Metacritic Reveals Top 50 Highest-Scoring Nintendo Switch Games Of 2020

Ori is a masterpiece

Top three is great, but come on, no signs of Paper Mario TOK and Hyrule Warriors??
Indie games are way too overrated sometimes.

Edit: I cannot find Inmortals and Doom Eternal, neither. Terrible.

Yet another barren year on Switch amirite?!?!

i played Animal Crossing New Horizons(currently at 525h).

None of them. Whoops.

I don't even care what Metacritic said.
What games are good by Metacritic, probably garbage for me.
What games are dreadful by Metacritic, probably hidden gems for me.
I have my own scoring.

Really surprised to see no Paper Mario in the top 50, especially when a boring game like Pikmin 3 is so high (sorry, not a fan of the Pikmin franchise)

@Anti-Matter While i can see your reasoning, i don't really understand why you are on a page where the metacritic score is displayed in the first place. Personally i think these scores are still good to find some games one might have missed out on

Some rando baseball game did that well?

I may need to check it out.

Where's the Persona switch port!! 😭

There were more than 50 games for the Switch in 2020?

@ryu_san 2020 games, man.

@Anti-Matter Yeah, BotW, Super Mario Galaxy 1&2, SM Odyssey, Persona 5 etc are all garbage games, I'd rather play Fallout 76 or Bakugan

@mariomaster96 Yes, there were many more than 50, actually.
In fact, four of the best games of the year for Switch are not even in the list: Hyrule Warriors 2, Paper Mario TOk, Doom Eternal and Inmortals Fenyx Rising.

@TheLightSpirit I like anti-matters comments and unique takes. People are allowed to criticise things and talk about things they don't like, they do it all the time on here. You can always block people if you don't like what they post then you won't see their comments.

@the_beaver Yeah I was just joking cause 2020 was a slow year for Nintendo games ^^

@mariomaster96 Ah ok lol. Yes, it was much worse than 2019 (and of course 2017), but I found it better than 2018, honestly. Apart from Smash Bros, there wasn't much I loved from that year.

@TheLightSpirit @mariomaster96 @Solaine
Games are very subjective.
Maybe i can agree with some Metacritic score but mostly I have different opinion about games quality depend on my experiences and what franchises they are.
Let's compare between me and Metacritic.

Metacritic said Mario Galaxy 1 Wii was 97/100 but for me it was 67/100.
Why 67 ?
Because the game was pretty difficult and I oftenly fell into bottomless pit / died by deadly traps / fell into lave / etc for ridiculous hard course and it wasn't really fun to finish the game like that.

Another case, Metacritic said Amiibo Festival Wii U was 46/100, but for me it was 65/100.
Why did i rated higher?
Because i felt the game wasn't really bad after all after i played the board game style.
Indeed, it was lack of numbers of mini games but i still saw decent potential from Amiibo Festival.

This is very contrary opinion.
Metacritic said, BOTW was 97/100, must played game.
But for me, do you what is my score? 50/100.
Why 50 ?
Because i lost interest by the game quickly and for more than 3 years i neglected that game. I felt i bought the wrong game for my taste, but i still see a little bit potential so that i still keep it but not for playing.

So, Metacritic score will not determine my gaming purchase. It depend on how did i react the game from the first impression and what experiences i felt by playing the games.

Animal crossing up there as well, this game has bought some much needed happiness to millions this year.

Between my son and I, we have Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Pikmin 3 Deluxe, Horace, Among Us, Animal Crossing and A Short Hike.

Can’t believe Carrion didn’t make the top 50, let alone Paper Mario. There are some weird games in that list, but it’s made me interested in checking them out. No argument with the winner, though!

Its unbelievable they did not put Trials of Mana on this list!

It's sad, I have 25 out of the 50 but have only played 18 and beaten 2 (Mario 3D All Stars [full 120/120/241] and A Short Hike).

@anti-matter Just wondering, on your rating scale are you only rating fun on a 100 point scale, or do you take other things into account? I can understand someone not loving BotW, but it's difficult to imagine you saying it's a bad game, factoring in graphics, audio, design, etc.

Just curious, no arguments here. Different strokes for different folks

@Anti-Matter
Gamers get different things out of games and therefor want different things out of the games they buy. That's why ratings can have limited value.

Personally, I still care about generalized rating systems, though, because they bring games to my attention that many, many people enjoy and when that lines up with something I'm looking for in a game, I often find something didn't know about, but am glad it was brought to my attention.

@shazbot It's a good point that people rate games for many different reasons. Some just to score how they liked it. Some to estimate how the general public likes it. Some to speak to a community that likes a certain kind of game, estimating if they would like it. It's why there is so much confusing about rating games and why something like a single number is so barren of meaning without the context.

Catherine doesn't rate, but Fantasy Zone does? Interesting.

(Both are all-new for me, and the AGES release is certainly enjoyable; I did partake myself in 2020. Even so, I feel some criterion should be applied to bar retro games of such deep vintage from this list - too many newer releases are excluded in this way. Catherine's Switch version is the first release on a Nintendo platform, whereas Fantasy Zone was released for the 3DS, I believe. By that criterion, ten games should not be listed here.)

That being said... the Mega Man Zero Collection is some of the best value for money I've encountered in modern gaming.

@shazbot
My games score was only for my personal judging, based on how did i felt the games after playing. Some games felt terrible for me no matter how many times i saw and tried them since i have different gaming tendency.

@Anti-Matter As i said before, i can relate to your train of thought. Everyones opinions are different and that is totally fine, yours even seem very interesting. I just didn't understand why you even look at this list if you don't care about it from the get go.

@JHDK I don’t think it was rando game. The majority of Nintendo podcasts I listen to covered it extensively. Easily the best baseball game I’ve ever played.

@Anti-Matter yeah I don’t think aggregate game scores should determine what games people buy, but if a game you did have an eye on is scoring well it helps inform your decision. Or if it’s game you didn’t know about, high scores may get you interested enough to watch some videos, or check out a demo of said game to see if it’s up your alley

BUG FABLES got 11th place! Too bad it didn't break the top ten. I'd still call that a success though.

@Circasurviver Cool. What podcasts do you listen to? I used to listen to NVC a long time ago but don't like the current, rotating cast. I currently like SpawnCast but that's more for all gaming, not just Nintendo.

Good that god-awful TOK was not included. Also, too many indies, which shows the poor game lineup nintendo had during the year.

Decent list and some great games.
It would have been nice to include the user scores as well as the critic ones. A lot of Nintendo games have been very polarising this year and havntfaredas well with users - AC and PMOK being prime examples.

@aaronsullivan @Anti-Matter

Sure, and I'm not trying to argue our start anything. Just trying to understand if you would still say BotW is a good game, it's just not for you?

For example, I like supergiant's games, so I bought transistor, but I didn't enjoy it. On a fun scale, I would say for me it was 5/10, but I can step away from my enjoyment and look at the game and say it's well designed visually, mechanically, runs well, etc. And so might be a good game for someone else.

Doesn't mean you scale has to change, just want to understand.

Go Pikmin 3 Deluxe!!!

@JHDK NintendoWorldReport.com is a good one stop shop for some great podcasts. Radio Free Nintendo, Talk Nintendo, Connectivity are all good general weekly Nintendo podcasts. There are a couple of affiliated podcasts that have more of a focus. The Famicast focuses more on gaming in Japan, and The Thristy Mage focuses on RPGs on Nintendo consoles.

@Circasurviver Awesome, thanks!

I definitely see why Age of Calamity isn't up there. That game is only suitable for Breath of the Wild fans; those who truly enjoy BotW's story and soundtrack.

Got 12 games on the list and recently got Hades because everyone is saying how great it is but haven't played yet. Thought Animal Crossing would score higher and I personally think it should have been Game of The Year as it came along at perfectly the right time when we needed a light-hearted game to keep us busy in lockdown and because it was a social game when we were losing contact with family and friends. It was the perfect game for last year. Ori is also amazing

Looks like I've only played 7 of those 50:
The Last Campfire
Ys Origin
No More Heroes
Super Mario 3D All-Stars
No More Heroes 2
Xenoblade Chronicles DE
Animal Crossing NH

There is a good amount on the list that I am interested in trying at some point, however.

@TheLightSpirit
I find them amusing. If you find them annoying, you do realize nobody is forcing you to go through the comments, right?

Horace was the best game I played on Switch last year, and I snagged it up on sale for $2.70!

Ah, another day, another time where anti matter comments on stuff he doesn't care about for attention instead of just ignoring it. Welcome to NintendoLife, laddies

@Clyde_Radcliffe i also found odd the omision of Doom Eternal and Hyrule Warriors:Age of Calamity, maybe Metacritc forgeted to post the reviews of the games or the games don't have enough review to make for the top 50(very unlikely).

I've played 5, If we count the original versions. And I have heard of 24 of those games. I'm not sure if I'm surprised it's so high or so low.

Going down this list, it has not been a great year for Nintendo software

I played 18 of them. Plenty of others to look into now!

I got Thronebreaker the Witcher Tales on sale last week. I have been trying to get into that, but I don't really understand these card battles just yet. It's a bit complicated if you've never played owt like that before. But I'll stick with it, it's really cool and I can tell that later battles are going to be intense affairs.

Only 6 Nintendo games and 4 of them are Ports....

Animal Crossing and Clubhouse are the only new ones...

This is a big reason to complain... However, my backlog of games is so big that I don't really care.... I prefer it this way than how it was for the wii u

The son & I have played 32 of those games with 2 on backlog I think and 2 on wishlist

Ok so I am going to tacitly agree with some others here that think too many Indy games are over rated. Really since the beginning it seems that the rating scale for Indy titles has been skewed. Certainly they seem to have their own rating system and maybe the best bet would be to rate them separately. I have played a fair amount of these games either on Switch or another platform. My issue is some Indy games do stand up well to bigger developments and deserve to standing shoulder to shoulder but others, while they might be quant or have some clever gameplay elements they are not deep enough, don't have enough content and shouldn't really be scored with other more full offerings. Also many of them tend to be far more niche than mainstream titles (which is a great thing), it makes sense when you consider the cost of development, larger budget titles have to appeal to a wider audience to sell enough to be worth the development. We all know examples of A quality games that we love and cherish but missed the mark on main stream appeal so where seen as not successful, regardless of their critical acclaim. Another issue with modern systems is legacy games or prior generation ports. So you have 20+ yr old games from Sega Ages occupying this list, but the reality is for many younger players those games might as well be rated a Zero because gamers used to 'modern' games aren't even going to be interested even if its a great port of a once great game. So I guess my point is lists like this are somewhat convoluted as you are mixing new AAA, old AAA ports, old legacy games, new Indy games, and its like comparing apples to oranges. Ori is a modern game and really how do you compare that with 8/16bit legacy game in a rating system? Good news is its a great list and has something for everyone but I still would rather see multiple top 20 lists than one big list that just throws everything together and rates is equally. Ok enough ranting. Here are a few of my favorites that I think get less hype but deserve it. Operencia is one of the best crawlers ever made. It's weird name and little press are unfortunate because if you like dungeon crawlers its a top notch one. Super Mega Baseball 3 is awesome, its one of the best arcade baseball games ever. I personally liked the flavor of 2 (more cartoony where 3 went more real) either one, both great baseball games. As for major devs....Legend of Heroes III is a superb JRPG offering. It helps a lot if you played the prior games, but their is a lengthy prologue story covering the details of the earlier games so watch that if you want to jump into III and never touched the first ones. Overall it was a decent year (especially considering COVID). Nintendo and a lot of other devs held back or delayed games so I expect 2021 is going to be one of the Switch's best years for major releases.