Best Nintendo Switch Games Of 2017

10. DOOM (Switch)

DOOM is one of the best first-person shooters we've ever played — an incredible game, flaws and all — and it's certainly one of the best in its class on Switch.

There's a certain magical quality about having a game this good on the go. Its brilliant campaign is reason enough to pick it up, but DOOM's multiplayer was also surprisingly good, with small arenas that make matches feel reminiscent of the halcyon days of first-person shooters when Unreal Tournament reigned supreme.

While it's perhaps not as polished as on other formats, having DOOM in portable form is a revelation, and developer Panic Button deserves high praise for porting over id Software's classic title so brilliantly.

9. SteamWorld Dig 2 (Switch eShop)

SteamWorld Dig 2 is another confident effort from Image & Form, and a worthy successor to the original. Stylish and good-looking, it also has the series' trademark humour and, yes, a pretty good soundtrack. It refines and expands upon the qualities of SteamWorld Dig and hits some delicious high points.

Whether you played the first game or not, SteamWorld Dig 2 is a must-have — its charming aesthetic and cast set the scene for a tightly designed and clever exploration game.

8. Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove (Switch eShop)

Shovel Knight was excellent in vanilla form, but Treasure Trove includes absolutely everything that developer Yacht Club has created for the game since its Kickstarter success back in 2013.

That includes the extra campaigns Plague of Shadows, Specter of Torment, and King of Cards, plus multiplayer brawler Showdown, which further increases the attractiveness of an already incredibly compelling package.

These games are fantastic odes to the glory days of 8-bit(+) platforming, and having the complete Shovel Knight experience in one spot makes this a must-have for Switch owners - especially those who have so far failed to dig into this game and its add-ons. Strike the earth!

7. Stardew Valley (Switch eShop)

Stardew Valley offers a chance to live a second life – one where you can forget the troubles of the real world and get excited over finding a particularly rare carrot.

This is the sort of game that ideally requires a significant amount of time to be invested; the enjoyment doesn’t necessarily come from the day-to-day actions, but rather from the general growth of pride, satisfaction, and sense of security as the days go by.

It is a truly magical experience; games can often be enjoyable but they don’t all manage to be as captivating as this. Fans of Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing will be right at home here and, for those who aren’t, Stardew might just surprise you.

6. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Switch)

The Switch isn’t short of games that have already taken a bow, or several, on other hardware, but Skyrim might be the one that most deserves another look from both hardy Elder Scrolls adventurers and absolute beginners alike.

Despite its age showing, with countless little cracks in its already fractured façade, it still delivers a palpable sense of space that few games before or since have managed. May its dancing northern lights never dim.

5. Splatoon 2 (Switch)

Splatoon 2 is just about everything you could ask for from a sequel. It builds on everything the original online team shooter set up and then some; almost every single major issue people had with the first game has been resolved, showing that Nintendo genuinely listens and wants to deliver the absolute best experience possible.

Maintaining the freshness you’d expect and throwing in countless big and small changes and additions — every one of them for the better — Splatoon 2 is simply... wait for it... ink-redible.

4. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch)

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a massive, sprawling JRPG built by Monolith Soft, who developed the Baten Kaitos games on GameCube. The team also helped Nintendo design the world of Breath of the Wild, so there's no doubting the pedigree.

XC2 sees you explore a massive open world made up of Titans – enormous living creatures that house entire civilisations on their bodies. Along the way, you meet a wide variety of characters, solve a bunch of quests, and save the world. It's the developer doing what it does best, albeit without shaking off the series' occasional flaws. This is another Xenoblade gem, though, and a must-have RPG.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 also has a massive standalone DLC, Torna: The Golden Country, that's well worth playing. It serves as a prequel to the events of 2, so you can play it before or after. Larvely.

3. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch)

Mario Kart 8 delivered a huge amount of racing goodness right out of the box on Wii U and was only a proper Battle Mode away from being top of the class. The big twist this time around was the introduction of 'anti-gravity' sections which allow tracks to bend and twist on themselves in surprising ways, making it possible to collide with other racers and gain a small speed boost, adding a welcome layer of tactical play.

And then Mario Kart 8 Deluxe repackaged the original on Switch and added in that excellent (and sorely missed) Battle Mode for good measure, making it the pinnacle of the entire series; a fast, attractive, sublimely playable romp which has to rank as one of the best racing games of all time; the definitive Mario Kart experience, content-rich and a delightful feast of comedic, cartoonish karting action.

Switch's best-selling game continually raises a smile and, occasionally, induces that trademark Mario Kart rage as shells strike and positions are lost. It's addictive, unifying, unfiltered fun that draws in anyone daring enough to take up the wheel.

And the addition of 48 more courses with the awkwardly named Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass DLC? Well, that's just more icing on an already-grand cake, isn't it? Essential.

2. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)

There's an argument to be made that Mario 64 never got a 'true' sequel until this game: Sunshine's FLUDD muddied the waters with its feature set; the Galaxy games eschewed large playgrounds for impeccably crafted planetoids designed around specific ideas; 3D Land and 3D World were deliberately contained with linear design to introduce 2D Mario players to the third dimension.

Super Mario Odyssey promised a return to the 'sandbox' style players had been pining for since 1996, and it delivered. Cappy's capture abilities keep things fresh in a game which blends all sorts of ideas and art styles into an improbably coherent, compelling whole.

It really shouldn't work, but New Donk City's human inhabitants co-exist happily with anthropomorphic cutlery, colourful sombrero-wearing skeletons, and the big-eyed Mushroom Kingdom clan thanks solely to the developers' impeccable execution. The mechanical mastery here is breathtaking, with so many distractions to discover. We don't envy the designers who have to come up with Mario's next game, but Mario Odyssey proves that absolutely anything is possible.

An utterly remarkable entry in this most celebrated of series, then. The best Switch Mario game is an essential purchase whether you like Mario or not.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was a landmark release, both for its franchise and Nintendo. It was the first time that the company truly took on the open-world genre, and by arriving late to the party it embraced the strengths of top-in-class games while also forging its own unique identity.

BOTW was a revolution for the series, but the Legend of Zelda essence is still there — its soul remains, and the end result is captivating. After years of following the same old template, Nintendo bravely took Zelda in a new direction and delivered an absolute triumph which still has us regularly revisiting its iteration of Hyrule. This is the series' best-selling game for a reason.

Its sequel expanded on the open world first presented here, but the excitement of exploring Breath of the Wild's wilderness for the very first is an experience nobody should miss. And the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition polishes out a couple of blemishes with 60fps performance that gives the game new life once more.