Best Nintendo Switch Exclusives | Nintendo Life
The Nintendo Switch has been home to an almost huge number of fantastic games since it launched in 2017. Many of these have made their way to other platforms – be it big-name indie titles or huge AAA releases getting a second wind on the Nintendo handheld hybrid – but the console is also home to a host of brilliant exclusive games.
We’ve compiled the best Switch exclusive games in no particular order for your perusal below. If you don’t care about exclusivity, check out our best guide to Nintendo Switch games for the top 50 games on the platform.
All games below are available Only on Nintendo Switch and cannot currently be found on PC or any other platform. That means we’ve had to say goodbye to some entries like Octopath Traveler and Monster Hunter Rise (Nintendo consoles also count, so sorry Breath of the Wild and Super Mario 3D World – though be sure to check out the Switch-exclusive beat of Bowser’s Fury ). ). These exclusive games, found nowhere else, form the core of the Switch’s software library. Naturally, you will find many top-notch games.
Regardless of who made them, below are our top Switch exclusives.
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Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo
Super Mario Odyssey arguably Nintendo’s finest hour on the Nintendo Switch, bringing Mario back to a sandbox-style Wednesday. Super Mario 64. The display of creativity and sheer ingenuity is incredible, thanks in large part to the introduction of Cappie, Mario’s signature hat that he can use to perform frantic platforming moves and grab enemies to solve puzzles. If this isn’t already on your Switch, what are you waiting for?
Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo
Splatoon 3 is the same, but brought to mechanical perfection. It’s the most entertaining online shooter in years, and for veterans of the Splatoon 2 series, it seems completely unnecessary for anything but unique single-player content. It feels like the development team solved all the problems that the Splatoon community was bleating about, and then fixed a few more that we didn’t even know about until they were fixed. It’s nothing groundbreaking compared to its predecessors, and it may be missing the Big New Idea™ you might expect five years from now, but Splatoon 3 is the pinnacle of the series and the pinnacle of shooters on the Switch.
Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo
Animal Crossing: New Horizons takes the series and not only drags it back to home consoles, but improves every aspect imaginable. There is more to do, more to see, more to change, more to fashion, and more to love; fans and new players will find themselves wasting hours collecting materials, crafting new furniture, and building their own island, no doubt them. Every moment is unabashedly blissful, with superbly written characters that truly seem to come to life, and an island paradise that returns infinitely more than you put in. Animal Crossing: New Leaf hit the shelves years ago and created a whole new generation of fans, many people wondered how Nintendo could top it, but here we have the answer. It’s a masterpiece worth buying a Switch (or two) for.
Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo
Talking about creativity and discarding the unnecessary, Nintendo has reinvented itself twice in the same generation by introducing Nintendo Labo. It solves the problem of all those plastic peripherals you have around the house from previous Nintendo consoles, making the peripherals cardboard. The magic is not lost though – you can play the piano, drive a motorcycle and make friends with a small pet in a toy house. All with cardboard and your Nintendo Switch.
Labo Toy Con 04: VR set even lets you explore the world of virtual reality using just your Switch, a pair of plastic glasses with lenses, and a set of rubber bands and plastic o-rings. And, of course, cardboard. It’s great and it also allows you to experience some other titles including Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and even Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in special VR modes.
Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Arica
Exclusive to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers, Tetris 99 offers a truly unique way to play tried and tested classics, even if the overall package feels a bit lightweight. It’s basically a Tetris battle royale, playing live against 98 other players is chaotic and the action feels fast, precise and surprisingly addictive. This is also seriously difficult – we would evaluate our chances in Fortnite over it any day – and we’re impressed with the fact that it forced us to play the game with a completely different approach to our usual slow and steady ways. Signing up for Nintendo Switch Online just to play this game can be a little tricky, but if you’re already a member, what are you waiting for? It’s “free” and it could be your next favorite waste of time.
Publisher: Shinen Multimedia / Developer: Shinen Multimedia
While Nintendo fans go out of their way to beg for a new one F-zero (Seriously, Ninti, it’s time) The guys from Shin’en Multimedia weren’t in the mood for begging. Instead, the developer just went and did Fast franchises on Nintendo platforms. You have a wide choice of vehicles, race tracks and an unrivaled sense of speed. Unbeatable, that is, until Nintendo pulls its finger out. The F-Zero is really quite different, but until then, the Fast RMX fills the void in high-speed anti-gravity racing admirably.
Publisher: Ubisoft / Developer: Ubisoft
Mario + Bunny Kingdom Battle surprised us all when it was launched. Who would have thought that XCOMInspired by Ubisoft’s Mario and Rabbids tactical RPG, can it be that good?! So good, in fact, that it remains one of the best Nintendo Switch exclusives to this day.
Publisher: Games Sidebar / Developer: Games Sidebar
History of golf as a spiritual successor Mario Golf on the Game Boy Color as it combines RPG gameplay with golf. It’s an odd combination that, even stranger, works really well. You explore eight unique locations, solving the world’s (and your own!) problems by hitting them with a golf ball.
Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Monolith Soft
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a sequel to arguably the best Nintendo Wii JRPG (now available on Switch) and very, very a good game, but Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a real masterpiece and still the highlight of the great Monolith Soft series. There’s an emotionally charged and surprisingly poignant epic here, a vast and extremely engaging narrative populated by a host of unforgettable characters, backed up by some of the very best battles we’ve had the pleasure of tackling the genre to date. It’s been over 100 hours and now we’re just as captivated as we were when we first downloaded it, and it more than delivered all the adventure, emotion, and action that its key graphics promised. Ionios is waiting, it’s time to seize the future.
Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Koei Tekmo
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order it’s not a groundbreaking, storytelling reimagining of the comic characters you know and love, but then again, the first two games weren’t either. In that regard, it’s a very faithful sequel, featuring an extensive roster of characters from the comics, as well as many references to the current state of the more modern Marvel Cinematic Universe. While he doesn’t do anything particularly new or standout, he takes a mindless delight in his brawling, and it’s absolutely at its best when you’re playing with a team of player-controlled superheroes. Excelsior!
Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo
We love ARMS and we won’t hear a bad word about him. Nintendo doesn’t just make a game in a genre, it makes that genre work for itself – we’ve seen this with platoon, which reinvented competitive online shooter, and now with ARMS. In many ways, this is not only a mystery, but also a fast-paced action movie. Given that you often fight enemies from a distance and it takes time for your strikes to land, you really need to try to catch your opponent off guard.
