As we sit upon the cusp of 2025, we're looking back one last time at 2024 — and our eShop Selects for December!
Stuffed full of games? Need some more eShop delights? Well, we can help bring you up to date with the best games we reviewed that released on the eShop in December. As always, the rankings below are voted for by Nintendo Life staff and contributors, who pick their top three from the eShop games listed below, and you'll see the results below.
But before that, folks — November 2024's Readers' Choice. Rise of the Golden Idol, the sequel to Case of the Golden Idol, was your winner! The weird and wonderful point and click adventure was a victim of a hectic release schedule for us, but we've already seen it on multiple Game of the Year lists. Clearly, you folks have some taste.
As a reminder, we'll be retiring Readers' Choice after this month, so you'll have one final game to choose for December 2024.
Okay, let's do this one one last time in 2024.
Honourable mentions
December is always much quieter than the rest of the year. Which we're glad about! Our backlogs are bulging. But it was a healthy month, nonetheless, with a couple of highly-anticipated games and remasters launching. Everything listed here scored at least a 7/10 from us:
- DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou | Review: 9/10
- Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered | Review: 8/10
- Victory Heat Rally | Review: 7/10
However, here are our top three...
3rd Place
Announced and released within weeks, Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic might just be the best Rollercoaster sim on the market. Combing the first two games in the legendary series, the game makes the jump to Switch relatively well. There's definitely a learning curve, but once it clicks, you'll be a park management king.
We're big RCT fans at Nintendo Life, and even with the performance problems, we still scored it an 8/10. Simply perfect holiday season gaming, if you ask us.
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2nd Place
One of the biggest surprises of Summer Game Fest 2024 was Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind, a brand new Power Rangers beat 'em up from the retro wizzes at Digital Eclipse.
It's far from a full-featured powerhouse like Shredder's Revenge, but Rita's Rewind is still a dazzling and fun nostalgia hit that catapulted us back to the '90s. The game is a capstone for yet another fantastic year for Digital Eclipse, and we scored it a worthy 8/10.
1st Place
The second Wario-esque platformer to explode on our Switch's, Antonblast has been a long time coming. Chaotic and frenetic platforming is brought to life with bold and kinetic pixel art visuals, and we can't stop going back to take on more challenges.
Antonblast caps of a fantastic year for indie titles in 2024, and is our eShop Selects winner of December 2024. We reviewed it and gave it an 8/10, and even better, there's now a performance patch!
< Nintendo eShop Selects - November 2024
eShop Selects Readers' Choice Vote (December 2024)
As we mentioned above, this is the last time we'll be doing our Readers' Choice vote during eShop Selects. But you'll still have multiple chances to tell us about the games we missed in our aptly-titled series, Games We Missed.
So, hit us — what games have we missed in December 2024? You can let us know in the poll below and by dropping us a comment. Plus, tell us what game you liked best out of our own choices!
What's the best Switch eShop game we missed in December 2024? (4 votes)
What was your favourite eShop game from our top December picks? (127 votes)
- Antonblast (Switch eShop)
- DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou (Switch eShop)
- Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered (Switch eShop)
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind (Switch eShop)
- RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic (Switch eShop)
- Victory Heat Rally (Switch eShop)
How we decide our eShop Selects top three: As we reach the end of every month, the Nintendo Life staff vote on their favourite titles from a list of games selected by the editorial team. To qualify for this list, these games must have been released as a digital-only Nintendo Switch eShop title in that particular month, and must have been reviewed on Nintendo Life; we select the qualifying games based on their review scores.
Staff are then asked to vote for three games that they think deserve to sit right at the very top of that list; first choice gets three points, second choice gets two points, and third choice gets one point. These votes are then tallied to create a top-three list, with the overall winner taking that month's top prize.
Comments 11
RCTC deserved the win! Best thing to grace the Switch this year perhaps… outside Balatro.
I enjoyed the demo of Antonblast and will definitely buy the full game eventually. Nothing else really caught my eye this month. Happy New Year all.
I picked up Rise of the Golden Idol a few days ago, and it doesn’t quite capture the magic of the first one. I still enjoy the core gameplay, and I appreciate the developer’s attempt to go bigger with the sequel. The unintended consequence of going bigger is that the game feels bloated with too many characters and less impactful storylines. The UI is also atrocious, and one menu doesn’t seem to work as intended. I still think it’s a good game, but it’s completely overshadowed by the quality of the first entry.
What do some of the other readers think of RCT Classic on Switch?
I was (am) a big fan of the original PC game. I've actually played it within the last week. And that makes me hesitate. I'm curious what more people think of the Switch version... does it hold up? What are things you found good? Things that could be better?
Thanks in advance!
I'm happy that anton blast got the top spot because I literally can't stop playing it lol 😆.....
Yes!! So happy to see Rise of the Golden Idol get a shout out here. It wasn't even one of the options last month. This was a Day 1 purchase for me and will have a whopping 4 (or is it 5?) DLCs in 2025. Those will be Day 1 purchases too
@Solomon_Rambling not sure if you're far into the game but it definitely gets better as the story progresses. I came to appreciate the tone of this game over time, which is not nearly as dark as the first game. Agree the UI is not great and is one of the biggest issues with the game. But I love the overarching story and will happily replay it.
Complete miss on the Calico game, released towards the end of the month, and an excellent digital recreation of the popular board game
SDOJ for me. I will wait for a sale but it’s a must-own.
Nice top 3 and honorable mentions - haven't played any of these games myself yet, but I expect my favorite to be Antonblast (and so I'm voting for it in the poll) based on what I've seen/heard of it and my love for Wario Land games!
@cmbaum
I just completed the first scenario of Chapter 4. I preferred the darker themes of the first game, so perhaps that’s where our enjoyment differs. I also don’t like having to solve the “summary” of the chapter at the end of each chapter. I’m glad that you enjoy it, and I’ll probably still keep a lookout for the DLC!
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