I'm Not Sure What My First Nintendo Switch Game Should Be

[Depression Moon]

I think I finally going to get a Switch, but it looks like the best console ever. There are so many good games for this. I mean look:

Animal Crossing: New Horizons
ARMS
Axiom Verge
Cadence of Hyrule
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Celeste
Cuphead
Dandara
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Dragon Quest XI S
Enter the Gungeon
Fire Emblem 3 Houses
Golf Story
Hollow Knight
Kirby Star Allies
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Luigi's Mansion 3
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Mario Tennis Aces
Octopath Travel
Pokken Tournament DX
Pokemon Sword & Shield
Ring Fit Adventure
Sonic Mania
Splatoon 2
Stardew Valley
Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Maker 2
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Untitled Goose Game (I thought this was a PC only game)
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt
Wargroove
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
Yoshi's Crafted World

I have no idea which one I should get first.

[WarZidane]

All that but no Xenoblade Chronicles 2? That game's actually still the only reason I even have a Switch :p

[Jinx]

FE3H and AC are both amazing games for different reasons.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

Defintely Ys VIII

[Mercen-X]

I don't have a switch but if did I'd get OT first.

[Mirage]

If you have someone to play with, MK8D is pretty good.

Three houses is a pretty good game too.

The remake of the first Xenoblade game is going to be released in two days or something. If you haven't played it on the Wii already, I highly recommend you get the remake asap.

[Wolf Kanno]

Well if the project ever comes out of development hell, I know that Shin Megami Tensei V will be my first game for the darn thing. Actually make me pick it up.

The other games I'm interested in are:

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Octopath Traveler
Collection of Mana
Super Mario Maker 2
Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Remake
Mario Odyssey
Xenoblade Chronicles 2

[qwertysaur]

Collection of Mana you should get because you get 3 fantastic games in one.

Also grab untitled goose game, it's a quick play but so charming.

Zelda and FE3H are both games I've put hours into.

Are you looking for a game to play with others or a game to immerse yourself into?

[Vasher]

Well, what did you end up getting?

Breath of the Wild is a must have and, for me, Links Awaking was very nostalgic in that it had the feel of the 1’st Zelda game on NES. My 6 yr old and I finished it together, a lot of fun.

[Del Murder]

Yeah I really hope it was Zelda.

[Wolf Kanno]

Okay, just had an early Christmas with close friends and my GF today. I am now the proud owner of the blue Switch Lite, ans Octopath Traveler. So...

I will likely pick up:
Breath of the Wild
Link's Awakening
Bloodstained
Super Mario Odyssey
Mana Collection

What else should I pick up? I am also debating about the Nintendo Members Online subscription because while the list is still small, the selection of NES/SNES games is still pretty good.

[Fynn]

Xenoblade 2, probably Bravely Default II once it’s out

[Wolf Kanno]

Yeah I was thinking of those games as well. I will probably pick up the Xenoblade remaster as well, but I'm not exactly ready to tackle that beast of a game again. :lol:

I am thinking of getting SaGa Scarlet Graces on the system. I'm currently downloading a few demos to play while I'm over at a relatives for the holiday. Not sure if I'm going to start Octopath traveler just yet.

[qwertysaur]

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is very good.

[Loony BoB]

I've not played much to be honest, but I'd rate Animal Crossing and the Pokémon Sword/Shield games as skippable (AC for me would only be worth getting at launch period when everyone is playing, these days I'm less interested). Mario Kart is good fun if you have people to play it with but it's not dramatically different to the previous ones and I wouldn't say it's "must have". I'm not hugely fond of the Smash Bros games in the past but I found myself loving Ultimate. And, finally, Zelda is undoubtedly worth getting. I say that as a person who had only played one Zelda game seriously before he played this one.

[Wolf Kanno]

Zelda: BotW is a sure thing. It will be the game I plan on spending any of my Christmas money on immediately. Love Zelda and it has been annoying to watch this game kick ass and be out of my reach.

I'm also excited for the fact I can get SMTV when it drops. I just don't know if I want to pick up SMTIII for the Switch or PS4 now.

[Fynn]

Switch always. Portable Nocturne, man. No-brainer.

[Wolf Kanno]

Yeah, but portability is not as high of a priority for me. I like to play my games on a big screen when I can.

[Lord Golbez]

In the past I would have said I don't care about portability, but the fact is I haven't played Switch on TV since the first few times In played BotW, and I found myself enjoying it more after I switched to portable. Mind you, I'm almost never playing outside of my home, but that doesn't even matter. For Switch I just prefer playing on the portable console.

[WarZidane]

My Switch hasn't been undocked since i got it, big screen + pro controller + not having to choose between either constantly holding a handheld up to face-level or constantly looking down, neither of which are great options :p

[Del Murder]

These are my games for Switch, ranked by how much I liked it:

1. Breath of the Wild - No brainer.

2. Super Mario Odyssey - if you like Mario, this game is excellent! A great evolution of the Mario series.

3. Dragon Quest XI - A fantastic game that keeps with DQ tradition but also upgrades in many ways. It also had the best characters of any DQ game (except maybe DQIV) and a very compelling storyline with some great twists. I also really loved the reference to older games throughout.

4. Pokemon Let's Go Eevee - This is basically a remake of the original games but it was super fun to play with the kids.

5. Super Mario Party - As a family man, we play this game a lot. :p

6. Pokemon Shield - There was a lot they skimped out on in Shield that no other franchise would be able to get away with. Storyline is almost nonexistent and basically the same objective of the original games. The expansions improved it some. The dynamax mechanic is cool for boss battles but makes the competitive battling too dependent on it.

7. Celeste - A fun and challenging platforming game with a throwback to the 16 bit era. I appreciated the challenge progression and that it lets you do one screen at a time.

8. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - A pretty complete Mario Kart game, probably the best since Mario Kart 64.

9. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Very cool to have all the characters in here and the story mode and tournament options were also nice. A great fighting game but like all fighting games it lacks the depth beyond battling it out with people.

10. Hades - I liked the variety you get with the weapons and power ups each run, and also the tie in to Greek mythology. It did get pretty repetitive going through the same bosses and enemies each time.

11. Octopath Traveler - The visual style was amazing. I also appreciated that they tried some new things with turn based battles. The multiple independent character storylines started off fun but got very repetitive near the end. I also wished they overlapped more.

12. Fire Emblem: Three Houses - I'll always be a fan of Fire Emblem's grid style tactical battles, but this entry was one of my least favorites. I did not care that much about the school lessons and it was very odd that the army went back to school after every mission. I also don't like when you need to replay the game 3 times to get the full story since it is already a long game. I did like the characters in this game and some of the changes to the combat, like the return of durability with special attacks costing more durability, and the class progression into several tiers. Basically, if you like Fire Emblem, then this is a Fire Emblem game, but not much better or different than the others.

13. Mega Man 11 - I appreciate the new double gear system, which give a new dimension to some of the boss fights. The boss levels were also among the most challenging of any Mega Man game. Ultimately though, other than Tundra Man, none of the boss weapons were particularly fun to use and the Wily castle was very disappointing with only 2 real levels to it.

14. Trials of Mana - It was great to finally play this game on a console. The remake did a good job updating the combat system and had some cute graphics, but a lot of the story and other aspects (combat) did seem a bit dated.

I'm currently working on Valkyria Chronicles 4 and I have Xenoblade 2 in my queue.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

A lot of newer games have been recommended, so I'll take a different approach.

If you get the Switch Online Membership, which is only 20 bucks a year, you get access to 60+ NES and SNES games. My personal favorites among them being Donkey Kong Country, Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Breath of Fire II.

https://www.nintendo.com/switch/online-service/nes/?cid=A1005-01:ch=pdpd&gclid=CjwKCAiAxKv_BRBdEiwAyd40NyQ3MVErOcsVfqPt3NgtvPzd4C8LIhk_5hX0Cg-JEP0tZyjgutC0qxoCqGYQAvD_BwE

Getting the membership also nets you the ability to buy "exclusives" like the Super Nintendo controller to use with your console. Not that anything's really exclusive in the internet age, but it's still cool to look into.

My Switch is coming in this week. I bought the bundle that came with the free year of online, so I'm looking forward to digging into those classic games.

[Vasher]

Add “Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity” to the list. Extra fun if you have someone to join in co-op.

[Wolf Kanno]

I am split on that one because I love me some Zelda, but I'm just not a fan of musuo games. I feel the same way about Persona 5 Scramble.

[Wolf Kanno]

Took the plunge and signed up for the year subscription for the Nintendo Membership deal. Gets me access to some online elements and a few freebies but the real reason I went for it was access to virtual console. Being able to play some retro titles on the go seemed like a good deal. It added about a 117 games to my Switch.

For the NES, the big draw for me was getting access to a few hard to find titles like Gradius, Hockey, and Kid Icarus. Games I still hope to one day add to my physical collection of NES titles. For the SNES, I feel the three games that won me over was having a portable copy of LttP and BoF2 as well as finally getting a crack at Yoshi's Island SMW2, since that game came out around the time I was heavy into RPGs and stopped caring about platformers. The DKC trilogy will also be a nice thing to finally check out.

While this is a lot of games, I do have a few I'm hoping Nintendo will eventually add on. Namely Earthbound, SMRPG, and I hope we'll see a few more high profile third party titles like the Mega Man games, Chrono Trigger, and maybe some DQ/FF titles. I know that Castlevania, Mega Man, Mana, and Contra will likely not come into play seeing how their collections are available for the Switch, but it would be nice if we could at least get a few major entries to be added.

I also hope the Switch would add a Game Boy/GBC/GBA emulator eventually. It always feels weird how Nintendo only seems to release these games for the 3DS.