Heading into 2024 , we were convinced that we ’d cease the yr playing games on theNintendo Switch 2 . We foretell a light stream of final Switch exclusives that would transmit the historic console off in style , but figured that we ’d get no major releases .
Boy were we awry .
As it turned out , 2024 did n’t mark the end of the Switch ’s lifespan . While the Switch 2 is decent around the corner according to Nintendo , the company kept its focus fully on its breadwinning cabinet rather than salve its ammunition for a blowout 2025 computer hardware launch . We got a new Zelda game , the first original Mario & Luigi RPG in nearly a ten , and a supersized Mario Party game to dramatise out an impressive holiday batting order . Outside of the retiring few calendar month , though , Nintendo dedicate us one of its most eclectic years in its modern story . When else can you remember Nintendo reviving a 35 - year - one-time NES franchise and turning it into an M - rated revulsion visual novel ?
Those are the sort of bold steps you only really see in the final months of a console table ’s lifetime . While it may have lead to a year full of niche releases and pip - or - miss experiment , the loaded library made the Nintendo Switch 2024 ’s most exciting console table again . These were our best-loved Switch exclusives from one of the most unpredictable age in Nintendo ’s recollective history .
Emio — The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club
When it was first uncover with a mysterious teaser , Emio — The Smiling Man : Famicom Detective Clubfelt like something special . It was an entirely left - area project for Nintendo in every way , from its niche genre to its M - evaluation . You do n’t take a hazard like this unless the team behind it has a great imagination , and that ’s incisively what makesEmiogreat . The eerie ocular novel tell a mature narration about a little town ’s lineage of violence due to a cryptical serial killer whale with a paper - bag masquerade party . What bulge out as a supernatural whodunit chronicle cursorily turn into a more found story about puerility trauma and how so many kids stick out in silence . It ’s a gripping story that does n’t go where you expect it to , and that ’s what take in it so vital .
Splatoon 3: Side Order
This year has been so long that you might have forgotten that it kicked off with some reinvigorated DLC forSplatoon 3 . Rather than adding some new maps and costumes , though , Nintendo went all out forSide parliamentary procedure . The expansion pins a creative roguelite mode onto the already adulterate package . As an extra , it ’s a bam . Players apply their painting skills to ink their style through arena battles while getting impermanent upgrade for their palette . It ’s a standby genre idea that work astonishingly well with Splatoon ’s arsenal of originative weapons . With a high - octane finale that might just be one of 2024 ’s upright endings , Side Ordermight be Nintendo ’s proficient lb - for - pound game of the year .
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble
We usually do n’t see many third - party game gracing our one-year permutation listing , butSuper Monkey Ball : Banana Rumbleis an exclusion to that formula for good reason . The late instalment of the puzzle - platforming series is a genuine coming back to form . It ’s full of catchy stages in which players have to cautiously lead a rolled monkey to the exit . The trick is that it bestow a encouragement function that blow the doorway wide open for speedrunners eager to beat levels as fast as humanly possible . It ’s the most thrilling the serial has been since its GameCube days , and I imagine it ’ll be an immediate fixture at consequence like Games Done Quick go forward .
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
To pad out its exit schedule , Nintendo get going intemperately on remake and re - releases this twelvemonth . Some were puzzling , like an oddballMario vs. Donkey Kongremake , while game likeAnother Code Recollectionwere a welcome addition to Switch ’s library . It ’s no surprisal , though , that the year ’s best double fall came fromPaper Mario : The Thousand - Year Door . Long celebrated as the crown gem of Nintendo RPGs , the GameCube classic is still as creative and funny as ever decennium by and by . A new art refresh brings its colorful report world to lifespan , while timbre - of - sprightliness upgrades like fresh crosscut tools make it even easy to dally . It ’s not the most ambitious remaking , but when a game is this good , there ’s no need to mess with it too much .
Super Mario Party Jamboree
I ’ve had a back - and - forth kinship with the Mario Party serial publication over the year . While I have a go at it it when I was a nipper , I ’d started to feel like the multiplayer series had run its course . Super Mario Party Jamboreeproved me wrong — and I ’m beaming it did . It ’s not just that the core board game is right here , bringing in new layers that make fashion for more strategical swordplay . It ’s that Nintendo dilute it up with plenty of fun side mode , like the mass multiplayer Koopaathlon or the co - op Bowser ’s Kaboom Squad . Even if its minigames feel lacking at times , Super Mario Party Jamboreeproves that the serial publication still has plenty of ideas left in the storage tank .
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
After the achiever ofBreath of the Wild , I worry that the Zelda series would never return to its top - down root . Thankfully , that was n’t the case , and now we haveThe Legend of Zelda : Echoes of Wisdomto show for it . Grezzo ’s first original Zelda plot takes everything it learned from its excellentLink ’s Awakeningremake and englut it into a wizard dangerous undertaking star the titulary hero . The twist is that she has her own exceptional powers that allow her to clone items . That turns the former - school Zelda formula into more of an exploration puzzle box that takes smart influence fromBreath of the Wild ’s actor agency without doing aside with staples like dungeons . It ’s a great compromise that lay the series in swell hands head into the Switch 2 era .
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition
IsNintendo World Championships : NES Editionan first-class biz ? As I note in my review , no , it ’s not . And yet , I still played it obsessionally for a month on destruction this summertime . The ghostly heir to Nintendo ’s torpid NES Remix serial tasks players with complete micro - challenges from a collection of NES games , fromSuper Mario Bros.toKid Icarus . Though trying to get the sword inThe Legend of Zeldaas tight as possible might not sound exciting , Nintendo World Championshipsbecomes thrilling once you become committed to mastering it . I spent week shaving milliseconds off Mario challenges and felt a surge of skill anytime I did . If you ’re looking for a light game to nonchalantly haunt over as the class winds down , Nintendo World Championships : NES Editionis a great time - killer .
Fitness Boxing 3: Your Personal Trainer
While I could use this last space to praise any number of remakes , Princess Peach : Showtime ! , orMario & Luigi Brothership , I require to take a consequence to giveFitness package 3 : Your Personal Trainerits due . The fittingness rhythm method of birth control plot has role player punching along to medicine during day-after-day workouts to give them their day-to-day dose of cardio . Do not underestimate it;Fitness Boxing 3kicked my butt into shape . After only three days of workouts , I could barely move my shoulders . After some rest day , though , I get going gaining my strength and have felt healthier ever since . With accurate motion controls and some handy daily tracking , Fitness Boxing 3 : Your Personal Traineris the best fitness game let go for the Switch sinceRing Fit Adventure .
