who and how you choose is up to you but this is high stress Tetris like you’ve never seen it before.

The original Metroid Prime was a bit of a miracle. Developer Retro Studios somehow completely nailed Metroid’s transition from 2D to 3D at the first attempt, without sacrificing the trademark exploration and feeling of solitude in alien surroundings. Metroid Prime Remastered takes that all-time great Nintendo FPS and modernises the controls, while giving what was already a timelessly pretty game a makeover. The result is the best version of Samus Aran’s greatest adventure and insantly one of the Switch’s best games.

This arcade side-scroller is just fantastic on the Nintendo Switch. Packed with retro charm, it will remind you of popping money into the local arcade. Its graphics are 16-bit and joyously so, and the action is simple but very effective. Like the Streets of Rage game (which is also on this list), this is a perfect balance of nostalgia and fighting fun.

Pikmin has always been one of Nintendo’s stranger series. Part real-time strategy, part third-person action game and puzzler, it isn’t a straightforward sell and can sound too much like hard work. Pikmin 4 is the most approachable and polished entry yet, in large part thanks to the introduction of a rideable space dog who can ferry you and your army of Pikmin around the large environments the game lets you explore. Pikmin has always been a game about effective time and resource management, and still is here, but without a lot of the rougher edges sanded down. Play the first hour and we promise you’ll be hooked.

Nintendo’s first and only crack at a bonafide multiplayer shooter has improved with every entry, and Splatoon 3 is the most fully-featured of the lot. As in previous Splatoon games, the meat of the package is the team-based multiplayer modes that have you play as an Inking (an advanced humanoid squid, as you asked), with the aim being to cover as much enemy territory in your team’s colour before the time is up, while the opposing team does the same. It’s brilliant fun, without the hostility of Call of Duty and the like, and if you want a break from competitive play there’s a host of single-player modes, including a story campaign and the recently released roguelike DLC.

Arguably the best roguelike ever made and perfect for portable gaming, Hades is a must-play Switch game. You are Zagreus, son of the titular god of the dead, determined to escape his father and the Underworld he rules with an iron fist. Unsurprisingly, this isn’t an easy task, and Zagreus will die, die, and die a whole lot more before he succeeds. Luckily the entire game is built around this very idea, and thanks to its fantastic art style, brilliant writing and exceptional combat, you’ll be very happy to try again and again.

There are a lot of great Metroidvania games on the Switch, and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is among the best of the bunch. Returning the long-running series to its 2D roots, it sees you explore the sprawling and intensely hostile Mount Qaf in search of the titular Prince who gets kidnapped at the beginning of the game. The map is a joy to uncover, the combat deceptively deep, and the many acrobatic platforming challenges are a joy to (eventually) overcome. The game runs superbly on Switch too, making it feel like its natural home.

Poker, but not as you know it. That’s probably the best way to describe Balatro, a game that seemingly came out of nowhere at the beginning of 2024 and became a word-of-mouth sensation overnight. It’s simple enough at first; you play actual poker hands against the computer with the goal being to amass enough chips to progress to the next stage. But what Balatro actually wants you to do is break it, by deploying game-changing Joker cards that rack up your multiplier and upgrading your deck along the way in each run. One of those games you turn on for five minutes and end up playing for five hours. Perfect for Switch, then.

This Bafta award-winning low-tech masterpiece took a while to come to Switch, but it was worth the wait. If Vampire Survivors has somehow passed you by, it’s a stunningly simple roguelite action RPG in which you must survive an onslaught of increasingly difficult enemies within a time limit. Your own attacks are automatic, so all you need to worry about is moving and picking the right combination of upgrades to make you powerful enough to survive a run. Vampire Survivors employs a deliberately minimalist visual style that at first looks a bit uninspired, but when things really start to pop off in the latter stages of a run, you’ll understand why. There have been countless imitators since, but given its low price point and incredibly generous rollout of new content, this is the Switch game to play for short and sweet thrills.

If you’re of a certain age you likely insist the 16-bit era of RPGs was the genre’s best, and Sea of Stars agrees. Inspired by the likes of Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG, this is a proudly old-fashioned turn-based epic that takes everything that was great about RPGs in the 90s and makes some modern tweaks. There are no random battles here, nor tedious level grinding. The music is superb, the visuals eye-poppingly vibrant, and the combat system engaging enough to rival the far more famous classics.

A worthy successor to Wii Sports, Nintendo Switch Sports has a whole lot of mini games for you to play on your own, online or with some IRL friends. The game comes with a leg strap which you need to use for the likes of football. We had more fun playing badminton, though, and it's great to see bowling as one of the games, too. This one uses motion control so not for Lite users, but if you have the full-fat Switch then Nintendo Switch Sports is a must have

Another Switch game that was first launched on the PS4 etc, Rocket League is a joy to play on the Switch. The game is just sublime, redefining what a racing sim is, adding in a whole host of obstacles and treats to make you come back time and time again. It's face paced and mesmerising (and slightly annoying) to play.

There isn't much story and the characters aren't the greatest but, boy, is the gameplay good. ARMS is a fighting game with a difference: everyone playing has interchangeable arms that range from being very springy to laden with guns. The one-player game allows you to get to grips with all the arm combinations, but this is a game best play against someone else - as that's when the real fun begins

This shouldn't work but it really does. Cadence of Hyrule mashes up the world of Zelda and the combat mechanics of NecroDancer to make a fantastic Switch game. You can play as Link, Zelda or Cadence - each character has their own special moves and the like. The game is wholesome, filled with places you know if you are familiar with the games before it. It's a rhythmic action-adventure with a big emphasis on the music of the game, so plug in and prepare to be transported to somewhere magical.