<\/p>\n
The Switch 2 is quickly approaching its one-year anniversary. Nine months in, how is the game library on Nintendo\u2019s new flagship console shaping up? Quite well. What it lacks in the big exclusives we saw during the first year of its predecessor, it\u2019s making up for with great versions of some of the best big-budget games around, as well as perfectly timed sequels from storied indie franchises. If you\u2019re thinking of buying a Switch 2 or already have one, here are the 12 best games to check out on Nintendo\u2019s latest handheld hybrid.<\/p>\n
One of the best RPGs ever got one of the best remakes ever and the whole thing is finally on Switch 2. Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade<\/em> preserves the irresistible mix of grim and goofy that seared the original into so many people\u2019s brains while elevating its story and gameplay to new heights with beautiful cinematic setpieces and solid real-time hybrid action combat. Everything from the original\u2019s incredible soundtrack to its story\u2019s most unforgettable moments are reimagined and stretched out in service of a journey that feels both epic and compact. The Switch 2 port offers all of that with even fewer compromises than expected, making Final Fantasy VII Remake<\/em> Intergrade<\/em> the platform\u2019s biggest and more rewarding big-budget RPG adventure yet. \u2014 Ethan Gach<\/p>\n A good match for:\u00a0<\/strong>brooding eco-terrorists who love the city in Blade Runner<\/em> and collecting crystals. Kirby Air Riders<\/em> is a tricked-out hotrod that\u2019s as fun to tinker with as it is to drive. It\u2019s overflowing with systems, mechanics, and stylish details, all packaged into fun and easy-to-manage bite-size morsels. What Smash Bros.<\/em> is to fighting games, Air Riders<\/em> is to racing games. It\u2019s first and foremost a party game you\u2019re meant to hang out and mess around in. Competition and heated rivalries are secondary to frenetic moment-to-moment action and a quintessentially satisfying game feel that makes every turn, boost, and attack so good, you forget that underneath all the ostentatious ornamentation there\u2019s not a ton of depth. Who cares? Splashing in puddles can be just as fun as surfing over waves. \u2014 Ethan Gach<\/p>\n A good match for: <\/strong>people who wish go-karting felt more like smashing gumball machines. Ubisoft\u2019s Star Wars scoundrel sim Outlaws, like so many of the company\u2019s big open-world games, feels a bit awkward and unrefined in spots. Enemy behavior can be too simplistic, and some of your tricks for manipulating them can make you feel more like a Jedi than a smuggler. But, in the immortal words of Han Solo, \u201cshe\u2019s got it where it counts.\u201d Outlaws puts you in the world of Star Wars like few games have, letting you soak up the atmosphere of backwater cantinas and more bustling city joints, claim victory at sabacc tables far and wide against some of the steeliest gamblers in the Outer Rim, and rise up the ranks of the criminal underworld as you assemble a crew for the one big job that\u2019s gonna set you up for life. It\u2019s also one of the most impressive games on Switch 2, where a masterful port keeps it looking great and running smooth with few visible compromises. \u2014 Carolyn Petit<\/p>\n A good match for:<\/strong> people who want to soak in the vibes of every bar and cantina from Tatooine to Toshara. Hades 2\u00a0feels less like a sequel than a standalone expansion. It will never escape the shadow of the first game. But it is more\u00a0Hades, a roguelike action-RPG that\u2019s still setting the bar in each of those genres. It doesn\u2019t feel as warm and personal and as accessible as the original, but it\u2019s expertly balanced, beautifully presented, and still so hard to put down. \u2014 Ethan Gach<\/p>\n A good match for: <\/strong>fans of Greek mythology who think it needs more buildcrafting. After a year or two, every Pok\u00e9mon<\/em> game inevitably gets to a point where the community looks back fondly on it. So while there are plenty of folks still in the rage phase with this one, I\u2019m just gonna forgo the waiting period and say that Pok\u00e9mon Legends: Z-A is one of the best, boldest games in the long-running monster-taming series. The single-city setting allows you to hang out with one of the series\u2019 best casts for far longer than any of previous games have, and its real-time battle system is full of new nuances and strategies you won\u2019t find in your average turn-based Pok\u00e9mon<\/em> game. After two games, we know the Legends subseries has become Game Freak\u2019s place to experiment, so it\u2019s entirely possible the next one won\u2019t look or play anything like Z-A, but it would be nice if these action systems made their way to more games. They\u2019re too good to toss aside after just one entry. \u2014 Kenneth Shepard<\/p>\n A Good Match For: people who want a Pok\u00e9mon<\/em> experience that doesn\u2019t feel like more of the same. There are no half-measures in Hollow Knight: Silksong<\/em>. Exploration is carefully crafted and uncompromisingly exacting. Boss fights will force you to learn and improve before unblocking your path. The music is excellent, the little sound effects amazing, and every part of Silksong<\/em>\u2018s gothic underground labyrinth is full of rich veins of lore and character to mine. It\u2019s a game that thrives in the tension between limitation and mastery and never fails to reward those who soldier on no matter how often their effort and ambition is momentarily shunted.\u00a0 \u2014 Ethan Gach<\/p>\n A good match for: <\/strong>Metroidvania nerds who love exploring dangerous tunnels. CD Projekt Red\u2019s open-world RPG is one of the most impressive technical showcases for the Switch 2 thus far. Cyberpunk 2077<\/em> once broke PlayStation 4s and Xbox Ones across the globe, but it runs well on Nintendo\u2019s system. Driving around Night City is still a dream, and the Switch 2\u2019s optional mouse controls are pretty intuitive in the game\u2019s shooting segments. There are certainly better ways to play Cyberpunk 2077<\/em>, but seeing it running on a Switch 2 is a reminder that while the system might seem like a pretty lowkey upgrade from the original, playing console-quality games on the go is still a novel experience eight years later. \u2014 Kenneth Shepard<\/p>\n A good match for: <\/strong>story-driven RPG fans. It\u2019s no surprise that the two best games on the original Switch are vastly improved in their Switch 2 incarnations. Breath of the Wild <\/em>and Tears of the Kingdom <\/em>run at a smooth 60fps on the Switch 2, and if seeing these games running on a device that doesn\u2019t feel like it\u2019s struggling to keep them afloat isn\u2019t enough, the Switch 2 editions come with new content thanks to the Zelda Notes app that adds new challenges and lore to two already dense games. If you played them before, they\u2019re worth revisiting. If you never touched Link\u2019s open-world adventures, they\u2019re even more essential on the Switch 2. \u2014 Kenneth Shepard<\/p>\n A good match for: <\/strong>people who want peak. Nintendo\u2019s biggest launch title for the Switch 2 is still arguably the best game the system has to offer. Mario Kart World <\/em>is a sublime addition to the kart racer series\u2019 long line of quality party game staples. Though it\u2019s not without its frustrations, World <\/em>presents\u00a0the chaotic, rollicking fun of throwing a blue shell down a track or barreling through your enemies as a Bullet Bill at its best. The open world is kind of empty, but it\u2019s a fun playground to practice all the cool stunts you can do now, like riding on the wall and grinding on rails. Mario Kart World <\/em>is all about giving you the freedom to race how you want, and that means giving you more tools, more players on the track at once, and more bothersome items to chuck at your foes. This is only the beginning, and Nintendo will likely be updating the game for years to come. Mario Kart World <\/em>will undoubtedly be a staple of the Switch 2\u2019s lifetime. \u2014 Kenneth Shepard<\/p>\n A good match for: <\/strong>everyone, really. Hazelight\u2019s co-op platformer Split Fiction<\/em> doesn\u2019t feel built for the Switch 2. Its split-screen format makes it a pain to play in tabletop mode, so it\u2019s really best played on a TV like you would on PS5 or Xbox. But once you\u2019ve got it running on a big screen, the game is still a hoot. Though its cheesy writing leaves much to be desired, as a cooperative platformer with a ton of mechanical and environmental variety, it\u2019s easily the best in Hazelight\u2019s long line of co-op games. That final level still whips ass, too. \u2014 Kenneth Shepard<\/p>\n A good match for: <\/strong>someone with a friend to play with. Fighting games were always going to be one of the biggest tests of the Switch 2\u2019s technical capabilities, and Capcom thankfully managed to bring one of the best genre entries in recent years to the system without much compromise in Street Fighter 6<\/em>. Some of its Switch 2 features, like amiibo support and motion controls with the Joy-Cons, feel like cute nods to the system\u2019s original features rather than something that fundamentally changes the game, so you\u2019ll most likely go right back to standard play before long. Once you do, though, you\u2019ll find a really great version of an already stellar game running at a smooth 60fps. Sure, it\u2019s probably not going to be the version people are playing at EVO, but it\u2019s more than good enough to break out at the function and play with friends. \u2014 Kenneth Shepard<\/p>\n A good match for: <\/strong>the fighting game sickos. Donkey Kong and Pauline\u2019s latest adventure is one of the Switch 2\u2019s most impressive technical achievements. Its breakable environments are so malleable that they\u2019re a bit of a distraction, but its tight platforming, creative problem-solving, and booming personality make it one of the most joyful games on the Switch 2 right now. Is it the cultural moment the system needed to bring people in out of the gate? Maybe not. But it\u2019s still an absolute delight on its own terms. \u2014 Kenneth Shepard<\/p>\n A good match for: <\/strong>people who wanted King Kong <\/em>to have a happier ending. The Switch 2 is quickly approaching its one-year anniversary. Nine months in, how is the game library on Nintendo\u2019s new flagship console shaping up? Quite well. What it lacks in the big exclusives we saw during the first year of its predecessor, it\u2019s making up for with great versions of some of the best big-budget<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[3741,77,314,4620],"class_list":{"0":"post-4850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest-news","8":"tag-february","9":"tag-games","10":"tag-switch","11":"tag-updated"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Not a good match for:\u00a0<\/strong>players who hate when games pause the action for lots of cutscenes.<\/p>\n
Not a good match for: <\/strong>anyone who enjoys being anywhere near an actual race track.<\/p>\n
Not a good match for:<\/strong> people seeking Hitman or Metal Gear-level stealth gameplay.<\/p>\n
Not a good match for: <\/strong>folks who hate playing the same great levels over and over again.<\/p>\n
Not A Good Match For: people who want windows to be lovingly rendered.<\/p>\n
Not a good match for: <\/strong>Anyone who hates dying in Soulslikes.<\/p>\nCyberpunk 2077<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Not a good match for: <\/strong>people with a weak stomach for some tough subject matter.<\/p>\nThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild<\/strong><\/em> and <\/strong>Tears of the Kingdom<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n
Not a good match for: <\/strong>people who get overwhelmed with dense systems.<\/p>\nMario Kart World<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n
Not a good match for: <\/strong>anyone looking for something chill.<\/p>\nSplit Fiction<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n
Not a good match for: <\/strong>someone who doesn\u2019t have a friend to play with.<\/p>\nStreet Fighter 6<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n
Not a good match for: <\/strong>people who don\u2019t like to memorize combos.<\/p>\nDonkey Kong Bananza<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n
Not a good match for: <\/strong>people who can\u2019t move on without finding every collectable in a level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"