July - The Lite Switch is revealed

Switch Lite Closeup
Image: Nintendo Life

The summer was big for Nintendo with great games, announcements from Nintendo Japan and new hardware unveiled. The biggest news was the revelation of Switch Lite, the industry's worst-kept secret. The 'Switch-that-doesn't' was laser targeted as a 3DS replacement system and since launch it's proven to be a real winner with that audience. Before launch of the smaller version Switch had sold over 36 million units, and since then hardware sales have been ticking along very nicely indeed.

Although it was confirmed that we wouldn't see the fabled 'Switch Pro' in 2019, Nintendo did put out a revision of the standard model which significantly improved battery life. Nintendo Switch Online surpassed 10 million subscriptions and perennial favourite Mario Kart 7 was still the best selling 3DS game ever, continuing to sell as 3DS refused to lay down and die. It wasn't all good news for Nintendo, though, as a class action lawsuit was filed in the US regarding the dreaded Joy-Con drift that has plagued so many Switch owners since the console launched. Nintendo responded in various ways depending on the territory, although it's arguably still quicker and easier to replace them yourself.

Elsewhere, job listings for Breath of the Wild 2 suggested there might be a while yet to go for development, but fans continued to discover weird and wonderful glitches in Breath of the Wild. Wii games came to Chinese Nvidia Shields, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker got a Labo VR update, we reminisced about the N64's Transfer Pak, Dragon Quest's Hero joined Smash Bros. Ultimate, and a Pokémon trading card sold for $60,000 before getting lost in the not-very-effective US postal system. Finally, the Game Boy turned 30 and we celebrated with a blowout of anniversary features, including a reader-voted poll of the Top 50 Game Boy games.

Games-wise, we got What Remains Of Edith Finch, Dr. Mario World on mobile, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, the excellent Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Tiny Metal: Full Metal Rumble and DOOMs 1, 2 and 3. Tasty.

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August - Nindies, more Microsoft surprises and Wario topless

Yum

News that the UK would get its very own pop-up Pokémon Center before the end of the year sent ripples of excitement through the community of UK-based Pokémon fans long before the reality of queues and stock shortages put something of a dampener on enthusiasm. The three main console manufacturers and various other leading publishers agreed to display lootbox odds in applicable games, arguably in a bid to appease governments before legislation gets drawn up.

In less serious news, we got a look at a parallel world where Mario doesn't have a moustache and we didn't like it. We got a glimpse of both Wario and Dr. Robotnik topless, too. An FCC filing revealed that a Super NES controller for Switch was coming, meaning SNES games were in the pipeline. Streets of Rage 4 was finally confirmed to be coming to Switch, and we spoke to legendary composer Yuzo Koshiro and delved into the beat 'em up's history. Shin'en lifted the lid on The Touryst as part of the August 2019 Nintendo Indie World Showcase, and Ori and the Blind Forest was revealed to be the next Microsoft-exclusive game making the surprising jump to Switch.

In other news, Nintendo posted a picture of Mario enjoying some watermelon in the summer sun with the word 'sunshine' in the tweet and the internet lost its mind in anticipation of a Super Mario Sunshine announcement that never came. We polled readers on how they pronounce certain Nintendo-related words, with some illuminating results.

Game highlights in August included Pillars of Eternity, Superhot, FAR: Lone Sails and Platinum Games' wonderful Astral Chain. We liked that a lot.

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September - Another Direct, Switch Lite launches and more great games arrive

Pro Controller Splatoon
Image: Nintendo Life

Nintendo dropped a fresh Direct at the start of September unveiling Banjo and Kazooie's entry into Smashdom and Terry Bogard's arrival before the end of the year, plus a host of fresh game announcements and the arrival of Super NES games as part of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service. The Switch Lite finally launched worldwide, with some lucky people getting their hands on it early.

Nintendo unveiled Ring Fit Adventure and those of us with Wii Balance Boards wedged in the wardrobe wondered if the Ring-Con would end up in the same place. Nintendo's battle against ROM sites continued and the company won an injunction in the UK to block offending websites. The little light around the Home button on your right Joy-Con or Pro Controller finally lit up after nearly two-and-a-half years and E3 was reportedly getting rebranded in 2020 as a 'fan, media and influencer festival'. Hmm.

In terms of games, Switch Lite launched alongside a hefty trove of gems including River City Girls, Torchlight II, Creature In The Well, Blasphemous, NBA 2K20, Star Wars Pinball, Sayonara Wild Hearts, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Untitled Goose Game and Dragon Quest XI. Mario Kart Tour also launched on mobile platforms to a somewhat mixed reception.

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October - The games just keep on coming

Witcher 3

October began with an update to Super Mario Maker 2 which finally allowed you to play online with friends. The Untitled Goose continued its rampage through social media, and Nintendo ran a rather ingenious 24-hour 'livestream' of Glimwood Tangle from the upcoming Pokémon Sword and Shield which had fans the world over staring at what may as well have been a static screen for hours on end in the hope of glimpsing a new 'mon. Epic Battle Royale Fortnite simply disappeared for a while before returning with Chapter 2, a new game launched for the Wii U and the pop-up Pokémon Center opened in London. Sadly, John Kirby - the pink puffball's namesake and lawyer who saved Donkey Kong for Nintendo - passed away in October.

With Halloween looming large at the end of the month, things got spooky with both Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered and the wonderful Luigi's Mansion 3 arriving on Switch (and a couple of underwhelming Resident Evil ports). The deluge of games from September kept on coming with Fight'N Rage, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, Trine 4, Baldur's Gate, the stunning Witcher 3 port, Neo Cab, Ring Fit Adventure, Killer Queen Black, Return of the Obra Dinn and more all launching in October. Our wallets hated it, but we had a swell time as the nights began drawing in.

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November - Pokémon and Black Friday

Pokémon

The month of November was dominated by two things - the release of Pokémon Sword and Shield and the usual Black Friday frenzy. Smash Bros. Ultimate became the best-selling fighting game in history, boomers rejoiced as Terry joined Smash while the kids wondered who the hell he was. Series boss Masahiro Sakurai spoke about how the character being fun to play was more important than rabid fans being familiar with him.

In other news, the internet breathed a sigh of relief when the new-new-look movie version of Sonic was revealed in a new trailer. In a rare instance of almost universal agreement on the internet, the redesign was vastly superior to the original. A homebrew Mario marvel also got us excited to see the plumber back on Super NES, and somebody put Elon Musk and the Tesla Cybertruck into GoldenEye 007.

The second half of the month was understandably dominated by the launch of Gen 8 in Pokémon Sword and Shield, although a spate of anniversaries had us celebrating the Nintendo DS, Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong 64 and Pokémon Gold & Silver.

Aside from the afore-mentioned Pokémon, we also got Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, New Super Lucky's Tale, surprise co-op release The Stretchers and Black Future '88.

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December - GOTYs galore as the year draws to a close

Switch Lite Switch
Image: Damien McFerran / Nintendo Life

And here we are! Alien: Isolation arrived on Switch in fine form at the start of the month and an Indie World Showcase contained a bunch of announcements, including the reveal of Axiom Verge 2 and a sequel to Golf Story coming next year. Nintendo took home several gongs at the Game Awards where the upcoming Xbox was also revealed, although it's really just two GameCubes stacked on each other.

A new Star Wars film divided the internet and we used the opportunity to look back and rank every Star Wars game ever to release on a Nintendo system, and Nintendo got in the holiday mood by uploading a 30-minute video of someone playing Switch Lite and making a sandwich in a log cabin. As is customary, the final weeks have been filled with Game of the Year deliberations and features, and with such an embarrassment of riches on Nintendo's system, it certainly hasn't been easy.

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And that's a wrap for 2019! With so many great games on the system, it's safe to say it has been a wonderful year for Switch gamers. We can't wait to see what the next one has in store, so Happy New Year to you all and we'll see you in 2020!