Poll: What’s Your Switch (2) Game Of The Year So Far?

Somehow, we’ve reached the midpoint of the year — congratulations on enduring 2025 thus far! With many of us now holding a gleaming new console, there’s much to anticipate ahead.

However, before we gaze at the future with bright eyes, it’s time to reflect on the year’s finest offerings for the initial six months. Certainly, the Switch 2 stands out, but we’ve experienced months filled with superb Switch 1 titles, and numerous gamers are now burdened with a backlog as monumental as a skyscraper since we can’t stop playing our Mario Kart World or Cyberpunk 2077.

The crew here at NL, alongside some of our wonderful contributors, have shared their top picks on Switch and Switch 2 for the current year. We’ve got enormous mechs, speedy cars, celestial weeping, and a calm yet bustling life to navigate.

What are your preferred titles thus far on Nintendo’s consoles? Express your opinions in the comments and by participating in our poll at the conclusion of the article!

Stealing time and Magnolias (Alana Hagues, deputy editor)

As June concludes, once more, I find myself bemoaning the fact that I haven’t allocated more time to Switch games. This occurs annually, but such a statement feels even more absurd when you’ve played numerous remakes and remasters while racking up over 100 hours on Xenoblade and Hello Kitty each, right?

There’s another title that is joining that exclusive 100+ club, and I’m utterly enamored with it. I was aware of what to expect with Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time (having never played the 3DS version), but I’ve sat down several times and lost hours just engaging in various activities. It feels like a game tailor-made in a lab just for me, and I’m anxious about my leisure time.

Something a bit more concise that I ended up cherishing is Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist. I played Lilies and it consecutively, and the sequel is a tremendous improvement; the movement and control mechanics are outstanding, combat is refined, the bosses are incredibly enjoyable, and the map is superb. It’s an almost-ideal blend of Metroidvania elements.

X marks the spot (Gavin Lane, editor)

Ever since we learned that Switch 2 might enhance the performance of older titles, I’ve found myself putting the console on hold to some extent, staying patient until the successor launched and I could enjoy the exceptionally smooth frame rates and ‘silent’ updates allowing Switch 1 titles to achieve their full potential. And now it’s arrived!… and I’m predictably overwhelmed with Switch 2 titles now (many of which are fantastic, but others will certainly get their due recognition from my colleagues here).

Indeed, I’ve significantly limited my S1 experimentation as I revisited various Wii games — Greetings, Rock Band! Hello, Excite Truck! Hey there, Rhythm Heaven Fever! — over the past few months, but I’d like to acknowledge two games from vastly different ends of the scale: Xenoblade Chronicles X, and Please, Touch The Artwork 2.

The former received its fair share of accolades upon release, and while I’ve only played perhaps a dozen hours, it took that long to truly resonate with me, and I’m now eager to return to complete it. The latter is a small title (which I reviewed, indeed) and while it’s not groundbreaking, it certainly warrants a mention here as a delightful little appetizer amid the prominent heavyweights.

Oh, and while we’re discussing games I reviewed, I’ll also give Welcome Tour a nod. Based on how it’s covered elsewhere, it’s challenging to comprehend what some individuals expected from it (and reactions to the pricing are clearly a factor), but from my viewpoint? As I mentioned, it’s akin to an Iwata Asks interview in an interactive format; I find it hard to believe anyone who’s ever enjoyed one of those could dislike it! As always, different preferences.

It’s definitive (Gonçalo Lopes, contributor)

Transition years in hardware are consistently complicated mainly because there shouldn’t be an abundance of exciting developments with the Switch until the expected surge of titles for Switch 2 starts rolling out. Thus, I feel slightly like a fraud, but my Game of the Year so far is Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition.

That’s correct, a game over a decade old (which was, of course, my Game of the Year in 2015) that introduces numerous quality-of-life enhancements and a brand new three-part concluding chapter that resolves the story in a highly gratifying manner has outshone every other Nintendo release in the first half of 2025.

I’m quite eager to see what Nintendo has planned for the remainder of the year because I suspect…

My GOTY 2025 is still somewhere ahead (perhaps the journeys of a particular cosmic bounty hunter or a very powerful ape and his teenage adopted daughter?). However, the industry has shown me that superior hardware does not necessarily result in superior games, and despite the initial release date, Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition indeed made a significant mark on yours truly.

Citizen, weeper (Jim Norman, staff writer)

I’ve completed several titles already this year, but very few of them actually launched in 2025 — backlog? What’s that? One that did come out in the past six months, mind you, and completely devastated me was Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector.

I overlooked the original Citizen Sleeper because I had too much on my agenda at the time, but my enthusiasm for TTRPGs piqued my interest in its sequel, and oh my goodness, my engagement was through the roof. The writing is outstanding, the music is exceptional, and the concluding act had me sobbing on the sofa corner while my partner desperately tried to decipher what a ‘Sleeper’ was and if she needed to have me breathe into a paper bag.

You can experience CS2 any way you prefer, so there’s no certainty that your robot companion would undergo the same journey mine did. That said, I dare anyone to spend a few hours with this vibrant ensemble of characters and not swiftly form a team you’d be ready to fight for. Just remarkable stuff, and if it’s not included in my GOTY selection by December, we’ll have had a truly excellent second half.

Life’s a fantasy (Kate Gray, contributor)

I’ve got quite a few GOTY contenders already, indicating it’s been an amazing year, but I believe my current leading candidate is Fantasy Life i.

I rated it a 9 in my review, and they actually ADDRESS one of my primary concerns (the farming), so if anything, it’s even better now! It’s a deserving successor to the original, and it feels like three full games crammed into one. I don’t always appreciate an overly packed game attempting to do everything, but FLi manages it exceedingly well.

Robots and time travel (Ollie Reynolds, staff writer)

It would have been lovely to mention a slew of Switch 2 titles here, but unfortunately, as impressive as the new console’s launch library has proved, none will ultimately make my GOTY list for 2025.

There’s a clear victor for me (which I suspect you may have already anticipated), but I’d like to acknowledge two titles that came very close to taking an early lead. The first is I, Robot, a fantastic arcade remake from the minds of Llamasoft’s Jeff Minter and Ivan ‘Giles’ Zorzin that captivated me right from the start. It’s such a distinctive experience, and one that probably won’t resonate with everyone, but once it ‘clicks’, it’s truly hard to put down.

The second is Capcom Fighting Collection 2. Honestly, I’ve barely dabbled with titles like Power Stone 2 and Project Justice, but my goodness, Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001 has me firmly in its grasp. Its multitude of options is almost overwhelming initially, but I enjoy experimenting with the various grooves and discovering which one resonates with me most. What a superb fighter.

But of course, the absolute champion here is The Hundred Line – Last Defense Academy. I delve into much greater detail in my recent feature piece, but in summary, it’s a game that continually surprises and delights long after the credits roll. Its characters are impressively memorable, and although I’m not typically a strategy enthusiast, the combat remained engaging throughout.

Master swords and anti-grav racing FTW (PJ O’Reilly, staff writer)

Well, and perhaps unexpectedly — or not — Mario Kart World isn’t even a contender for me here, as fantastic as it is. Instead, aside from replaying every title I own to see which ones perform better while my sons tease me and dub me “bald nerd man”, I’ve found myself completely absorbed in Breath of the Wild all over again.

Now, I sort of raced through it extremely quickly on a (borrowed) Wii U when it first launched, promptly rushing through many elements, and engaging in little side content. This resulted in a Master Sword-less playthrough (I’m not even sure I commenced the quest to acquire it in the forest). Moreover, I scaled the exterior of Hyrule Castle at the end to save time, like a massive Irish ninja, heading straight into the boss encounter from the balcony of the involved room, if I recall correctly. And I did indeed give that villain quite the beating, by the way.

I saved a lot of time doing it this way, but it’s bothered me ever since. Now though, after attempting a few new runs and then abandoning it on Switch, this Switch 2 edition has rekindled my interest. I’m fully back in, with one Divine Beast down already and I’m absolutely going to explore everything this time. So yes, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, to address the question, with all its stylish new features and impressive frame rates.

I’ll also highlight Fast Fusion, which I’m presently enjoying far more than Mario’s style of racing. It genuinely offers depth for racers who push it into the more challenging levels, and may very well be my favorite anti-grav racer outside of the Wipeout series now, and undoubtedly supersedes Redout as my preference on Switch consoles. It’s so swift, Ricky Bobby!

Those are our selections, but what about yours? Share your 2025 favorite (so far) and join the conversation about games that are close contenders and your aspirations for the latter half of ’25.

And for a reminder of all the titles we’ve rated an 8/10 or higher so far in 2025, you can locate that on our Reviews tab.