The 9 Best Nintendo Switch Games of 2021

Best Overall: Nintendo Animal Crossing: New Horizons

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There may never be a more perfectly timed game than Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Released just as people all over the world found themselves stuck at home, it gave players a charming virtual world to shape and explore and experience with one another. Its starts with your custom character flown to an initially deserted island, where you have the power to guide its development, upgrade your home and furnishings, and befriend colorful, quirky animal villagers.

The Animal Crossing series is known for a non-traditional sort of gameplay that’s not for everyone, but accessible and enjoyable for young and old, gamers and non-gamers alike. While many players find ways to grind out various aspects of New Horizons, it’s really intended to be a real-time, long-term experience. Every day, there’s a wealth of new things to do. Gather fruits and resources for crafting items. Catch fish and bugs for profit or to fill your gorgeous museum. Check the day’s furniture and apparel at the shops. Different visitors stop by throughout the week, and limited-time events pop up at different seasons and holidays throughout the year. There are no bosses, no high scores. You play at your own pace, living your best island life.

New Horizons is also driven along by its local or online multiplayer. You can visit your friends’ islands, see their houses, meet their villagers, and swap items or custom designs. You can also generate one-time codes to invite over players who, for example, you meet on the generally helpful online community and might have an item you’re looking for. On a single Switch console, multiple players can build homes and play together on the same island, but separate consoles (and game cards) are required to have separate islands.

Best Multiplayer: Nintendo Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for Nintendo Switch

4.6

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It’s tough to top Mario Kart when it comes to multiplayer mayhem, so it’s no surprise that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe quickly became one of the best-selling games in history. The Switch version enhances the original Wii U game in several ways, including new characters, arenas, and battle modes. The full selection of 48 diverse and dazzling racecourses are available from the start, with revamped tracks from previous Mario Kart games alongside clever new ones based on locales from all over the Nintendo universe.

One reason for Mario Kart’s popularity is how easy it is for just about anyone to jump in and speed around and blast each other with items. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe even adds features like smart steering and auto-accelerate to aid newcomers and young players. More competitive veterans of the series, meanwhile, can spend hours discovering shortcuts and speeding up their lap times.

The game offers several options for playing with friends: online, four-player split-screen on the same system, or through local wireless with multiple Switch consoles in handheld mode. You can take to the tracks or duke it out in Battle mode, which includes new arenas and balloon-popping, coin-nabbing modes that make it even more of a blast for parties and groups.

Best for Kids: Nintendo Luigi's Mansion 3

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Most of Nintendo’s games are already geared for the whole family, but Luigi’s Mansion 3 shines as an excellent Switch title for kids who like a bit of spooky fun. Despite the game’s moody, mysterious atmosphere, there’s so much life, color, and silliness that it plays out more comical than outright scary. And it doesn’t hurt that the game centers around one of Nintendo’s goofier characters. When his brother Mario and their other friends are taken captive at a luxury hotel filled with ghosts, the jumpy Luigi musters his courage to explore the strange tower’s 15+ floors and rescue his pals.

The main tool at Luigi’s disposal, like previous games in the series, is his Poltergust vacuum cleaner, handy for sucking up ghosts—and basically any object he sees. Trying it out all over the very interactive, destructible environment is a delight in itself. Luigi gains other tools along the way, and putting them all to clever use is key to solving the hotel’s diverse puzzles and defeating tricky boss ghosts. One innovative gameplay addition in Luigi’s Mansion 3 is “Gooigi,” a green, oozy clone that can be summoned at will. A single player can swap between controlling Luigi and Gooigi, or a second player can take control of Gooigi for drop-in co-op.

Online and local multiplayer modes also keep the game going beyond the campaign. Players can form teams and go head-to-head in the ScreamPark, or work together to clear randomly generated floors in the ScareScraper.

Best Fighting Game: Capcom Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers

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Since the original arcade release of Street Fighter II in 1991, the revolutionary fighting game has stayed alive through esports tournaments and frequent revamps and refreshes. It hit the Switch as Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers 26 years later, and it’s a satisfyingly pure experience. You can play with modern HD graphics or dial back to the classic pixel-art style. Either way, the animations are smooth and satisfying, and the combo-based mechanics are as crisp and responsive as ever. The controls translate well on Joy-Cons, though many may prefer a larger Pro Controller.

Ultra Street Fighter II throws in a few new features, but they take a backseat to the tried-and-true gameplay. The two “new” fighters added to the roster of favorites are actually variants: Evil Ryu and Violent Ken. There’s a new two-player co-op mode, along with an unexpected single-player, first-person Way of the Hado mode that has you using the Joy-Con’s motion controls to pull off Ryu’s signature moves. Multiplayer battles remain the heart of the game, though, and Street Fighter fans will likely spend most of their time in local head-to-head battles or jumping online for casual or ranked matches.

Best RPG: Nintendo Fire Emblem: Three Houses

4.5

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Like the best role-playing games for Switch and other consoles tend to do, Fire Emblem: Three Houses immerses you in its story and never lets go. It’s a powerful narrative centered on a cast of complex characters and their conflicts with one another. Your main player character is pulled into an officers’ academy where you pick which of the titular three houses to teach. Your choices and in-game actions are critical; they can lead to branching paths, multiple endings, and tons of potential for replayability. Add in free updates and DLCs and there’s over 100 hours of content you can play through. The dialogue is impeccably voice-acted throughout, and while the graphics don’t do anything groundbreaking, they nail the anime style with the character designs and many epic, fully animated action cutscenes.

The core gameplay will be familiar to anyone who’s played one of the 15 previous Fire Emblem games, or any turn-based tactical RPG in general. You command your deployed units around a grid-based battlefield where they can move, attack foes, and support one another. Three Houses, though, adds more flexibility by letting most classes wield multiple types of weapons or magic and choose from a set of equipable skills. You can also play in “casual” mode where fallen team members come back after the battle, rather than the Classic version where they would be gone permanently.

Beyond combat, Three Houses introduces several simulation-game elements new to the Fire Emblem series. You spend time teaching classes, farming, and building relationships with students at the school, making the game a more fresh, rounded experience than other RPGs like it.

Best Indie: 505 Games Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

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The idea of former Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi creating a spiritual successor to the trailblazing series was a popular one with fans. His project became a wild success on Kickstarter, quickly meeting its target and securing funding for stretch goals that added numerous extra features. The result was Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a faithful modernization of the classic Castlevania experience.

Bloodstained shares strong similarities with its predecessors, from its gothic horror style to a mystical summoned castle. It stars Miriam, a Shardbinder who can absorb crystal shards from demons to gain their powers. You step into her very lethal shoes as she tries to thwart the evil plans of the only other surviving Shardbinder, Gebel.

Miriam’s ability to gather and equip enemy skills provides a fresh magical element to the combat. Much of the other aspects of the gameplay stay quite close to Castlevania mechanics. It’s a 2D action platformer taking place on a single massive map that you explore one room at a time, with many sections closed off to you until you earn the appropriate abilities or items. You swap weapons and gear on the fly to boost your stats and better battle the castle’s monsters. It all feels nostalgic and familiar to fans of the genre, but it doesn’t stop the romp from being great bloody entertainment.

Best Platformer: Nintendo Super Mario Maker 2

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Super Mario Maker 2 is more than your standard side-scrolling platform game. Sure, there’s a story mode, and it involves gradually rebuilding Princess Peach’s castle using coins that you earn from jobs assigned by Toad and other characters. Each job puts Mario in a 2D platforming level with a distinct visual theme from a past game, from the original pixely Super Mario Bros. to the more “2.5D” New Super Mario Bros. style. Many jobs also throw in the twist of a unique rule or objective (like never touching the ground or reaching the goal holding a shell).

The key difference, of course, is the “Maker” part of the game. As with the first Super Mario Maker for Wii U, you have the freedom to create and edit and share 2D courses of your own. That means placing parts like terrain, traps, blocks, baddies, and power-ups from Mario’s many 2D adventures, along with choosing details like backgrounds, sound effects, scroll speed, and more. You can then save your creations and upload them to the online community, where up to four players can play them together locally or online and rate their experience.

A more recent update added the World Maker feature, letting you create world maps with up to 5 of your custom courses in each, and a Super World containing 8 of those world maps. If you invest in learning the maker interface and have the patience to build and test your ideas, you could essentially create your own full Mario game for others to enjoy.

Best Roguelike: Supergiant Games Hades

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A roguelike game is defined by procedurally generated levels where if your character dies, you start all over. Fortunately, in Hades for Switch and PC, you’re the immortal prince Zagreus, and dying is very much part of the story. Each death brings you right back with new skills and upgrades and abilities to help you eventually battle your way out of the underworld. You can wield one of six primary weapons, choosing from a selection of blades and bows that let you try out noticeably different styles of play. You can also earn items to aid you in various big and little ways in future runs.

The real loot, though, is the friends (and enemies) you make along the way. You’ll encounter gods and heroes from Greek mythology—Ares, Athena, Achilles, et al.—and gain their powers or friendship or support or resistance. They’re all compellingly voice acted and reveal a little more of their intriguing personalities and backstories each time you see them. They remember everything, from the powers you used to how you died, and they’ll comment the next time you return. It’s an addictive process that builds up a dynamic, engrossing story bit by bit and makes you want to jump into the inferno again and again… and again… and again…

Best Sim: Double Damage Games Rebel Galaxy Outlaw

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If you’ve dreamed of living the drifter life, riding around from bar to bar, shooting pool, making coin from odd jobs—and doing it all in space—then Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is the simulation game for you. You play as Juno Markev, a smuggler hunting down her husband’s murderer, traversing a galaxy with a wild-west feel. You stop at seedy space stations full of truckers and ruffians, where you can play minigames like dice, slots, and an Asteroids-like arcade game. Your goal is to gather information, funds, and parts to upgrade the junk pile you start out with as a ship.

The main way to improve your situation, though, is to take on missions and bounties that call for space combat, and that’s where the real action of Rebel Galaxy Outlaw kicks in. Some of these fast-paced dogfights can get difficult, but the game helps keep things from becoming tedious or frustrating. Holding down the left trigger automatically steers your ship toward your target so you can focus on shooting. You’ll also meet fellow pilots you can call on for assistance. Eventually, you’ll be able to upgrade your ship enough to make tougher skirmishes easier, though the process is somewhat of a grind. There’s also a very advanced painting tool for customizing your ship, and you can even order a 3D-printed scale model to be sent to you in real life.