Game of the Year 2024 – Best Nintendo Switch Game
by Stefan L · tsaThis time next year, we’ll hopefully be talking up a storm about the delights of the Nintendo Switch 2, how Nintendo has handled their own cross-gen transition and the games that have straddled the generations. With that in mind, 2024 has felt like Nintendo playing for time, leaning heavily on remakes and remasters once again – trawling the GameCube and 3DS libraries for inspiration – though with a clutch of new entries in beloved series that absolutely had the capacity to delight and surprise. Notably, the princesses got to step out of the shadow of Nintendo’s leading men and have adventures of their very own.
One of the longest-running jokes in video games came to a head this year as Zelda finally got to star in her own adventure, with Link having to play second fiddle for once. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom could so easily have been a character transplant with Zelda picking up sword, shield and boomerang just as Link would – and Zelda has been a badass warrior, pirate, ninja and more in the past – but as is often the case, Nintendo and developer Grezzo sought to do something a little bit different.
Leant the ability to summon objects and creatures, and attach to them in multiple ways, everything from simply navigating the world to fighting enemies becomes a magic-infused puzzle, lending this game its own distinctive tone and style. Sure, it does fall back on classic Link combat in short bursts, but for the most part you summoning blocks of water to swim through, attaching to a spider that will then clamber up a wall or over a tree for you, setting field alight with an arsonist Zol, or simply stacking beds in gravity-defying fashion to create a set of stairs.
It’s thoroughly enjoyable and a wonderful surprise that has us keen to see Zelda step into the limelight much more often in future.
Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island – Runner-up
So many roguelikes and dungeon crawlers place an emphasis on build-crafting, and how the emergent gameplay experience can be dished out through satisfying skill combinations or optimized weapon upgrades. Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is a delight because your build, and your optimized run, and your upgraded gear are all affected by the environment you find yourself in and the way the elements of the game-world naturally bounce off of each other.
Like the chemical reactions in Breath of the Wild that cause burning grass to create flight-enhancing wind gusts, there are layered systems in this game that crash together in consistently unexpected and hilarious ways. It’s an excellent twist on the usual number-crunching ethos of the modern roguelike, and perfect for a quick commute play-session on the Nintendo Switch.
– Miguel M
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door – Runner-up
Nintendo’s approach to remasters and remakes has been fairly scattershot on Nintendo Switch (outside of quickly porting across all the major Wii U games in the first few years of its replacement’s arrival), but as part of that, they’ve also struck a rich vein of 20-year-old games from the GameCube era.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door transplants what is widely considered to be the very best Paper Mario game into a modern game engine, giving it a buff and polish to help it stand up alongside more modern titles on the system, and in doing so gives us a perfect reminder of why Mario RPGs are so beloved, with all the quirkiness and charm of the story and character alongside the original Paper Mario combat style.
Honourable mentions (in alphabetical order)
What have you been playing on Nintendo Switch this past year? Let us know in the comments.
Tags: Game of the Year 2024, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom