Feature: Nintendo Life's Switch Game Of The Year 2019

first first first

Of course pokemon red and blue number 8 is on the list

I want every reader to know that I put Fire Emblem #1 on my ballet so don’t come after ME.

No Witcher 3, why?

While Untitled Goose Game is fun and very unique, did it really deserve the number 6 spot over games like Fire Emblem? And I'm sorry, but no matter how nostalgic some people are over the series, the incomplete generic and repetite pokemon sword and shield are not better than Fire Emblem, Mario Maker, Luigi's Mansion, and Yooka Laylee. Just seeing them on here immediately turned me off the list, especially seeing how rushed and messy the games are. I'm glad you could enjoy them, but I definitely did not.

Not gonna lie, I am a tiny bit disappointed that Fire Emblem somehow didn't make it into the top 10, definitely the top Switch game for me this year, but people have varying taste so... shrug

Astral Chain was pretty good, but I am not sure I would put that in my top 3. I have admittedly not heard of Sayonara Wild Hearts so I might look further into that.

Definitely an interesting list.

In the end, we are all winners.

Meanwhile.....
My GOTY 2019. 😁😅

I'm serious with my choice.

I'm EXTREMELY angry this list isn't exaclty how I have mine 😉. But in all seriousness, here's my top 5..

1) links awakening
2) astral chain
3) cadence of Hyrule
4) Mario Maker 2
5) luigis mansion 3

1.Alien Isolation
2.Cuphead
3.Ori and the Blind Forest

1. Dragon Quest XI S
2. Dragon Quest XI S demo
3. Dragon Quest XI S eShop page

Ni No Kuni. King of Cards.

@JacquesLecornu They probably focused their GOTY list on brand new games that released this year. Since Witcher is a port from a previous year, it wasn't included. If it was a brand new game this year, I'm sure it would have been included.

-I'm glad this was a staff created list, the lists from user votes tend to yield some wild results.
-Sayonara Wild Hearts, huh? I'm going to give that another look.

The Academy has once again overlooked ASPHALT 9! My GOTY by a landslide (and yes, I bought Astral Chain and Horizon Chase Turbo). Shakedown Hawaii is my #2.

1. Dragon Quest XI S
2. Luigi’s Mansion 3
3. Fire Emblem: Three Houses
4. Astral Chain
5. Super Mario Maker 2

Fire emblem n.1 for me

Fire Emblem Three Houses shoukd be at the top. At least at a higher position than Untitled Goose Game.

Fire Emblem and Dragon Quest XI for me this year.

I never agree with nintendolife😒

Pretty weird not to have either of Dragon Quest XI or Dragon Quest Builders 2 or Witcher 3 in the list. And Fire Emblem gets sort of a consolation prize? Can't really agree with this.

Preferences are subjective... but DQ11 was pretty clearly top 10. Perhaps ports were not included?

I'm happy to see something different at the top and not a first party game. Good for Astral Chain. Now I need to get back to it....

Astral Chain was published by Nintendo, not Platinum Games. At least, in North America, where the box art depicted is from.

Fire Emblem is far and away my number one. Granted, I didn't buy very many new games this year; of those listed, I only have Mario Maker, Luigi's Mansion, and Fire Emblem. Still, I love Fire Emblem enough to know it would be at the top regardless of anything else I'd play.

Pokemon SwSd over Dragon Quest XI S loool

Pokemon and zelda are 6/10 games. Astral Chain is a worthy winner though

A few unique choices (Fire Emblem not top 10?) But surprisingly I agree with this list quite a bit. Astral Chain ROCKED.

1. Dragon Quest 11
2. Bloodstained Ritual of the Night*
3. Fight'n Rage
4. Sega Ages Phantasy Star 1
5. Pokemon Sw/Sh

-Dragon Quest 11 was the only real standout for this year, but at least it was a truly exceptional one. A true classic.
-For Bloodstained I didn't really like the super anime aesthetic and vibe the game has but the gameplay itself is very solid and there is a lot of content in this one. And frankly I'm just happy to be playing another Igavania.
-Fight'n Rage was a a complete impulse purchase after I saw a review of it on Pushsquare and it proved to be the game I've been searching for to fill the void left by the Scott Pilgrim Video game, really solid stuff.
-Phantasy Star with the QOL improvements proved to be a really solid old school dungeon crawler.
-I feel kind of bad giving a top spot for Pokemon since clearly it was a rush job (like no dungeons? really, forced exp.share etc) but ultimately I really can't think of anything else that I could fill the number another spot with. I did have fun with it so it's not like it's bad.

*I played the PS4 version of this one though, dunno if I would rate the Switch version as highly.

Astral Chain at 1? Fire Emblem at 11?
That say a LOT more About Nintendolife than it says something about this year’s greatest games.
Well... it’s an opinion. I heavily disagree.

Surprised to see Astral Chain at #1, but it was an excellent game. Fun, exciting gameplay, it looked great and had awesome music. Loved it.

I still played Breath of the Wild more than any game in 2019.

I could never get into the Fire Emblem games. The world, characters, and gameplay never interested me for long. I stopped playing Awakening half way through two times, preferring to play something else. Dragon Quest 11 for Switch was my most played new game of 2019 so I might pick that one as my game of 2019.

I LOVED Sayanora Wild Hearts tho. The game left a strong impression on me. Great music, sound, look, and gameplay made it so memorable.

Fire Emblem at #11 is a tragedy. It is better to know the reviewers of this site have differing tastes and long rpgs aren’t possible for them when they spend most of your time editing videos instead of playing games.

FINALLY somebody gives Astral Chain it’s due! That game absolutely deserves more GOTY nods than it got, and the fact that you guys ranked Astral Chain so high ALMOST convinces me to forgive you for ranking Three Houses so low.

Tetris 99 is the only game on this list i played this year. I haven’t decided on my top ten yet but Tetris isn’t on it however cool and fun that was. It’s the only part of Switch Online I miss since letting my subscription expire.

My own list after much deliberation:
1. Shenmue 3
2. Dirt Rally 2.0
3. Link's Awakening
4. Resident Evil 2
5. Bloodstained Ritual of the Night

Happy Christmas everyone!

Tetris 99 is worth the $20 a year in my opinion.

Happy to see Astral Chain number one. We need more original, exclusive titles like this on the Switch.

Cuphead, Ori, GRID, Witcher 3, Mortal Kombat 11, Hellblade would all be on this list for me over titles like Pokémon, Cadence of Hyrule, Untitled Goose Game and Yookw Laylee, as fun as those titles are.

Good year for the Switch indeed!

@Keitoded yeah both of them dont deserve to be on the list tbh. Pokemon and untitled Goose game are heartless overrated rushed games. Goose game was 20 bucks and last you less than 5 hours, sometimes 2 hours. You saw everything it had to offer very quickly. Pokemon. Was the same stuff we've seen every year.

Hard to form an opinion on GOTY for me as I have essentially played four games this year that took ages to get through (Fire Emblem, Switcher, Xenoblade and FFX). I’ve got a queue of games from this year to play through. Loved both Zelda releases this year (Cadence had balancing issues once you got to later on (too easy))

Glad the list seems to be focused on new games only, as porting AAA games is too easy to clog up a top 10 list.

I think Untitled Goose May actually be my GOTY — charming and refreshing.

Going to get Sayonara Wild Hearts at the recommendation of this thread.

Mario Maker 2 at 9 and a reskinned Gameboy game as 2? Criminal.

I wish I had the time and money to play every new game every year to chime in on a game's worthiness. Many games I play a year or so later when they're on the cheaper side. Only games on this list I've played are Mario Maker 2, Tetris 99 and Pokémon.

As a huge Pokémon fan, I'm having fun with the game as far as the basic core Pokémon components. And that's encountering and catching Pokémon. I think the Wild Area has its charm. But otherwise, the game (s) are a bit of disappointment. At least in my opinion.

I like Tetris 99. But I'm more of a fan of straight up Tetris gameplay.

So with all that being said, Mario Maker 2 would be my GOTY. I did ask for Luigi's Mansion 3 for Christmas. So I guess there's still 5 or so days for my pick to change, lol

Fire emblem three houses and Dragonquest xis are easily the best games of the year in my mind

Fire Emblem being snubbed is a joke. It’s by far my favorite switch game of the year and I don’t really know how it couldn’t crack NL’s top 5.

Happy to see Sayonara Wild Hearts up here. I bought it on a whim and was completely blown away. It's really, REALLY short but totally worth it, and it does have some replay value.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses, a huge and ambitious reimagining of the franchise gets snubbed. Dragon Quest XI S, an upgraded and beautiful port of one of the best JRPGs this gen doesn't show up at all.

Meanwhile, meme games and a sloppily made set of Pokemon games get high marks.

Well, I guess you know what they say about opinions.

Oh yay, another opportunity for people to spam the comments section of something to say Pokemon wasn’t what they wanted.

Good list, would have put Mario Maker higher myself, Astral Chain wasn’t matched by anything this year though.

kind of sad that Astral Chain is the game that sold the least out of every other game on the list

For me it's
1. Luigis mansion 3
2. Fire emblem three houses
3. Pokemon sword and shield
4. Zelda Links awakening
5. Astral chain

I'm sure dragon quest 11 S would of fitted in there somewhere but it's yet to leave its box for me

Well, the fact that no one seems to agree with anyone about what the ten (or eleven) best games of the year are, means two things:

-everyone is wrong, clearly, with the exception of YOU. Or they have their own preferences.
-somehow, many different types of gamers were satisfied, which means that it must have been another great year.

Pokemon above Fire emblem is a crime xD

Fire Emblem is just so much better than Pokémon in every possible way, but hey. Opinions... 😉

My top 5:
1. Luigi's Mansion 3
2. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
3. Astral Chain
4. Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age
5. Super Mario Maker 2

LM 3 is actually my Game of the Year for any platform. Never was interested enough to play the first two but finally gave the series a try with this one and happy I did. I've seen it described in some reviews as 'the most Nintendo game' and I agree with that. All the charm is there but what shocked me was how varied the different rooms in the Last Resort Hotel were. From previews the game seemed decent enough what I didn't expect was something on the same level of quality as Super Mario Odyssey and Zelda: Breath of the Wild but I actually like it better than both. A very nice surprise.

Seriously don’t get the goose game obsession. I played it and finished it. It’s alright. It’s good enough. It’s funny. Is it a top 10 game of the year? No chance. Should it be the reason a title like Fire Emblem misses out on the top 10?! A scandalous thought!! Who cares really, it’s just a list. But it’s not just this site there seems to unanimous praise for this game. Good for the indie community and all but let’s not get carried away!

Dragon Quest XI S absolutely should have been in this list. It scored higher than some of these games and is an epic in every sense. It was full of humour and charming stories.

Pokemon Sword and Shield was the biggest disappointment for me.

Wtf haha Fire Emblem definitely deserved to be in top 10 over most of that list.

@JacquesLecornu dunno, maybe because it’s not originally from this year?

I’m guessing sword and shield is so high because it got positive review bombs to counteract the negative ones

I've played all of these apart from Sayonara and Astral Chain, and my number 1 is 100% Fire Emblem Three Houses.

That game is incredibly good, still blows my mind how hooked I was going through it all and now I'm doing a 2nd run to get to see the story from a different perspective. Loving it!

What's also really fun btw is that only 3 games of this list were announced BEFORE the year began (if I'm being correct):

• Luigi's mansion 3
• Fire Emblem Three Houses &
• Untitle Goose Game

All others were announced in the same year of release. This makes me excited for upcoming year .

Nice! I’ve only spent an hour w Astral Chain so far — had to dip back into DQXI, which I like others, am surprised didn’t make the cut - perhaps bc its an older game it’s DQ’d

My list...

1) Dragon Quest Builders 2 (Switch)
2) The Legend of Dark Witch (Switch)
3) Luigi's Mansion 3 (Switch)
4) Castlevania Anniversary Collection (Switch)
5) The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)
6) Atelier Lulua ~The Scion of Arland~ (Switch)
7) Umihara Kawase Fresh! (Switch)
8) BoxBoy! + BoxGirl! (Switch)
9) Gensou SkyDrift (Switch)
10) Team Sonic Racing (Switch)

-Honorable Mentions-
Crystal Crisis (Switch)
Puyo Puyo Champions (Switch)
New Super Lucky's Tale (Switch)
Scrap Rush!! (Switch)
Baba Is You (Switch)
RemiLore (Switch)
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (Switch)

Man, the Switch really picked up in the back six months this year...

@StephenYap3 unfortunately atelier lulua was never going to make this list due to the kind of game it is and its niche, but I agree it is easily the best Atelier game I've ever played and top 3 rpg I've played this year

Edit: sorry scrap that I wasn't thinking properly I was thinking about atelier ryza lol

@playstation_king No problem. This is a personal list of mine...

By the way, how was Ryza? I was thinking about that game for a bit...

I'm slightly surprised Luigi's Mansion was pipped by Pokémon. Having owned both, Luigi's Mansion is by far more rewarding as I found Pokémon enjoyable, but really easy and poorly scripted.

It's all personal opinion though and interesting to see!

@StephenYap3 To me it's the best Atelier I've played so far, so much to do and much quicker battles so feels less grindy, the new graphics are great too, this time round there are several gathering tools which depending on which tool you use on certain gathering spots changes what item you get, with added farming elements and fishing and base building, plus there's a mini area creating tool which you pick an item you have and a map will be created which all contain different enemies and items to gather depending on what item you chose, so yeah lots to do in this one

Wow, Fire Emblem didn’t even make the top 10. Pretty crazy. Anyways, here’s my top 5 based on what I played this year:

5. Mario Maker 2
4. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (sue me)
3. Fire Emblem Three Houses
2. Link’s Awakening
1. Luigi’s Mansion 3

Happy New Years everyone, cheers to an awesome year of gaming in 2020 🥳

@JacquesLecornu oh i dunno... maybe because its a port of a 4 year old game that had already won Goty...

Kinda obvious but some need to put into plain text before understanding it.

Fire Emblem should have been #1 or #2. Astral Chain is greatness. I think most people were hard on it because of the graphics. It’s a solid action game. PlatinumGames at their best!

It really demonstrates just how little there has been to get excited about on Switch this year.

Also, Pokémon at 3rd is an insult to well-crafted games.

Yeah, sounds about right.

Did they pick this ranking out of a hat or something? I cant believe that FE3H is so far down the list yet pokemon, goose and that flippin Mario maker make it way higher. The fact Witcher 3 isnt on there either is an absolute outrage.
My top 5 would go something like...
FE3H, Astral chain, Dragon quest XI, Luigis, Zelda.
Oh, but the way
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Sword and Shield that high up?! Seriously, get some higher standards and re do this review. I know goose game is good but is it REALLY better than Mario Maker 2? What even is this list...

1. Links Awakening
2. Super Mario Maker 2
3. Luigis Mansion 3
4. Astral Chain
5. Fire Emblem

Is there like only 3 staff in Nintendo life?

Luigi got shafted again, poor guy. 😞

These lists are fun to use as a conversation starter. I disagree with a lot of this list personally but I do recognize there are lots of great games mentioned. It was a strong year for the Switch and I enjoyed many of the games. Here are my top 5 favourite games of the year in no particular order:

Luigi's Mansion 3
Dragon Quest Builders 2
Dragon Quest XI S
Astral Chain
Fire Emblem

Weird ass list.

Well, it's not my list and you're being clear it's your favorites, so I'm okay with it.

It has been a fantastic year for Switch!

Remember this list is just one person's opinion. Most of us will disagree with it, of course (Fire Emblem and Mario Maker 2 deserve WAY more recognition), but we have to respect it.

Hmm, Nintendo game wise. I'd have to say for me with least top 5. Luigi's Mansion 3
Zelda Link's Awakening
Astral Chain
Mario Bros U Deluxe
Mario Maker 2

The most surprising for me was Astral Chain. I'm not usually a person who can get into those type of games. Great game.

Man Astral Chain was a blast. I love platinum studios.

@Anti-Matter Nice choice.

Look at all those salty downvotes lol

Unsure some of these comments about it being a “bad” year for the Switch. First party titles were solid. Maybe not to 2017 levels, but good nonetheless. Awesome indie titles. Growing and improving selection of AAA third party titles. Am I missing something? 2019 was an excellent year for the console.

My top 3 would be

1. Luigi’s Mansion 3
2. Link’s Awakening
3. Layton’s Mystery Journey

My list is based on the ones I’ve played from this year

I agree with Astral Chain being number 1,outstanding game, with Luigi's Mansion 3 and Grid Autosport at number 2 and 3 respectively.

My top 3 would be:
1. Astral Chain
2. Fire Emblem Three Houses (only done Golden Deer out of the routes)
3. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe

I'd guess if I revisited this next year, 3rd place would go to either Dragon Quest XI S or Ori and the Blind Forest (both started but not near finishing). Too many games, too little time.

Fire emblem should be number 1

@Seananigans I agree with your pick and opinion about the goose 100%

That was a really good year for the Switch and pretty expensive for me.

Astral Chain has to be my worst AAA Switch buy to this day. A game that screams generic in story, environments, characters, music, enemies and so on. Yes, the combat is deep and it’s obviously the highlight but I had a rough time with a H&S at 30fps when playing DMC5 around more than 100.

Again, I love the genre and PG previous work but this one didn’t hook me at all.

Luigi's Mansion 3, Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair and probably Astral Chain are my top 3.... Crash Team Racing Nitro was also great!!

Fire Emblem at number 11? How wrong can you get? Easy top 5 of 2019.
1. Astral Chain
2. Fire Emblem: 3 Houses
3. Luigi’s Mansion 3
4. LoZ: Link’s Awakening
5. Witcher 3

@Denoloco Personally I was disappointed with Astral Chain also. The combat was good, but I just couldn’t enjoy the pacing of the game. Admittedly I probably didn’t get very far, but I found there to be a lot of disparity between the excitement of the action sequences and what I found to be very mundane moments when I was being pulled back to the police HQ or to do “detective” work around town.

Unsure if those down times stop occurring later on once all the mechanics have been explained, but I gave up before I got very far as the hunting for clues sections really just killed momentum for me and I wasn’t enjoying myself at all.

Not actually sure what I’d put as my number one. If it wasn’t for the performance issues I’d go with Links Awakening, and might still. Luigis Mansions another contender as a surprisingly good game.

My top 5 not including indie games would be

1. Fire Emblem Three Houses
2. Astral Chain
3. Dragon Quest XI
4. Mario Maker 2
5. Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag or Witcher 3

I think that 2019 had enough great new releases and ports for the Switch that even if there were no more Switch releases for the next 2 years, most Switch gamers would never run out of great new experiences to play. How many people really have the time to play all of the awesome games which are released in one calendar year?

I’ve recently finished dq11 and I was left a little disappointed?
Did anyone else just feel like it dragged on forever? It was so long that it took some oomph ( pardon the pun ) away from the overall story. Even when it ends the extra content does not feel like a suitable ending and just drags on for evermore! When it was good it was great, there was a lot I loved but some stuff was just not needed. It’s got so much content but because of how it’s dragged out for over a 100 hours it didn’t have the same impact as say xenoblade 2, so sadly I can’t ever see myself playing through that again. Also I hate that dragon quest games still give you options in dialogue that have not impact or different outcome!
Lol I needed to get that off my chest as I’ve not heard anyone mention this which I find surprising that I must be the only one?!

I loved Astral Chain. The long levels and succinctly segmented gameplay styles hooked the hell out of me. The timing based combat that wasn't focused on face buttons was fresh, and once you're switching between all five legions, holy empowerment.

So the site staff genuinely think that Pokemon S&S is a better game than Divinity or Witcher 3, neither of which made a list that was absolutely filled with Nintendo published games.

And there are still people who wonder why there’s a lot that think that the site is biased.

@Razer if you take a look to the list of top 50 Switch games of 2019 as voted by the readers, you would find a lot of ports of older games. But if you need it to be put in plain text... I think if someone is to compile a best games list of the year for a single platform (e. g. Switch), every game released that year for that platform should be eligible.

@JacquesLecornu well lets just be honest now.

Do you genuinely think Witcher 3 is the best game released on the system this year?

That frame rate and those mid 00s graphics have something to say about that.

It's a great game but it's very hard to play if you've ever played another version. It took a lot of sacrifice in the visuals and the smoothness of the game to get it on the Switch.

Unfortunately those sacrifices make it unfit for "goty".

Hell Astral Chain is above the pecking order for Goty over Witcher 3 purely on the merit that it is built from the ground up on the system.

Ports are not goty material. Especially ones that sacrifice as much as Witcher 3 has.

Toejam and Earl Back in the Groove & Collection of Mana

Great pick with Astral Chain. One of the best action games I've ever played.

@Razer No, I don't believe that the Switch version of The Witcher 3 is THE best game of the year. But I don't think that a game should be excempt from such a list solely because it's a port either. Otherwise it wouls be impossible to make a list of best Indien Game for the Switch for excample, since almost every Indie has been released on Steam before it was ported to the Switch. In the case of the Witcher 3 you're probably right though.

Astral Chain FOR THE WIN!

Great that you guys chose Astral chain, but I have yet to play that one.

For me personally Astral Chain is nothing more than SUBLIME in every possible way!!!! My god once you start getting into controlling TWO legions at once.. yes TWO!!

p;us it has the best single word voiced which you say out loud "LEGION" Just the way he says it means business...

If you like any kind of action game like this, it's a MUST buy!! The game is incredible fun!!