Almost three and a half years after its premiere, the Nintendo hybrid has a good handful of interesting games. We play, we vote and we recommend.
Switch is not on its anniversary, nor is it about to complete its life cycle to make way for another console to take over. But as weeks ago we published a top 15 PlayStation 4 highlights, we thought: why not make another one with the Nintendo hybrid? After all, it has already been in the market for a good season, and this drought of summer ads caused by the covid will surely serve to make more than one want to look back and settle possible pending accounts with the catalog. So we have come together – not literally, you have to leave a safety distance – and we have voted on our personal selections and then make up the list that you can now read below these lines.
Before starting, yes, it is not necessary to comment on some important considerations. As the title indicates, the objective has been to order games that in the present generation can only be played on the Nintendo hybrid. Therefore, games like Hollow Knight or Celeste, even though they are of superlative quality, have not even entered a vote – something that applies even to Octopath Traveler, voted by several members until we realized that it has been available on PC for more than a year – . In the same way, Wii U games such as Bayonetta 2 or Tropical Freeze have also remained in the pipeline – again, not for lack of quality, and we extend their recommendation to all those who still have them pending -, although we have allowed ourselves some exceptions to be addressed in due course. So come on, go for it!
15. Pokémon Sword / Pokémon Shield
- FreeGameTips Reviews
Before we have discussed the slip with Octopath Traveler because this game – or games, if you want to count as two – was the main beneficiary of its non-inclusion. Which is quite illustrative of the situation in which Pokémon is currently, a multi-millionaire saga with the ability to break sales records, but which hardly sneaks among the most recommended games of the Nintendo factory. After the small warm-up of the Let’s Go editions, Sword and Shield should have been the standard bearers of a new generation created from scratch for a console that is not only portable and with high definition. But the truth is the great adventurous tabletop leagues, those for which games like Zelda or Xenoblade roam freely, they still have something big left for Game Freak.
It is not a controversial opinion to say that Pokémon Sword / Shield failed to take advantage of the potential of some of the new ideas implemented – such as the Wild Area – or that it left untouched mannerisms that date in an unflattering way a formula with resistance to evolution —Such as the most corseted areas, animations or the rhythm of the fighting. That is without going into the Pokédex clippings that so many rivers of ink have made run. But among its shortcomings and limitations, our bottom also retains much of what made Pokémon a name to consider in the first place: hours and hours of exploration with discovery, hunting, training and breeding of unpublished species, systems that in no few cases have been reinforced with new possibilities and conveniences. It is, we hope, the start of something better, but also a good title on its own.
14. Splatoon 2
- FreeGameTips Reviews
The first Splatoon was one of the great revelations of the Wii U, an unattractive console in terms of sales, but where Nintendo’s new IP was able to thrive thanks to a sufficiently original concept (a third-person shooter where two teams paint most of the possible of a map with its color) and refined (the paint also conditions the transversal capacities of the characters) to join the repertoire of generational multiplayer with Mario Kart and Smash Bros. Without the need to resort to the plumber or other popular Nintendo characters , the Inklings became their own phenomenon, so when Switch came, the question was whether its continuity would take the form of an improved port or a full-fledged sequel. And the 2 of the title soon dispelled any doubts.
The fundamentals, unsurprisingly, remained – if not broken … – but on the original basis the study has emphasized improving the online infrastructure, enhancing character customization, adding a wealth of new weapons and creating too a complete cooperative mode, Salmon Run, where players team up to overcome levels by fighting against the CPU. Although of secondary priority given the proposal of the game, the campaign has also been maintained and expanded, with many challenges of a platform nature and a large repertoire of bosses. Unfortunately, the regular Splatfest festivals have now come to an end, but in return, the single-player experience can be extended thanks to Octo Expansion, an even larger campaign than the one included at the start. Splatoon 2 may be more of the same, but it’s also consistently better.
13. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle
- FreeGameTips Reviews
It seems like yesterday that the leaked image of a Rabbid dressed up as Peach taking a selfie raised quite a few questions and set off a few alarms as well. But the crossover was real, and after its demonstration at E3 it turned out to be one of the highlights of the first year of Switch. Created by Ubisoft in its Milan studio, Kingdom Battle not only fused Mario’s universe with that of the histrionic French rabbits through great artistic prowess and tons of humor, it also used the revamped Mushroom Kingdom as a backdrop for a game it discarded. the most predictable route of the platform and proposed turn-based strategy with clear reminiscences of the XCOM saga.
Knowing how to anticipate enemy movements, use the available coverage or propel some characters with the help of others are actions that we soon internalize to progress through a title with a smooth difficulty curve, but constant ascent. The development, while simple, is full of memorable moments; and the eight protagonists, although a small number of units compared to other exponents of the genre, offer a lot of customization through weapons and their own skill trees. Kingdom Battle is an accessible tactical adventure, but with enough depth and variety not to decay with the passing of the hours or limit its appeal to the unusual combination of worlds. And once finished, whoever is left wanting more also has available the phenomenal Donkey Kong Adventure, a packaging expansion where the gorilla universe receives its own visit and reinvention.
12. Super Mario Maker 2
- FreeGameTips Reviews
We continue to go up —or down, depending on how you look at it— with a title that has in common with Kingdom Battle the presence of Mario and with Splatoon 2 being a sequel to one of the great hits of Wii U. The first Maker was made more tailored to the console than practically any other game, both for the use of its control with screen and pencil to design levels and for Miiverse as a social platform to share and evaluate them. In that sense, the Switch started with a clear startup disadvantage, especially in dock mode. But Nintendo made an effort to counteract it by nurturing with more and better content both the game side – with a complete story mode aimed at unfolding the new and old mechanics over a hundred levels – and, of course, the creative one.
The four classic styles of Bros, Bros 3, World and New have benefited from many additions such as several new environments (desert, snowy, forest …), more types of enemies, power-ups, platform elements and even night versions with extra effects like low gravity or partial darkness of the screen. They were also joined for the first time by one based on 3D World, which for obvious reasons is limited to side scrolling, but offers a myriad of exclusive components such as the transparent pipes, the Koopa car, the hammer or, of course, the suit of Mario Felino. In addition, since its launch the game has been updated for free with even more possibilities, among which the long-awaited World Maker stands out, which finally allows levels to be grouped on maps created by the players and even share complete games by linking several worlds.
11. Paper Mario: The Origami King
- FreeGameTips Reviews
The plumber repeats, and not for the last time on the list, although with one of his most creative and hilarious games even after decades of adventures. The Origami King came by surprise – at the beginning of the year we didn’t even know it was in development – and with the handicap of not assuming a total return to the Nintendo 64 and GameCube role-playing Paper Mario that so many fans demanded, but that has not prevented it from sneaking between Switch highlights on their own merits. The combat system, without experience points and with vestiges of the consumable attacks of Color Splash, has been rethought in the key of puzzles where before each turn we must rotate the ground to correctly align the enemies and thus increase the damage when attacking.
The bosses, on the other hand, occupy our position and reconvert the exercise into a route tracing towards them with new and more demanding variables at each step. They are the high point of a title that otherwise dazzles again with an exquisite audiovisual section and a constant comic display, at the level of the best written by Intelligent Systems. Although their world is interconnected, the search for magical streamers fragment the development into five large blocks that enjoy different settings, characters and even mechanics, with room for tributes to other sagas, dance numbers, battles against some bosses in real time , minigames and many other surprises. It may not be the deepest Paper Mario, but it is definitely one of the most fun and varied.
10. Astral Chain
- FreeGameTips Reviews
More than a year after confirming the development of Bayonetta 3 – and without showing any image of the game in between – Platinum Games surprised with the announcement of Astral Chain, another collaboration with Nintendo that, like The Origami King, came out of nowhere a few months after its launch. This sudden appearance, coupled with the choice of a new director – albeit with experience in previous company titles – made some fear a quick product to fill the calendar between more powerful releases. But nothing is further from the truth: Astral Chain is pure Platinum from the quality levels it reaches to its ability to capitalize on recurring aspects such as the Bayonetta fighting frenzy, the staging and the greater exploration of NieR: Automata or a taste for experimentation with somewhat atypical mechanics from The Wonderful 101.
In the role of one of two protagonist brothers, our mission is to assist the police force in the midst of an increasingly frequent and dangerous invasion of creatures arriving from a parallel dimension known as the Astral Plane. This allows us to fragment the development into a series of missions where sometimes we can explore urban areas at our own pace, helping citizens in secondary tasks, and others in which the argument establishes a priority objective and guides us towards it. It also serves to introduce the legions, creatures from the other plane tamed to fight in tandem and add to the repertoire skills such as chain enemies, slashing, shooting arrows or tracking targets outside of combat. Simultaneous control of two characters takes practice, but once mastered it allows for quirks and immersion in a story with its good share of twists.
9. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
- FreeGameTips Reviews
As a good remake, Link’s Awakening is not a completely new game, but it is one of the best acquisitions that any Switch user can make even today, in the middle of 2020. This is due, on the one hand, to the excellent work of Grezzo modernizing this Classic Game Boy, completely rebuilt in a new three-dimensional environment with a toy look that gives it a certain plastic quality, but at the same time tangible. Although the design is faithful to the original at all times, preserving every inch of Koholint Island, all the puzzles in the dungeons or the selection of objects and enemies, on Switch it benefits from a greater field of view in the open world, various improvements interface, more shortcuts to items to interrupt the action less and secondary tasks renewed with a little more substance.
On the other hand, its current success is also due to virtues that were already in 1993, but now shine again under the new remodeling. Link’s Awakening dates from a context where the saga had already found its current form, with themed dungeons, ingenious puzzles – in terms of riddles or simple navigation – and a repertoire of secondary with increasing importance. But it still did not have great narrative pretensions, so beyond an original premise, with a certain intrigue and a memorable ending, the game prioritizes a light rhythm, gathering in the course of relatively few hours lots of ideas and encounters on one of the maps denser and better connected. His restraint and humility make him, ironically, bigger than ever. A dream adventure.
8. Fire Emblem: Three Houses
- FreeGameTips Reviews
Was this the game of “waifus”? There was a time, not too long ago, when the continuity of Fire Emblem was in jeopardy. But then Awakening came along and reinvigorated the saga, pushing it toward Nintendo’s front lines in a way that’s now comical in contrast to its previous situation (sequels, remakes, musos, mobile games, recurrence in Smash Bros). However, for the landing in Switch, Intelligent Systems put batteries with higher voltage than those of Game Freak and decided to renew the proposal both to enforce the technological leap from 3DS and to avoid the wear of the formula. Three Houses distances itself from the more traditional conflicts and the most recent procreations to offer a first-rate tactical role with a few surprises along the way.
Taking some notes of Person, the Houses that give it its name introduce a social and daily facet in the monastery where we teach classes and begin to both know and develop the main characters before going out to the battlefield. This gives rise to a lighter starting tone, but also to a better playable and narrative construction of each unit, something useful to make informed decisions and make the drama more meaningful when it arises in a predefined or organic way – especially if we encourage ourselves with permanent deaths. In combat, the use of accompanying battalions also serves to elevate the show for the new generation, and while it tends toward the easy side of things – at least in the context of Fire Emblem – the number of variables, customization, and features routes of the three Houses make it a deep and replayable title.
7. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- FreeGameTips Reviews
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is, as its name suggests, a revised version of the game created for Wii U more than five years ago, which has its positive and negative sides. The downside is that being a series of generational games, this means that Switch – or rather, users of the console who also had Wii U – are left without a full-fledged Mario Kart 9. The good news, that put to repeat, MK8 reaches such a high level of quality in the control, the circuit design – the antigravity takes time to lose impact – or the audiovisual facet that it is difficult to imagine how to do something better in this hardware without the response Stop by to score an Ultimate and simply add more tracks, corridors, or bring back the MK DS missions mode. Hey, already put …
Focusing on the current edition, it groups together both the base game and the post-launch content, which includes some of the best circuits in the saga – such as those set in the F-Zero universe -, guest racers such as Link and Canela or the frantic 200cc mode. For its part, Deluxe does not expand the already considerable number of 48 circuits, but it does add new pilots such as Bowsy or the Inklings from Splatoon, more parts to assemble custom vehicles, polishes the drift and turbos system, allows to carry two objects and, on top of that everything, remodels the battle mode, weak facet in Wii U that is now reinforced by new scenarios, new modes and extra items such as Boo or the feather. It is not Mario Kart 9, but it leaves an even higher bar for the day when a sequel appears with the intention of surpassing it.
6. Luigi’s Mansion 3
- FreeGameTips Reviews
After the premiere of the original, the return of the saga was postponed for more than a decade, but as soon as Luigi’s Mansion 2 landed on 3DS, few had doubts that Next Level Games was the ideal studio to retake it. The Canadians not only had previous experience with the universe of Mario and his brother – theirs was the Mario Strikers football series – they had also shown extreme good work with the animations of the excellent Punch-Out !! for Wii, a path that now culminates in this game. Because Luigi’s Mansion 3, more than any other exponent on the list, looks and moves almost like an animated film, something that beyond its aesthetic value serves to breathe life into a tactile world, where practically every object on screen is Interactive and react to Luigi as much as Luigi reacts to him.
On this basis, Next Level builds dozens and dozens of contextual puzzles that are not based simply on the acquisition and use of new peripherals for the popular Ghostbusters vacuum cleaner of the saga, but on the constant reevaluation of its functions within the framework of thematic floors. of the gigantic hotel that we have to explore. Whether propelling an inflatable duck through a flooded basement, manipulating the sand in an Egyptian suite – exemplary use of physics – or vacuuming oversized plants from a nursery to use as lianas, the game is a constant exercise in logic spiced up by well-measured combat —Which also introduces its own mechanics thanks to the new plunger — and lots and lots of humor. Although it doesn’t scale too much in difficulty or shake things up a lot with its structure, the superb staging, the huge variety of locations and the great selection of bosses make it a must-have on the console.
5. Xenoblade Chronicles 2
- FreeGameTips Reviews
Oh no. The one with the waifus was this one. Upon its arrival in the West in 2011, the first Xenoblade achieved the kind of consensus that is difficult to see in a JRPG, particularly one not belonging to those four big names whose quality is taken for granted and whose shortcomings are easier to forgive. However, neither Xenoblade X nor Xenoblade 2 were acclaimed in such a universal way. Something that, on the one hand, has its origin in the practical impossibility of Monolith Soft surprising in the same way twice; and on the other, in decisions such as the more exploratory and less argumentative approach of the Wii U game or the excess of micro-management of characters – whose obtaining, in addition, depends on the chance factor – accompanied by a more erotic-festive sensitivity in some designs and sequences of this latest installment.
But, divisive as it can be even among fans of the saga, the truth is that Xenoblade 2 also preserves – and in not a few cases expands – the virtues of the original: the settings, now spread out by huge titans floating on a sea of clouds, extend toward the horizon and tend to be denser in content; the roster of characters is also broader and has even more time to develop; the scenery and soundtrack set a bar that other Switch games look at from below; And the combat with Blades, while it takes quite a few hours to show its potential, allows tons of combinations and advanced mechanics to continue squeezing it against bosses long after watching the credits. And then, as if that wasn’t enough, the Torna expansion reformulates the fights into a prequel that adds gravitas to various characters from the main game. Of course, if you can play it in the dock, better leave the portable mode for sporadic games.
4. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- FreeGameTips Reviews
Although Animal Crossing seemed to have become a saga of inevitable appearance on all Nintendo consoles from GameCube onwards, the absence on Wii U – at least in its traditional form – and the years since the New Leaf portable turned the announcement of the Switch delivery in one of the most sought-after console. Initially planned for 2019, New Horizons did not resist leaving fans with honey on their lips once again and moved to the present year, where its unintentional – we suppose – alignment with the global pandemic has made it an impossible phenomenon to replicate: just when millions of people could not leave home, Animal Crossing offered them an entire island to walk, do renovations and interact with neighbors or other players through the internet.
The game as such could be classified as a continuation sequel, since it recovers most of the elements introduced by previous installments. The premise starts with a desert island, where we camped and began to prepare the ground for the early arrival of classics such as the store, the museum or the tailor shop, as well as new neighbors. It is then that the title takes on a more familiar look, but continues to stand out among its brothers thanks to the better graphic finish, numerous refinements in the interface, the enhanced DIY, daily incentives from the Nook miles – which reward for daily and accumulative activities. or the terraforming of the town: changes in height, rivers, bridges, roads, ramps, waterfalls … Everything is malleable to a point that can even unhinge the most perfectionists, although that is also what helps it become a game almost eternal.
3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
- FreeGameTips Reviews
Where Mario Kart 8 polished and repackaged brilliant content, Smash Bros looked back, recovered all those characters that had been left by the wayside and has since accompanied them by a selection of new surprises or pending accounts (Ridley, King K. Rool, Banjo-Kazooie …) that continues to grow long after its release. The saga has always been a celebration of video games, and in that sense no one coughs up Ultimate. Gathering – and pampering – sagas such as Castlevania, Dragon Quest, Metal Gear, Persona or Mega Man along with the many, many recurring franchises of Nintendo itself is a feat that Masahiro Sakurai himself, its creator, recognizes almost impossible to repeat. So while the future will surely hold other joys for Smash Bros fans, Ultimate’s status as the ultimate fanservice may end up extending quite a bit over time.
It is true that on the playable side of things, there is a stain that clouds the experience: online is not up to such an event, performing worse than colleagues like Splatoon 2 or Mario Kart 8 himself, and thus dulling the facet competitive of a well-tuned fighting title within his most platform and carefree vision of the genre. But locally or single-player, the story changes thanks to the super customizable Smash mode, arcade campaigns tailored to each character, the long-standing adventure mode with several maps to go through – and a few known bosses to defeat – or the hundreds and hundreds of challenges featuring an ever-growing selection of spirits. Not forgetting other post-launch additions such as the scenario editor or the return of baseball Smash. The numbers (+70 characters, +100 settings, +900 melodies) are dizzy, but the quality almost always shows itself in the small details.
2. Super Mario Odyssey
- FreeGameTips Reviews
A curiosity: although not always the protagonist, Mario appears in 6 of the 15 games on this list. With such data it would be easy to assume that the plumber could end up tiring the staff, but, far from being the case, Odyssey has distanced itself from everyone – except for the forthcoming first place – because it means the return through the big door of the «collectathon», the platform subgenus of which it was championed during the transition to the three dimensions. Because the new adventure is just that, a game to explore as much as to jump, with wide and open levels that offer an infinity of simultaneous objectives, achievable in different order and in different ways thanks to an also extensive range of actions included in both the basic repertoire of Mario as acquirable in a contextual way.
This versatility is built using its co-star, the Cappy hat, which in normal conditions serves as a trampoline or boomerang, but which when capturing an enemy, animal or even object allows Mario to use his body and benefit from his unique abilities. It is a concept more typical of Banjo-Kazooie with its transformations, but that Odyssey raises to the nth power by multiplying the number of species (frogs, fish, flying octopus, accordion-worms, a T-Rex …) and making the process of entering or leaving them something immediate, thus setting a tremendously varied development where exploration and experimentation with new mechanics are intertwined in an impeccable rhythm, marked by the player. And then, of course, there is the excellent audiovisual skills that the 3D Marios studio always boasts, this time at the service of a literal journey through the world to meet new kingdoms, new races and also dress new ones. matching outfits. The word “odyssey” was well chosen.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- FreeGameTips Reviews
You knew it. Or did you not know? Technically it is not exclusive to Switch, but as it belongs to the Nintendo family, it cannot be played on another current platform and its launch was simultaneous, we have allowed ourselves to include it. If anyone is not convinced, treat Mario Odyssey as the best exclusive and ready, since they both escaped together from the rest of the group – although Link, in turn, also took a considerable distance from the traveling plumber.
Going to the mess, what to say that has not already been said about Breath of the Wild over and over again since its premiere alongside the console itself? As an installment in a saga as acclaimed as Zelda, you might think that its popularity lies in nostalgia, familiarity with a formula that returns periodically and to comfort its fans. But you don’t have to play a lot to see that the shots are not going there. If anything, this installment exists just to get us out of our comfort zone. The comfort created by the tutorials they have held for hours, by the sword that you wield throughout the adventure without thinking of alternatives, by the items that solve half a dozen puzzles before returning to the inventory to collect dust, by the maps and the compasses that guide us like breadcrumbs to the next checkpoint in history.
Breath of the Wild is an open world game, but also a game where using the term “sandbox” is more appropriate than ever, even if it doesn’t have cars or mobsters hanging around. His conception of the famous sandbox is a more accurate one, since it has a terrain without insurmountable walls, but rugged and conditioned by the weather, where the player sits with a series of tools – climbing, parasailing, recipes, items with properties physical features such as magnetism, freezing, or paralysis — to create your own adventure. And yes, Link is mute. And in the end we saved the princess. Or almost at the beginning, if we give for it and we are capable. But Breath of the Wild is not on high because it is Zelda, but because it is Breath of the Wild.
