Looking back at and reviewing Nintendo’s 2025 – Switch 2 launch, every major game, and more

2025 was a huge year for Nintendo, to say the least. Fans have been eagerly awaiting the Nintendo Switch 2 for what feels like a lifetime – this even dates back to 2020 and 2021 with the then-endless “Switch Pro” rumors. But now, Nintendo Switch 2 is finally here, and it’s already cemented itself as one of the fastest-selling video game consoles of all time. Nintendo released a fair number of exclusives this year as well, including big titles like Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza, among many others. Given that 2025 is coming to an end, we figured it’s a better time than ever to take a look back at one of Nintendo’s busiest years. So today, we’re recounting Nintendo Switch 2’s reveal, its launch, and going over and reviewing every major Switch and Switch 2 game released this year.

Wrapping up the Nintendo Switch

By January 2025, Nintendo Switch had been on its way out for quite a while. 2024 had a decent amount of new games for the system, but overall it was a fairly quiet year – and you could tell things were slowing down. For the first six months of 2025, there were nearly no game releases at all – we got Donkey Kong Country Returns HD in January and Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition in March. Before we address the elephant in the room in the form of Nintendo Switch 2, let’s quickly go over those two game releases and how they were received.

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD wound up releasing on the same day Switch 2 was announced – a very strange move from Nintendo. At the time Returns HD was revealed, we didn’t know about Donkey Kong Bananza. The Donkey Kong series was almost completely dormant on Nintendo Switch, outside of a port of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze in 2018 and Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle’s Donkey Kong Adventure DLC (which might not even count). With Donkey Kong Country Returns HD being the only game in DK’s future at that time, fans had no idea if even Nintendo knew what it wanted to do with the character going forward. Fortunately, those worries have been completely put to rest now that Donkey Kong Bananza is out – but those concerns were real for a time.

On its own, Donkey Kong Country Returns is a great game. It completely revitalized the Donkey Kong franchise for years to come, though these does it does feel a little bit basic compared to some of DK’s more recent outings. This port of Donkey Kong Country Returns offered HD graphics plus the ability to turn off motion controls, which in theory makes it the best way to play the game. Its biggest problems were its price and performance: at $60, this slightly remastered version of a Wii game cost as much as Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, and other big-name Nintendo Switch blockbusters. Considering the original game was often sold at $20, $60 was an incredibly steep asking price – and an overpriced game tends to open up additional scrutiny within online communities. Indeed, while Returns HD generally looks better than the original game, it’s missing a few graphical effects, and most importantly, the load times are nearly twice as long as the Wii version’s (though that may no longer be true on Switch 2). Needless to say, this release wasn’t received super well, and it definitely gave the impression that it was a filler title of sorts.

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition completely flew under the radar – essentially, it released, was topical for a couple of days, and then discussion around the game disappeared. This was a complete remaster of the original Wii U game with much improved graphics and much-needed quality-of-life changes. On Wii U, Xenoblade Chronicles X had many frustrating mechanics that only seemed to serve to waste the player’s time – for example, you couldn’t change your party from the menu. You had to seek them out within the game’s central hub, which was fairly large. Tons of clunky issues like that were fixed with the Definitive Edition, and it also added an all-new story chapter that wraps up the original game’s cliffhanger ending. Xenoblade X definitely isn’t for everyone – it feels very different than the numbered trilogy because it doesn’t really focus on its story or characters at all, just pure gameplay. And the gameplay is actually fairly complex. Still, this was overall received very well, though to this day the conversation around the game is still fairly quiet – which is a shame!

After March 2025, no Nintendo Switch-exclusive games were released for the rest of the year. As we’ll describe later, we would receive Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Pokemon Legends: Z-A, and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond on Nintendo Switch, but they all also received patches or Nintendo Switch 2 Editions on the new console that significantly increased their resolution, frame rate, or both. As a result, we’ll be discussing these games as if they’re Switch 2 titles, since they’re best played on the new hardware.

The big Switch 2 reveal

Nintendo Switch 2 was in development for a very long time. So long, in fact, that leaks began to pile on one after another, and pretty soon dedicated fans knew a whole lot about the the system – a console that hadn’t even been officially revealed yet. Leaks detailed all sorts of specs and features that would later become reality, and on January 16, 2025, Nintendo went ahead and shadow-dropped a brief but exciting Switch 2 reveal trailer. In it, we got a first official look at the console, including its new kickstand, redesigned Joy-Con controllers with magnetic attachments, mouse mode, and more. What really caught people’s eyes, however, was the brand-new Mario Kart game showcased (but not named) alongside the new system. At first glance, all of the characters looked much different than we were used to – their designs were more stylized, there appeared to be many more racers than usual, and fans even spotted a new design for Donkey Kong. This shadow-dropped video also revealed that the full Nintendo Switch 2 Presentation would be on April 2, 2025. And that wait felt very, very long – as mentioned earlier, the only game we really got from January 16 to June 5 from Nintendo was Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition.

After three long months, the day finally arrived, and the Nintendo Switch 2 Presentation revealed all sorts of new games and features we could expect this year. The console would launch on June 5, 2025, and featured full backwards compatibility with Switch 1 games and accessories via wireless connections. It also revealed GameChat, which allows players to join groups with each other, use voice chat, and share their screens. This feature actually feels like it’s quite underrated – given that most people just use something like Discord to chat, many don’t bother to use GameChat, which is understandable. But for what it is, GameChat is a decent solution for voice chat. Circling back to the presentation though, another new feature was the inclusion of GameCube games on Nintendo Switch Online for Switch 2 players (and owners of the NSO Expansion Pack). The big new reveals were Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, Kirby Air Riders, and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, with more information and new Nintendo Switch 2 Editions revealed for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Pokemon Legends: Z-A. We’ll talk about each of these individually later on.

The actual presentation was received fairly well. What wasn’t received well, however, were the prices. The actual price for Switch 2 wasn’t shown during the actual presentation; you had to go on Nintendo’s website afterwards to see that the base console cost $449.99. What was more troubling, however, was that Mario Kart World cost $80 instead of $70. While it’s true that the prices of video games haven’t really kept up with inflation, $70 is still a lot to pay for one game. That said, players were somewhat expecting a price increase from $60 to $70, but they were not expecting Mario Kart World specifically to cost $80. Though Mario Kart World is a great game (in my opinion at least), Nintendo themselves did little to justify the higher price tag. Other Nintendo Switch 2 games, like Kirby Air Riders and Donkey Kong Bananza, launched at the now-standard $70 instead. Unfortunately, it feels like everything is getting more expensive these days – not just from Nintendo, but almost everything under the “technology” blanket. That doesn’t mean anybody’s going to be happy about or even fine with paying $40 for a single new amiibo, though. Pre-orders for the Nintendo Switch 2 were meant to start on April 2 in the United States, but were delayed to April 24 due to tariffs. When those pre-orders did go-up, however, just about every major retailer experienced some kind of overload. Target completely crashed, and Best Buy didn’t fare much better.

Launch day and launch titles

Nintendo Switch 2 finally launched on June 5, 2025. Despite the controversy around its price, it quickly became the fastest-selling console of all time, moving 3.5 million units within four days after its release. I actually went to my first-ever console midnight release myself at a local GameStop, and even though staying up until 4 AM playing Mario Kart World isn’t very productive, it’s a very memorable experience that I’d recommend to anybody when the Switch 3 eventually comes out in 10 years. I wrote all about Nintendo Switch 2’s launch in greater detail a few months ago, so I’m going to fast-track this section a little bit to avoid repeating myself too much. Be sure to check it out if you’re interested, though!

Nintendo Switch 2 debuted with Mario Kart World and Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour as its new, fully original titles. It also released with enhanced Switch 2 Editions of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, as well as simpler performance patches for Super Mario Odyssey, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, Link’s Awakening, Echoes of Wisdom, and Super Mario 3D World, among other titles. The third-party support was solid right off the bat too, with Cyberpunk 2077, Fortnite, and Street Fighter 6 (among many other games) dropping on launch day as well. Mario Kart World was definitely the smartest choice for a launch title in my opinion, even if Mario Kart isn’t necessarily everyone’s favorite. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was the best-selling game on Nintendo Switch by a longshot, and fans had been hoping for an all-new entry for quite literally over a decade. Plus, it’s got incredible casual appeal. That being said, Mario Kart World was kind of the only notable “new” game that released on launch day. The other launch options were games you probably already have played, including ports of existing titles from other platforms and enhanced versions of Nintendo Switch games. Those were definitely nice to have, but for many they didn’t quite fill the gap.

Mario Kart World, especially with updates it’s received over the past few months, is a fantastic new entry in the series and one that’s been in the works for many years. Its art style is refined, expressive, and colorful, and these traits extend to the world design and specifically to the characters themselves. The music here is absolutely outstanding, and honestly I don’t think the game gets enough praise for how good its soundtrack really is. There are over 200 excellent remixes of past Super Mario themes, plus a whole bunch of new tracks that stand on their own. The gameplay has a higher skill ceiling than ever, and includes satisfying new mechanics like rail riding and wall jumping. I’m approaching 200 hours played, and after 100 percent completing the game, I think its biggest flaws actually are not the intermissions (which often face unwarranted backlash, in my opinion). Instead, I think Mario Kart World’s biggest flaw is the limited number of Knockout Tour routes, specifically online where you can only play a few. Free Roam does feel a little bit pointless; I think characters should be unlocked from finding collectibles. The roster, while leaps and bounds ahead of base Mario Kart 8’s, is still missing important characters like Diddy Kong but does have its share of fun selections like Coin Coffer and the Cow. I think with the inevitable eventual DLC, Mario Kart World will easily exceed Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The developers have released several updates to the game that have fixed major problems that players complained about, including reworking certain intermissions to add more obstacles, hazards, and shortcuts. That proves that they do listen to criticism. Mario Kart World caught a lot of unwarranted hate at launch – that doesn’t mean it should be immune to criticism, of course, because that criticism directly resulted in updates that fixed issues. But the general opinion on it seems to have shifted more towards positive as of Christmas Day.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is definitely a video game that exists. Or maybe it isn’t a video game? Either way, this cost $10 and was criticized for not being a pack-in title with the system for free. That’s certainly a valid criticism, but I feel like if this were a pack-in title, casual players would have tried it out and gotten really bored really fast. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is essentially like a mix between a class that tells you all about how the hardware works and a minigame collection. Some of the minigames are neat, but the game’s core loop of running around on top of a giant controller and taking quizzes isn’t very engaging. The average person isn’t really going to care that the Joy-Con’s ZR button wraps around to the side to make it easier to press, so in some ways I feel like making this a pack-in title might’ve made casual fans get bored with Nintendo Switch 2 faster. But they could’ve at least made it a free download rather than a paid one! That said, there’s a small group of people out there who do really like this game, specifically the minigames that come with it. Getting gold medals on all of them is extremely difficult.

By the end of June 2025, the Switch 2 was in a good place, to say the last. As I mentioned earlier, it had already become the fastest-selling console of all time, and it had a decent lineup of games. Third-party support was much stronger from the get-go than it was on Nintendo Switch, with games like Cyberpunk 2077 being praised for excellent optimization.

Summer and beyond

Nintendo Switch 2’s first big post-launch game was Donkey Kong Bananza in July 2025, and for many fans this was more exciting than even Mario Kart World. Donkey Kong hadn’t had his own 3D adventure since Donkey Kong 64 decades earlier. And thankfully, this game met expectations – it has extremely addictive gameplay, movement, and combat, which makes it very easy to plan to play for 30 minutes and wind up playing for hours instead. Donkey Kong Bananza pays a ton of respect to previous games in the series while also introducing enough fresh and new ideas and characters to hold its own even without all the references. Whereas Super Mario Odyssey peaked at the Metro Kingdom (in my opinion), Donkey Kong Bananza peaks at its ending, which means the game gets better and better as it goes on. DK has also received a new design – his Rare design was pretty much all “cool”, but this new DK can switch seamlessly between “cool” and “cute” vibes thanks to a restructuring of his face. I personally like this direction, but what I like more is that Donkey Kong is once again being pushed as one of Nintendo’s most prominent characters. He held very little relevance of his own during the Nintendo Switch era, and almost always just appeared alongside Mario in spin-off games and the like rather than his own titles. Donkey Kong Bananza proves that DK is here to stay, and despite some minor performance issues and bosses that are too easy, Bananza remains a fantastic 3D platformer and one of Nintendo Switch 2’s best.

Next up, Drag x Drive released on August 14, and this is actually the only major first-party Nintendo game I did not play this year. The idea was definitely interesting, but what personally prevented me from trying it out were the visuals and the control scheme. Normally, new Nintendo IPs (Splatoon comes to mind as the most recent example) are striking and colorful, but Drag x Drive is just kind of gray and muted and dull. Plus, the control scheme involves using two Joy-Con in mouse mode at all times, and as someone who plays in handheld mode almost 100 percent of the time, those controls were always going to be an obstacle. Drag x Drive did at least launch at $20 rather than at full price, but fell into obscurity relatively quickly. We probably won’t hear much about this game in the future, as neat as the concept may have been.

In September 2025, we received a Nintendo Direct that included a section all about Mario’s 40th anniversary. The celebrations announced were the Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2 for Switch and Switch 2, and some new Super Mario Galaxy amiibo for 2026, among other things. Super Mario Galaxy 1 +2 wound up releasing in October, and these were great ports for the most part, minus a few very minor visual bugs. Most importantly (for me at least), you could now use motion controls in handheld mode rather than being forced to use the touch screen like in Super Mario 3D All-Stars. The biggest flaw with these ports was nothing within the games themselves, but the prices – you could get both for $70, or each game for $40. You can rather easily buy a copy of Super Mario Galaxy for the original Wii for $15 – not that these ports should be going for $15 necessarily, but the point is that $70 for both is an extremely steep price for games that are well over a decade old. The games themselves are still great, though!

Pokemon Legends: Z-A came out on October 16, and it also received a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition on the same day. Notably, Z-A’s Switch 2 Edition is the first main series Pokemon game to run at 60 frames per second on launch in decades. Indeed, in stark contrast to Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s performance wasn’t much of an issue upon release. For the most part, I thought this game was pretty good – battles feel fresh and new, the new Mega Evolution designs were silly and memorable, and the game’s music was very good (as is usual for Pokemon games). Unfortunately, I think Legends: Z-A’s biggest flaw was apparent even before its official trailer: it takes place entirely within Lumiose City. The Mega Dimension DLC eventually released in December, and while it did add a ton of content to the game, much of it was repetitive grinding and it only exacerbated the base game’s main flaws rather than trying to fix or circumvent them. The DLC takes place in “Hyperspace Lumiose”, which, conveniently, is an alternate version of Lumiose City. To me, it sort of felt like this DLC was thought up to save the developers from having to add wide open wild spaces to catch Pokemon akin to Pokemon Legends: Arceus. It’s a step in the right direction, but one with many flaws. Here’s hoping that the next Pokemon game takes more than just a step in the right direction. I want to see leaps and bounds for the tenth generation!

The holiday season games

Three new first and second-party games were released during 2025’s holiday season. First up was Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, which is the first new Warriors game to take advantage of Nintendo Switch 2’s enhanced hardware capabilities. I’m personally not super into the genre, but I thought this game was surprisingly fun – it does two things really well, and you can choose which one you prefer: a mindless hack-and-slash to turn your brain off to, or a genuinely skillful hoard battle that requires you to engage with the mechanics on higher difficulties. This kind of flexibility really resonated with me, and Age of Imprisonment’s solid storytelling (especially compared to Tears of the Kingdom) only made things better. The gameplay does target 60 frames per second, which means Age of Imprisonment feels infinitely better to play than Age of Calamity on Nintendo Switch, which barely held 30 frames per second. That being said, while the performance adjustments are appreciated, they aren’t perfect – the game’s resolution is rather low in handheld mode, and the cutscenes are a bit blurry and have uneven frame pacing. And at the end of the day, this is still a Warriors game, so not everyone will be a fan of the genre despite the solid story and gameplay here. Definitely not Nintendo’s most prolific release of 2025, but a good one nonetheless.

Interestingly enough, Nintendo wound up releasing two racing games in 2025: Mario Kart World and Kirby Air Riders. You could argue that Kirby Air Riders is more of an action game, and that’s true to an extent, but the two titles do have a similar premise. Kirby Air Riders is Masahiro Sakurai’s latest work, and in a refreshing change of pace for Nintendo, all of the game’s content is available right from the beginning and there is no DLC planned. I feel like with many previous Nintendo games – Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Mario Tennis Aces, Kirby Star Allies, Mario Strikers: Battle League, Nintendo Switch Sports – these games launched with relatively little content, and as soon as the games released, we were all in this holding pattern of “time to wait for an update to add the rest”. Some players would argue that even after their updates were complete, some of these games didn’t meet expectations. That streak has finally, at least temporarily, been broken with Kirby Air Riders, which really does feel complete on launch and has plenty of content. Its three modes, Air Ride, Top Ride, and City Trial, are all fun in their own ways. Plus, there’s a fairly in-depth story mode with incredibly high-quality cutscenes that’ll keep you busy for a good while. I do think the game would have done well with more City Trial maps, and there are a few odd character exclusions like Elfilin, Adeleine, and the Three Mage-Sisters. But this is an incredibly good game, and one I’ll certainly be coming back to for years to come.

The last big Nintendo release of the year was the long-awaited Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, which has been surrounded by all sorts of controversies, both warranted and not. We now know that the game was indeed influenced by Zelda: Breath of the Wild to some extent, and since the Prime 4’s development was underway in 2017, that was the direction it wound up going. This led to the inclusion of Sol Valley, a big desert that connects all of the game’s major areas. Though it isn’t exactly empty, riding around on a motorcycle isn’t what most Metroid superfans had in mind for a new title. That’s what winds up being Metroid Prime 4: Beyond’s biggest weakness – people who love Metroid really love Metroid, and what they want from a new game is more Metroid. Not every series needs to constantly reinvent itself – Metroid Prime Remastered is still fantastic despite the age of the original game, which is a good example of this. Metroid Prime 4 features lots of NPC dialogue, which is something else Metroid fans prefer not to see too much of. In short, Metroid Prime 4 is a technical marvel that looks beautiful, but it’s generally much simpler and more linear than previous games in the series. Ironically, despite being the fourth game in the series, Prime 4 might do more to please first-time fans than long-time fans. Opinions are mixed on this one, but I think it’s a good time if you go in expecting more of a 3D Zelda-type experience than something exactly like previous Metroid Prime games.

So, how did Nintendo do in 2025? I think this was a good start to the Nintendo Switch 2 era. It hasn’t even been a full year since it was released, and we’ve already got a number of high-quality exclusives for the system. It’s pretty much impossible to beat the Nintendo Switch’s first year – having Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 2, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Super Mario Odyssey on the console is just about impossible to match. Still, Nintendo Switch 2’s titles are impressive so far – Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, Kirby Air Riders, and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment are all good or great games. And that’s not even counting the Nintendo Switch 2 Editions of titles like Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, and more. Many Nintendo Switch games are in dire need of Switch 2 patches, considering almost all of them look blurry in handheld mode – I wrote all about the games that need patches most right here. Also, charging $50 for amiibo and $80 for Mario Kart World will wind up doing more harm than good; even though Nintendo will make more money through Mario Kart World sales, the extra $10 opened the game up to scrutiny in a way that wouldn’t have happened if it remained $70 instead. In 2026, it’d be nice to see some more consumer-friendly pricing from Nintendo… but we all know there’s not a very realistic chance of that happening.

Still, it’s exciting to think about what Nintendo has on offer next year. Though the beginning of the year seems like it’s going to be rather slow, there’s real potential with Nintendo Switch 2 from here on out. Almost every major Nintendo series has yet to see a release on the platform, and we’ll likely get huge titles such as a new Super Smash Bros. and a new Animal Crossing sometime down the line (even though it most likely won’t be in 2026).

In the meantime, what was your favorite Nintendo game this year, and what do you hope to see next year? Feel free to let us know in the comments down below. Happy new year!