eShop Selects December 2025
Image: Nintendo Life

Hello and welcome to 2026 and the first eShop Selects of the year. You made it! Congrats!

Of course, we start the year off by looking at the last month of 2025, December. And boy, what a December we had — probably one of the most-stacked we've ever had, including Metroid Prime 4: Beyond's release and a bunch of surprise Nintendo Switch 2 Editions.

Of course, that means the eShop has been pretty busy, with some genuine surprises sneaking in before the Holiday season. So we've voted for the best of the best of the digital-only selection. The reles, as always: our writers and contributors vote for their top three eShop games from December 2025 from titles we've reviewed, and the three games with the highest scores will make the podium.

Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube841k

Alrighty then, let's have a look at the very best of December's eShop releases.

Honourable mentions

We don't think anyone was expecting the amount of game releases we got in December 2025. Usually, the end of the year is a little quieter, but we were kept rather busy in the run up to Christmas.

Of course, there are two bigger games we haven't had the chance to review yet — Stardew Valley: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition dropped on Christmas Day in the US, and we're working on covering that very soon. And Cast n Chill, which (now-former) Nintendo Lifer Felix ranks among his favourite games of the year, also slipped through the cracks of a busy festive period.

(Update: And hey! Here's our verdict on Cast n Chill. We rather love it.)

That leaves us with a total of eight games that scored an 8//10 or above that are eShop exclusives (at the time of writing this). Here's the five that didn't quite make the top in a closely-fought battle of votes:

3. 3rd Place - Marvel Cosmic Invasion (Switch 1 & 2)

Trust Tribute Games to give us a near-perfect Marvel beat 'em up in the same vein as TMNT: Shredder's Revenge. And that's exactly what Marvel Cosmic Invasion is — not only a love letter to Marvel's rich comic book history, but a beautiful and excellent arcade side-scroller.

The roster is surprisingly robust and varied here, with every character feeling extremely distinct. And with the tag-team mechanic, you can play through the game multiple times with your favourite pairings and change things up as many times as you want. Add in the unlockable hard mode, and you have your new favourite co-op experience with a friend.

Available on both Switch 1 and 2 — and fantastic on both platforms — we scored the game an 8/10.

Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.

2. 2nd Place - Sonic Racing CrossWorlds -(Switch 2)

Surprise! Speeding onto Switch 2 at the end of the 2025, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is finally fully realised on the newer console. Yes, it is getting a full physical later in 2026, but right now, this is a digital-only purchase or upgrade.

Thank goodness for this port, too, as CrossWorlds really struggled on the older hardware. Here, it's beautifully smooth with sharper resolutions and 60fps in both docked and handheld mode; all the other excellent bells and whistles are in tact, meaning this excellent racer can stand alongside Mario Kart World as one of the system's best, at least in the early days.

The Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds scored an 8/10 from us, and there's more free content and DLC to come in the future.

1. 1st Place - despelote (Switch 1)

One of 2025's very best games released on other platforms earlier in 2025 — Pure Xbox is among the outlets celebrating it — and it just managed to squeak its way onto Switch in December. And thank goodness, because despelote is a special one, and it barely beat out Sonic to win December's eShop Selects.

This short, sweet game follows Julián as he reflects on the time Ecuador qualified for the 2002 World Cup. This is not a soccer game, though — it's a beautiful narrative tale about Julián's experience growing up amidst this fervour. It's largely flown under the radar, but those who have played it have raved about it. And we're joining the chorus.

despelote scored a well-deserved 9/10 from us and takes the final eShop Selects trophy of 2025.

< Nintendo eShop Selects - November 2025

Do you agree with our ranking? Tell us about your favourite eShop releases of last month by voting in our poll and sharing your thoughts in the comments.

What's your favourite December 2025 eShop game from our picks?

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.