The 30 best Nintendo Switch games to play today

1) Luigi’s Mansion 3

Luigi’s Mansion has always been a much-loved franchise with the Nintendo hardcore, but as the biggest Switch launch of 2019 so far, beating out his more famous twin and that Link fella, the series’ third entry sees the green-suited scaredy cat offically go mainstream.

Happily, the game is absolutely worth its success. In our five star review, our reviewer said Luigi’s Mansion 3 feels like a playable cartoon, elevated to greatness by its creative, varied level design and clever puzzles. Then there’s Gooigi, Luigi’s Flubber-like sidekick who can be called upon at any time to help our hero out. Get ghost-hunting.

2) Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

No doubt: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate absolutely lives up to its name. It’s both a greatest hits package of the long-running series to date and also a strong step forward in terms of the amount of content available to soak in.

Packed with 74 fighters on in the base game, including every previous brawler and some new ones, you’ll have a blast mashing attack buttons and pummeling the likes of Mario, Link, and the Splatoon kids (among many others). The new Spirit system provides a truly incredible amount of classic gaming references to unlock, and the core hook of pummeling gaming’s greatest heroes still hasn’t faded.

3) Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 takes the best elements from previous games in the series, namely their tradition of creating scope and spectacle, but serves up perhaps it most memorable story to date, starring a cast of characters we were happy to spend over 100 hours the company of.

It may still scare off newcomers, especially those not keen on anime or cutscenes that seem to last forever. But if you’re looking for a meaty JRPG with engaging combat and a sprawling story about hope triumphing in even the darkest times, add this to your Switch library immediately.

4) Hades

That Supergiant Games’ dungeon-crawling indie masterpiece beat AAA big-hitter The Last of Us Part II to our 2020 game of the year award is a testament to just how brilliant it is. In Hades you play as Zagreus, the rebellious son of the titular god of the dead. Encouraged by the Gods of Olympus, Zagreus is determined to escape the underworld and his fun sponge of a father, but doing so is no easy job.

Hades is a rogue-like dungeon crawler, which means procedurally generated levels that ensure no escape attempt is ever the same as the last. But unlike most rogue-likes, which steal away all your progress every time you die (and you will die, a lot), here you retain much of what you collect in a run, allowing you to upgrade your stats, unlock new weapons and pick up valuable advice from the House of Hades’ colourful residents upon each return. It’s this feeling of constant progress that makes Hades so compelling, and when you add varied combat, superb writing and fantastic art directon to the mix, you have something unmissable.

5) Splatoon 3

Splatoon is a shooting game not too concerned with accuracy or multikills. Splatoon is a game of chaos that falls under a ‘shooter’ because there’s nothing else quite like it out there. Quickly cementing itself as a Nintendo staple, the Splatoon series is arguably the best shooter on the Switch platform.

Splatoon 3 built on its past incarnations with improved mechanics and a few new features. It remains as frantic as ever, with beefed up Turf Wars, Salmon Run and single player modes. There are a few new weapons, such as a bow and arrow, and player customisation options that ramp up the fun. All this, alongside a good ol’ polish, make Splatoon’s third instalment the benchmark of the franchise.

6) The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

In case you’d forgotten, the Nintendo Switch launched with a Zelda game that revolutionised the beloved series and shifted all of our expectations about what an open-world game can and should be. As a remake of a 1993 Game Boy game, Link’s Awakening is a bit more traditional.

But that doesn’t make it any less essential than Breath of the Wild for Zelda fans. While remarkably faithful to the original, the game has been rebuilt from the ground up with a gorgeous, toy-like visual style. And Link’s Awakening has always been an intriguing Zelda anomaly. It’s one of the few games in the franchise that doesn’t take place in Hyrule, Zelda is nowhere to be seen and, for some reason (never explained) Koholint Island is inhabited by Chain Chomps and Goombas, usually only found in Nintendo’s other quite popular series.

Unashamedly old-fashioned, but it’s aged like a fine wine.

7) The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Now this is controversial. Since the Nintendo Switch launched it looked like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild would remain in this list for as long as it existed, but after much deliberation we’ve decided to replace it with this year’s sequel. It’s not that Tears of the Kingdom makes its predecessor a bad game; Breath of the Wild is no less of an all-time great than it was when it first launched alongside the Switch in 2017. It’s just that Tears of the Kingdom does everything better. 

The kingdom of Hyrule is just as richly drawn as it was in BotW, only now it also includes both the sky islands and the depths, giving the world a sense of verticality and scale that continues to blow us away several months from launch. And then there’s Link’s new powers, the headliner of which being Ultrahand, which allows our Hylian hero to build anything from a bridge to a screen-filling tank, and approach the game’s puzzles in any way you wish. 

Breath of the Wild reinvented Zelda and set a new bar for open-world game design. As a direct sequel, Tears of the Kingdom was never going to be that impactful, but if you’re going to spend 100 hours in one of them, there’s really no contest.

8) Super Mario Odyssey

Got a Switch? If so, you’ll need Super Mario Odyssey stat. Alongside Zelda, it’s one of the absolute best reasons to have the handheld. In fact, if you don’t have the Switch, we advise running out and buying one with both of those games right now. Go on, we’ll wait.

Odyssey is a phenomenal new 3D entry that builds upon the likes of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy with huge, open environments and loads upon loads of collectable moons to uncover by completing challenges and exploring. And this time around, Mario isn’t alone: his hat is actually an odd creature that can inhabit other living things, letting Mario control and use the myriad abilities of his many iconic enemies. Strange, right? Yes, but it’s a total delight.

9) Pikmin 4

Despite being over 20 years old, the Pikmin series has never returned Nintendo the kind of numbers a Mario or Zelda game typically brings in. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t beloved, and the Switch-exclusive fourth entry is the most approachable and content-rich of the bunch. Like its predecessors, Pikmin 4 is an adventure game with real-time strategy elements, in which you play as a miniature astronaut who assembles and orders around squads of tiny plant-animal hybrid creatures called Pikmin. These adorable little guys can help you solve puzzles, carry treasures and fight enemies, with different types deployed for different scenarios, and the game is all about efficiently managing both your Pikmin and time. 

Pikmin 4 introduces a dog-like companion called Oatchi who’s able to carry both you and your Pikmin on his back, as well as help out with tasks. The space pup’s addition makes exploration more enjoyable than ever, and while the chilled-out nature of the campaign is a far cry from the race against time that made the very first entry so memorably stressful, we think even hardcore players will have a tough time resisting the various quality-of-life improvements on offer here. 

Throw in new nighttime expeditions and the most detailed and varied levels in the series to date, and you’ve got a Pikmin game for newcomers and longtime fans alike.

10) Metroid Dread

As the first brand new 2D Metroid in nearly 20 years and the one supposed to bring a story arc that began all the way back in 1986 to a close, there was a lot riding on Samus Aran’s Switch debut.

Happily, then, Metroid Dread is an absolutely fantastic Metroid game that comfortably sits alongside the many critically adored Metroidvanias that the series has inspired. Samus has never felt this good to control, and while the game follows a similar template to the one made famous by the entries before it, there are enough additions to make it feel fresh.

You can’t talk about Metroid Dread without mentioning the EMMI, the terrifying unit of robots-gone-rogue that hunt Samus as she explores the Planet ZDR. No matter how many suit power-ups the bounty hunter recovers throughout the game, most of the time she’ll be defenceless against the EMMI, which leads to some thrilling chase sequences.

Intricately designed and boasting some of the best boss fights in the series, Dread is a must-play for Metroid fans old and new.

11) Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing has always been a relaxing escape from reality, but New Horizons couldn’t have come along at a better time.

In this, the first entry on Switch, you find yourself volunteering to be part of a desert island relocation, lead as you’d expect by the ever-resourceful property tycoon Tom Nook. It’s up to you and your swelling anthropomorphic animal posse to turn the island into a paradise, but the game asks very little of you.

Spend the day fishing or collecting fossils, chat to the locals or just spend hours designing outfits. It’s really up to you, and you won’t find a more pleasant gaming experience on any system.

12) Dave the Diver

Switch owners endured an agonising wait for Dave the Diver to arrive on Nintendo’s console. Probably 2023’s biggest word-of-mouth hit on Steam, this vibrant 2D adventure RPG was so clearly destined for the Switch, and it remains one of the most generous games we’ve played in years.

You play as the titular diver, Dave, who spends his days diving for fish to serve in the sushi restaurant at which he’s employed as a waiter in the evenings. The core loop has you exploring the part randomly-generated Blue Hole as you tackle increasingly tricky fish, and trying to master a frantic sushi-serving minigame that earns you money to upgrade your gear.  

But there’s so much more to Dave the Diver than that. As well as catching fish and waiting tables, Dave is happy to try his hand at archeology, farm management, dancing and all action hero-ing. He might fight hunters one day and discover an underwater civilisation the next. And if you have all the DLC – developer Mintrocket has continued to add additional free content since launch – you might even bump into Godzilla. With mini-games galore and a potential surprise awaiting you during every play session, Dave the Diver is a Switch must-play.

13) Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope

The first Mario + Rabbids game was surprisingly brilliant. The sequel unsurprisingly improves on a good thing and makes the tactical turn-based battles that form the meat of the experience even more accessible.

In Sparks of Hope, Mario and the now fully voiced (but still very weird) Rabbids head to space to chase down a new big bad, joining up with some new Rabbids and extremely familiar Mushroom Kingdom residents along the way. The story is mostly nonsense, but that doesn’t matter when the new combat system is so good. You can now move freely around the battlefield during a turn, which is a huge departure from the grid system traditionally adopted by strategy games, and is just a lot more intuitive. Each character has a very specialised moveset, which means gameplay never gets stale, while a truly wonderful score means every second spent in this world is a treat for the ears. 

• Read more: Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope review

14) Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

While it might just seem like a mere port on the surface, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe takes the excellent Wii U edition and patches its one big deficiency, all while adding the excellent DLC as standard – and then does more.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe packs in a staggering 48 courses and 42 playable drivers, along with an array of vehicles and equipment, and the gravity-defying tracks are some of the series’ most dazzling creations to date. Better yet, it now has a proper Battle mode like the games of old, and the entire experience is playable anywhere. It’s tremendously fun.

15) Ori and the Will of the Wisps

The stunning Ori and the Will of the Wisps is one of the best-looking games ever made, for our money rivalling even some of the greatest animated movies for imagination and wonder, and it’s a minor miracle that it runs as well as it does on Switch, maintaining a silky smooth 60fps throughout.

In this brilliant Metroidvania, you play an acrobatic spirit creature called Ori, who adventures into a mysterious forest to search for a lost owlet. Like its predecessor, Ori and the Blind Forest, Will of the Wisps is deceptively difficult, but never feels unfair, and its emphasis on slowly uncovering its many secrets makes it a perfect portable game. If you haven’t already played it on Xbox One, this one’s unmissable.

16) Celeste

• Download Celeste for Switch

A tough as nails 2D platformer about living with anxiety, Celeste might not scream ‘fun’ in the same way Super Mario Odyssey does but this charming tale about climbing a mountain absolutely ranks as a Nintendo Switch essential. The key is in its simplicity with each level being divided into bite-sized chunks that you’ll fail at over and over until finding your way across a seemingly insurmountable crevasse. The further towards the summit, the more challenging things get and the more powers you’ll amass to help you achieve the seemingly impossible.

Combined with a charming 16-bit art style and some exhilarating level design, Celeste adds up to an absolute gem of a game. And if things get too tough? There are some genius features you can turn on to make your journey easier.

17) Bayonetta 3

The multiverse is very much in vogue, and dimension—hopping is the order of the day in Bayonetta’s third outing, which longtime fans will be glad to know hits new levels of bonkers. 

The queen of character action games has successfully dealt with angels and demons, and in Bayonetta 3 her wild weaponry must be directed at a new, man-made threat. Combat has always been the star of this series, and fully controllable demons are added to your arsenal in the third entry, an idea that isn’t always elegant in its execution, but doesn’t half add to the spectacle. Sometimes the scale of the game’s set pieces is too much for the creaky Switch to handle, and not all the new features improve the experience, but at its best Bayonetta 3 is a stunning end to this deliriously OTT and very un-Nintendo trilogy that was well with the wait. 

18) NieR: Automata – The End of YoRHa Edition

As a game that famously necessitates multiple playthroughs to see the story properly resolved, NieR: Automata always felt destined for a portable platform like the Switch. And we’re delighted to report that it runs brilliantly on Nintendo’s aging hardware. 

In NieR: Automata you play as an android named 2B who’s part of a task force sent to rescue a post-apocalyptic Earth from machine occupation. The game is an action RPG that marries balletic combat and fantastic music with some of the richest storytelling in gaming, interrogating what it means to be human without any actual humans present. You owe it to yourself to play it through at least once, and the Switch lets you do that anywhere. 

19) Tetris Effect: Connected

• Download Tetris Effect: Connected for Switch

This genuinely life-affirming reinvention of arguably the most famous puzzle game of all time is superb whether you play it in VR, on a home console, or on the Nintendo Switch in your hands, but there’s something about the latter option that just feels right.

It’s probably the memories we all have of playing Tetris on the Game Boy for hours on end all those years ago that make Tetris Effect: Connected feel like it belongs on a handheld, and once you’ve put on some headphones, turned off the lights and let the game’s marriage of sound, music, visuals and timeless gameplay work its magic, there’s really nothing else that compares. A masterpiece.

20) Persona 5 Royal 

Part social sim, part supernatural dungeon-crawling RPG, Persona 5 Royal is the high point of Atlus’ beloved RPG series, and arguably the most stylish game ever made. It’s also over one hundred hours long, which makes the game’s long-awaited arrival on Switch such great news. After all, grinding your way through endless turn-based battles is a lot more palatable when you can do it while half-watching something on Netflix. 

In Persona 5 Royal you play as a teenager forced to transfer to a new school in modern-day Tokyo. The game takes place over the course of one school year, and a massive part of the experience is simply existing as a student: attending classes, forming bonds with classmates and eating lots of great Japanese food. After school, you’ll spend most of your time in a supernatural realm trying to steal bad intentions from the hearts of malevolent adults. Standard stuff, then. Whether you’re grabbing ramen with a pal or conducting a heist of someone’s corrupted subconscious, Persona 5 Royal is a uniquely engrossing experience, and the Switch feels like its natural home. 

21) Kirby and the Forgotten Land

22) Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Donkey Kong is a legend in the same way that most people regard Stan Lee and Paul McCartney. There’s no doubting he changed popular culture in a massive way, but that doesn’t mean you’re all that bothered about his new stuff. With the arrival of Tropical Freeze on Switch from its original home of the ill-fated Wii U, you should make an exception.

Rather than reinvent the platforming formula a la Super Mario Odyssey, this outing from Nintendo’s most famous simian polishes its frenetic 2D combination of jumping and climbing to a dazzling sheen.

What it lacks in originality is made up for in variety and charm, so that each of this game’s 60-odd levels bristles with an irresistible joi de vivre. So long as you’re OK with falling down potholes, being crushed by giant boulders and generally dying a whole lot. Tropical Freeze is not a game that you could describe as ‘easy’.

23) Pentiment

One of the best Xbox exclusives in recent years is also one of its strangest, and now Microsoft has allowed Pentiment to launch on Switch, it might just have found its natural home. A 16th century murder mystery made by RPG specialists Obsidian, Pentiment has you take on the role of Andreas Maler, a journeyman artist working in an abbey in a fictional Bavarian town. When someone is rather gruesomely offed in his place of work, Maler suddenly becomes a detective and must identify the true killer before his falsely accused associate takes the punishment for it. 

There’s no combat in Pentiment. In fact, there’s no action of any sort. The game is more like a richly drawn playable historical novel than one of the RPGs that made Obsidian’s name, and it’s clearly a labour of love, with excellent writing, a beautiful manuscript-inspired art style and the kind of thoughtful thematic complexity you rarely get in games. It’s also perfect for curling up in bed at the end of a long day, so if you like games that dare to be a bit different and missed this one on Xbox, fix that now it’s on Switch. 

24) Metroid Prime Remastered

The long wait for Metroid Prime 4, which definitely, probably exists, goes on, but to tide us over Nintendo has finally put the original on Switch, and while Metroid Prime is more than 20 years old, Samus’ first 3D outing somehow feels as fresh now as it did then. Tallon IV remains one of the most intricately designed settings in all of gaming, and exploring it through the legendary bounty hunter’ eyes is a thrill whether it’s your first time or fifteenth. 

Metroid Prime Remastered isn’t technically a ground-up remake, but the GameCube classic has had a serious glow-up here. It’s easily one of the best looking games on Switch, while the modernised twin stick control schemes are a much appreciated addition, even if some may still choose to go old-school. What hasn’t changed is the game’s refusal to hold the player’s hand, meaning you’re bound to get lost now and again, nor has the slightly unforgiving checkpointing. And yes, there’s a lot of backtracking. But few games can match Metroid Prime for atmosphere and its pitch perfect combination of platforming, exploration and first-person combat. It was a masterpiece then, and nothing has changed in 2023.

25) Super Mario Bros. Wonder

We’ll admit. When Nintendo announced in the summer of 2023 that its next Mario game was a 2D entry, our heart sank a little bit. Where was Super Mario Odyssey 2, we complained. Now we feel guilty, because Super Mario Bros. Wonder is not only the best 2D Mario game since the SNES era, but it’s every bit as imaginative as one of the plumber’s three-dimensional outings. 

The introduction of the trippy Wonder Flower power-up gave Nintendo’s design wizards license to get weird with their ideas, and what we got in return was a smorgasbord of joyous platforming creativity. Add to this a seemingly Dark Souls-inspired online multiplayer component and a fun badge system that changes the way Mario traverses each level, and you’ve got a 2D platformer for the ages. And we haven’t even mentioned the fact that Nintendo’s moustachioed mascot can turn into an elephant in this game. That’s how good Super Mario Bros. Wonder is. 

26) Vampire Survivors 

Since day one Vampire Survivors has been an immovable object on our best Steam Deck games list, so it was inevitable that this (literally) cheap-as-chips roguelite shoot ‘em up was going to be a must-have on Switch too when it eventually turned up. Poncle’s BAFTA-winning time survival game, in which you have 30 minutes to survive endless waves of enemies with a character whose weapons and abilities can be upgraded throughout each run, is a masterclass in minimalist design and enticing players into its loop. 

The game has also been astonishingly well supported since launch, with new levels, various multiplayer modes and even a story mode (due to arrive on Switch soon) gradually added to what was already a very generous offering. Put simply, you need Vampire Survivors on your Switch. 

27) Sea of Stars 

The Nintendo Switch is the perfect console for RPGs, and with developer Sabotage Studio citing the likes of SNES classics Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG as a source of inspiration for its throwback take on that particular era of the genre, there’s arguably no better place to play Sea of Stars. While not as sharply written as some of the games whose ideas it draws from, pretty much everything else about Sea of the Stars is bang on the money, from the sumptuous pixel art to the rock solid turn-based combat and incredible music. 

While clearly in love with JRPGs from the 16-bit era, Sabotage Studio also wisely strips away the elements of the genre that have aged decidedly less well, like random battles and tedious grinding. What you get is a modern take on a classic that is so effective that it can make you feel nostalgic for the good old days, even if you weren’t there for them. 

28) Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door 

Mario is no stranger to an RPG, but ask a long-time Nintendo fan which Mario RPG is the best of the bunch, and you’re probably going to get one of two answers. Some will say it’s Super Mario RPG, which was remade in style for Switch at the tail end of last year. The rest will insist that Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is the undisputed all-timer – but all those people had to have owned a GameCube, because until the game’s recent makeover it had never been ported to another Nintendo console. 

Thankfully you can finally play Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door on the Switch, and it feels as fresh as it did when it first launched 20 years ago. A lot of the more recent Mario RPGs excel in one area while falling short in another, but Paper Mario: TTYD gets pretty much everything right. The turn-based battles are deceptively deep, the story is great fun, and the script is probably the funniest Nintendo has ever produced. Its papercraft reimagining of the Mushroom Kingdom is a bit of a stunner in HD, too. Sure, some of the backtracking can grate a bit, but as 20-year-old games go, this one holds up and then some. A masterpiece, finally available to all and better than ever. 

29) Balatro 

Brilliant indie games come to Switch all the time, but very few become an instant phenomenon in the way that Balatro did. This deckbuilding poker roguelike takes one of the most well-known card games in the world and respectfully asks you to break it. And yes, that is as fun as it sound. And yes, such fun is perfectly suited to handheld play on the Switch. 

Poker might be at the core of Balatro, but you definitely don’t need to be a poker player to lose countless hours of your life to its endlessly compelling loop. You’re playing real poker hands against the computer in each stage of any given run, sure, but the point of the game is to level up those hands to balloon their values, while amassing a series of increasingly bonkers joker cards that combine with others in your deck for dizzyingly huge scores. It’s asking you to cheat, essentially. To play poker, but also to ignore it completely, and once it gets its hooks into you you won’t be able to put it down. 

30) Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

The Switch is home to some of the best Metroidvania games ever made, and to be honest, when it was announced we weren’t expecting Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown to join that group. But Ubisoft Montpelier’s reimagining of one of gaming’s longest running series’ really is that good. Controlling protagonist Sargon (note: not the prince of Persia) feels fantastic, which is just as well given how tricky some of the platforming sections can be. Combat is often less of a focus in Metroidvanias but here it’s excellent, letting you pull off all manner of combos both on the ground and in the air, and serving up consistently thrilling boss battles that force you to make use of all your abilities. 

A mention, too, for the Memory Shard system, which lets you take in-game screenshots of locations you want to return to later when you have the required ability and easily find them on your map. Every game in the genre should have this. You can play Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and all platforms, but it runs at a smooth 60fps on Switch and feels made for handheld play.