Top 25 best Switch games of 2018

If there's anything you've ever loved about a Smash Bros. game, it's almost certainly here. The sheer scope of this dauntingly comprehensive brawler is dizzying, and it's a heck of a lot of fun to boot.

This brilliant rogue-lite platformer takes a little of Spelunky's randomised rinse-and-repeat magic and stirs in a gloriously lithe combat system. If you're a fan of automated turrets, flaming swords, crossbows, or dodge rolls, this was the game for you.

Switch owners have been absolutely spoiled for Metroidvanias in 2018. While there might be arguments on the PG team about which is best, Guacamelee! 2 is certainly the most vibrant and enjoyably rowdy.

Another fabulous Metroidvania, this time set in a mournful cartoon world populated by strange and magnificent bug creatures. Hollow Knight is a masterclass in world building - and in how to move around that world.

The maker of FTL - one of the finest strategy games of recent times - returns with another masterpiece. Into the Breach takes the turn-based strategy genre and imbues it with meaningful choice and weighty consequences.

Yoku's Island Express is a Metroidvania that sets the platforming action on a fantastical island filled with pinball elements. Pinging your beetle hero around with flippers and bumpers proved to be one of the freshest treats of the year.

Arguably the finest and most influential 3D action game of recent times got a masterful Switch reworking this year. Being able to play Dark Souls on the go was a rare 'what a time to be alive' moment in 2018.

Here's another of those 'what a time to be alive' moments. Playing Blizzard's peerlessly compulsive action RPG out and about was only possible on a bulky laptop prior to 2018. And what a brilliant Switch conversion it turned out to be!

Another of those semi-lost gems that fell between the cracks during the fateful Wii U years, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a sublime 2.5D platformer with a weighty swing all of its own.

The Overcooked games are the kind of bright, bouncy co-op games that feel native to Switch. This sequel refines the formula, as teams to two to four chefs run around a busy kitchen fulfilling orders.

As one of the most successful third party attempts at cracking the Zelda code ever made, Okami HD's painterly art style was more than welcome on Switch. Guiding a divine wolf around a fantasy feudal Japan remains a rare treat.

While our claim that Dragon Ball FighterZ was "The best handheld fighter ever" would only last a couple of months (thanks to the arrival of a certain Nintendo brawler), it remains a truly impressive port of a mighty slick 3v3 beat-'em-up.

Hardly the master of understatement at the best of times, PlatinumGames outdid itself with Bayonetta 2's sheer lunatic brashness. It's a chaotic action game in the best possible sense of the word, but with a deadly precise combat system at its heart.

This stunning follow-up to Limbo laid on one of the most atmospheric and flab-free platform-puzzlers you're ever likely to play, with a handful or unforgettable set pieces. Inside also appeared on mobile in 2018, but the Switch version is the best way to play it on the go.

Windjammers is a fantasy sports game-cum-beat-'em-up that combines tennis with a particularly extreme form of frisbee. It might be a port of an obscure Neo Geo game from the '90s, but it's also one of the finest local 2P games of the year.

This magnificent puzzle-platformer knocked us off our feet when it landed towards the end of 2018. Cast as as a bard whose only abilities are to jump, sing, and dance, it proved to be one of the most relentlessly joyful experiences of the year.

The original Katamari Damacy has proved hugely influential (Donut County owes a huge debt), so we were delighted to get this Switch port. Rolling up an endless ball of colourful stuff is as intoxicatingly cathartic in 2018 as it was in 2004.

Another recent indie gem to make a natural home on Switch, Moonlighter is like some beautiful combination of old school Zelda and Spelunky. Plunder top-down dungeons by night, then sell the loot in your charming little shop by day. Lovely.

Plenty were worried about this simplified take on the Pokemon formula, but it turned out to be a brilliant casual RPG that folded in a little of Pokemon GO's immediacy.

The biggest game of the last couple of years came to Switch in 2018. And do you know what? It plays very well indeed. Run around a cartoon arena, sniping fools and building forts. Fortnite is arguably the best online shooter on Switch.

Square Enix's ambitious Switch exclusive sports a beautiful diorama art style, memorable turn-based combat, and a unique eight-way perspective split. Its story could use some work, but JRPG nuts will be in their element.

As another Nintendo game that fell prey to the Wii U's disastrous sales, Captain Toad Treasure Tracker was always a prime Switch contender. It's a brilliantly compact 3D puzzler set across a range of tiny diorama-like levels.

Kirby Star Allies wasn't the knock-out Nintendo punch we wanted a year into the Switch's life, but it is a highly entertaining platform-brawler. There's a certain easy-going charm to its challenge-free chaos, and it looks a treat.

It wasn't the smash hit that we hoped for, and the single player stuff felt half-hearted at best. But Mario Tennis Aces still provided some much needed local multiplayer fun at around 2018's half-way point.

No-one waits for a new Super Mario Party game with bated breath. But I bet plenty of you were glad of this fun minigame-fuelled party game around Christmas time, and there's plenty of value in that.