Five Essential Nintendo Switch Games You should Play on the Nintendo Switch 2 (Part 2)

With the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 in 2025. Nintendo are currently riding the wave that was the success of the Nintendo Switch. Releasing a sequel console that not only upgrades the original switch but is also backwards compatible.

In this blog I will be talking about five of the best and most essential Nintendo switch games that you can get right now and play on your Nintendo Switch 2.

1) Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Have you ever wondered what its like to build a life on a deserted island. Well with Animal crossing New Horizons you can do exactly that. Released in 2020 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Animal Crossing New Horizons is a Cozy island life simulation game where you get to build from the ground up your own personal island. Through your playthrough you will become hooked on creating a community of animal human hybrid creatures known as villagers who build your island to life.

New Horizons runs with real time game mechanics so when you play at 7pm in the evening, its means its also 7pm on your island. Over the course of time your island will develop and evolve as you shape your island, build relationships, find ways to bring in income to pay off your debts to the one and only Tom Nook and take part in various events across the year.

Animal crossing is an extremely polished life simulation game. It's simplistic but in depth game play loop makes it one of the most addictive video games of all time. Animal Crossing New Horizons is the second best selling game on Nintendo Switch making it a must play for anyone with a Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch 2. Its an iconic game series and is now one of Nintendo's most recognizable game series. This game is perfect for any Cozy gaming fans who are looking for a game to play over time in their spare time. Not only that but there is a huge online community for New horizons that are creating interesting and unique islands and sharing tips to succeed in your own creations.

New horizons also has a really unique DLC called Happy home Designer where you get to become an Interior designer for villager. Creating unique designs in the aim to impress villagers.

Play this game

2) Pokemon Legends Arceus

The best Pokemon game on the Nintendo Switch and that is not an opinion, that is a fact. Released in 2022, Pokemon Legend Arceus takes everything you ever dreamed of about the potential of an open world pokemon game and lets you explore and build the first Pokedex. Legend Arceus takes you back to the ancient hisui region, an unexplored version of the sinnoh region from the Gen 4 pokemon games Pokemon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum.

Similar to Animal Crossing New Horizons, Arceus is perfect for fans of games that require collecting lots of things as Legends Arceus has 242 different pokemon to catch, spanning the different areas and conditions of Hisui.

Legend arceus is a great side entry into the pokemon series. It's enjoyable because it deviates away from the traditional 8 Gym and elite four formula that the mainline series is known for. Giving you free range to just be a pokemon researcher and trainer. One of the most interesting parts of this game is that Pokemon react to you in real time gameplay, In other words, Wild Pokemon flee from or attack you the trainer until you fight back with your own pokemon, Something that really makes this game special as this is the closest to feeling like you are actually in this games world. This game is also brings in Boss battles with legendary pokemon throughout the games 20 hour story.

Legends Arceus in a way is a very in depth tech demo for what the future of the pokemon series may become going forward and Nintendo and Gamefreak are not looking back as there is a sequel being released known as Pokemon Legends Z-A with the same formula and improvements like real time battles.

While Pokemon Legends Arceus is not a perfect game by any means, Graphically the game lacks as pop in and jagged edges are rife throughout the game, the world feels somewhat empty the more you progress and the story and character all feel half baked. But it is an unbelievably fun and addictive Pokemon game that was massively experimental and can only be explained through experience.

3) Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Fire emblem Three Houses is a 2019 Tactical turn based strategy game that plays like chess with rock paper scissor style JRPG combat. Three Houses is also a hybrid genre game as it is a life simulator game similar to the likes of the popular Persona series, where you must build relationships with characters and gain experience from the decisions you make throughout your in game day.

Taking place in the magical land of Fodlan. A peaceful Land falling towards the brink of a civil war between three houses. You play as Byleth a teacher at the Fodlan Monastery known as Garreg Mach who must choose between one of the three houses, The Black Eagles, The Blue Lions and The Golden Deer (Think the Hogwarts houses). Byleth must guide his chosen house towards becoming a house of warriors that are built for battle in hopes to survive the impending civil war of Fodlan. Each House is entirely unique with a class of characters who each have their own unique needs and wants. Byleth must become a leader who can overcome the 50 hour long twist and turn storyline in his way. Genuinely this game has one of the greatest stories in any game ever made, Its amazing. The best part is this game has four entirely different storylines depending on your chosen house and pathway, that's around 200 hours of gameplay and story.

Lets not forget the challenging Permadeath mode that The Fire Emblem series is known for. A game mode where if one of your characters dies in battle gameplay, They are gone from the story for good, making your playthrough unique everytime. If you're more of a casual gamer, this mode can be turned off so you can experience the incredible story stress free, but lets be honest, the stress of potentially losing your favourite characters due to your mistakes is part of the games addictive fun. Yes you can bargain to correct your mistakes if you wish.

Fire Emblem Three Houses is a brilliantly fresh take on the fire emblem formula. Its the most popular and best game in the series for many fans. It is a great jumping on point as it does not feel connected to any past games and is easily the most in depth but fair game to date. The polish for this game really shines and brings out that Nintendo magic that we always want for any Nintendo produced game. With the games interesting world, characters and story this game is an S-Tier Nintendo Switch game thats only made more comfortable on Nintendo Switch 2.

4) Mariokart 8 Deluxe

The most popular game on Nintendo Switch. While this game was originally released in 2013 for the Nintendo Wii U. Mario kart 8 Deluxe didn't really truely become an all time great game until it's release on Nintendo Switch with all it's upgrades, Updates and add ons. Despite the release of Mariokart World for Nintendo Switch 2. Despite this games main gimmick being drawn from the idea of twisting tracks that go upside down. Mariokart 8 Deluxe still really shows that this game perfected the formula that Mariokart fans truely crave. There's no open world or races in between races here and thats fine. This game is pure mariokart racing chaos and thats all it needs to be.

With a total of 96 tracks and 49 playable character including The Legend of Zeldas Link and Animal Crossings Villagers and Isabelle. Mariokart 8 Deluxe at the point of typing this blog is the most content heavy game within the Mariokart series.

One of the best things about this game is how accessible it is for anyone including young children to just pick up and play. There are many different ways you can play this game. Whether that be with motion controls or with stick controls, With track assist on or with track assist off. Mariokart 8 deluxe is just light gaming for anyone who wants to have pure fun for a couple hours at a time or in need of a great game that can occupy party of people with pure multiplayer chaos. Just be aware that Mario Kart can destroy friendships.

5) The Legend of Zelda Tears of The Kingdom

Okay this game is possibly the most divisive Zelda game of all time so lets get into this one with Good and bad Points. The legend of Zelda Tears of The kingdom is a 2023 Nintendo Switch game and the sequel to the critically acclaimed The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. Tears of the Kingdom takes place around 5 years after the events of Breath of The Wild. When a mysterious gloom begins to seep into the Hyrule Kingdom from below Hyrule Castle. protagonists Link and Princess Zelda head down into the depths of Hyrule to investigate the source of the gloom. Link and Zelda are confronted by the evil Demon King Ganondorf who has been sealed in slumber for thousands of years below Hyrule Castle. During this confrontation Link is corrupted by Ganondorf's gloom malice and Zelda is transported through time to the beginnings of Hyrule itself where she meets the first king of Hyrule known as Rauru. A Zonai warrior who is wise and proud, Meanwhile Link must adventure yet again through The Hyrule Kingdom to uncover the mystery of Ganondorf's gloom and the disappearance of Princess Zelda.

The legend of Zelda Tears of The Kingdom is a rollercoaster ride of a game as it takes everything The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild did and turns the dial up to eleven. Tears of the Kingdom is also the most creative Zelda game within the series, Not for it's story but for its ability to let you turn the land of Hyrule into your sandbox. You can play this game entirely how you want to. Apart from the goal to find Princess Zelda. You can choose how you want this game to play out. for example, if you are good enough, you can skip the entirety of the game and head straight to the final boss as soon as you land off the great sky island tutorial area.

Tears of the Kingdom is an incredible ride of a game that lets you do you, You are the hero of this game, You are free to explore the updated version of The Hyrule Kingdom after the events of Breath of The Wild and see where this games shines the most as the Wild era storyline is followed through and you see how Hyrule has adapted over 5 years. For example Characters have aged. New settlements exist and The world of The Hyrule Kingdom is healing.

The meat and potato of this game truly is Links new Zonai arm abilities. After being given Raurus Zonai Arm in hopes of keeping Links Gloom corruption at bay. Link is given 5 new rune abilities to help traverse and shape his adventure. These include The abilities, Ascend (the ability to rise up to the nearest surface from below at any time, Helpful in caves) Fuse (The ability to fuse together objects and weapons to create bigger and more powerful weapons and tools) Recall (The ability to rewind time on certain objects to create interesting movement and force) Autobuild (The ability to build a blueprint for a vehicle or construct that you have previously built with the cost of items and parts from your inventory) and Ultrahand (Basically a more advance upgraded version of Magnesis from Breath of the wild that allows you to pick up objects and Zonai parts to build Vehicles and construct from scratch) These abilities make this game extremely creative and are the main feature that seperates this game from all the other Zelda games including Breath of The Wild.

Content wise this is the largest Zelda game in the series. Taking around 80 hours of gameplay to beat the main story of the game on your first playthrough. There are two whole new maps layered on top and below The Hyrule Kingdom map originally from Breath Of The Wild. These maps are the Sky islands, Floating islands that have appeared with many mysterious secrets and landmarks to visit and The Depths, an unlit upside down style Underground Dark world that mirrors the Hyrule Kingdom Map for an interesting change of pace from the main overworld. Unfortunatly both The Sky Islands and The depths feel massively barren and under cooked but they are there for added content and really showcase how massive Tears of The Kingdom actually is as a game. Shrines return in this game from Breath of The Wild with entirely new challenges, some easier than others. Also Temples return in this game in the form of The Fire Temple, The Wind Temple, The Water Temple and The Lightning Temple. While personally I feel these Temples are just larger more developed versions of The Breath of the Wild Divine Beasts, There is no denying that these Dungeons feel way more like real challenges compared to the Divine Beasts, (Apart from The Water Temple, that temple sank instead of swam).

Tears of The Kingdom is such a large game that I could talk about this game all day and explain its good and bad points. The game is amazing and is easily one of the greatest games on Nintendo Switch. Its also one of the most disappointing games i've ever played as its not the Zelda game that I personally was expecting or wanted after the near 7 year wait for a new full mainline 3D zelda game after The Legend of Zelda Breath Of The Wild which was a near perfect game at the time of release. My main issue with this game is that it doesn't feel new. Because of its reuse of Breath of The Wilds map and assets, the game feels like an update or expansion to Breath of the Wild rather than a sequel. This is because the game uses all assets from Breath of the Wild and instead of using those assets in unique and entirely new way like Majoras mask did after Ocarina of Time, instead Tears of The Kingdom somewhat lazily says this is what happened using the same game asset and the worst part is you didn't see any of it because its all happened within the time jump. Breath of the wild was unique for its show but don't tell style where as Tears of The Kingdom feels like you know everything that's happened from the start of the game so It lacks the sense of mystery. For example, the main crux of the games story is to find Zelda, but all mystery is removed when the game tells you where she is within the first few hours of the games story. Overall though despite the games flaws Tears of The Kingdom is a slower paced and more mature take on The Legend of Zelda legend with 3 times more depth than Breath of The Wild. Breath of The Wild was somewhat as much of a tech demo whereas Tears of the Kingdom was the true alpha build of Breath of The Wild with changes made that fixed the flaws of Breath of The Wild. This game is amazing and is really the Best Zelda Game of all Time generally. It's not my favorite though purely because it tread on the same footsteps of Breath Of The Wild too closely and failed to catch that lightning in a bottle a second time round.

Still though I highly recommend this game. Go play it, Just play Breath of The Wild first.

Conclusion

Those were five Nintendo Switch games that you should play on or replay on your Nintendo Switch 2. There is a huge selection of Nintendo Switch games out there. The original switch in my eyes is the greatest games console of all time and the Nintendo Switch 2 has a huge legacy to live up to. I honestly think that The original Nintendo Switches catalog of games is second to none and really should not be forgotten about now the Nintendo Switch 2 is here. Nintendo games historically have been polished to the point that Nintendo have their own formula for their games and it works over and over again. I highly recommend you play the games I have mentioned if you haven't already, which is kind of concerning as if you are reading this now, I would have expected you to have played them by now. Ah well better late than never.

Thanks for reading make sure you check my Youtube Channel Switchbored. - https://www.youtube.com/@Switchbored

I will see you for the next post

Sam