Switch 2 games were weird in 2025, and that’s what made it great

Following up a console like the Nintendo Switch isn’t easy. Expectations were high coming off of a historic period of Nintendo history that saw the company rebound with style after the Wii U’s struggles in the mid 2010s. The Switch gave us a gaming device that changed the way we play, but it also gave us all-time classic exclusives like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. You couldn’t blame anyone for being skeptical that lightning could strike twice for Nintendo. Better hardware would only be half the battle; the Switch 2 would need the games too if the console was going to be deemed a worthy successor.

How do you pull that off? By trading Mario in for Donkey Kong and releasing a Kirby Air Ride sequel as your big holiday game, apparently.

Looking back at the Nintendo Switch 2’s lineup in 2025, it’s safe to say that the system’s launch window wasn’t something anyone could have reasonably predicted even one year ago. Rather than going the safe route and focusing on mainline entries in its biggest franchises, Nintendo got creative with the system’s eight new first-party games (two of which cross-released on the Switch). While that approach has yielded no all-consuming cultural moment on par with Breath of the Wild, it has already given the Switch 2 an identity as a home for some of Nintendo’s more eclectic ideas. You’re either all-in on that by now or impatiently waiting to be convinced.

Nintendo’s experimental approach to games in the Switch 2’s opening run was apparent right from day one. It wasn’t exactly surprising that we’d be getting a follow-up to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on day one considering how much of a sales behemoth that was for Switch, but Mario Kart World didn’t exactly turn out to be a safe sequel. Despite sharing the same fundamental ideas, the kart racer would shake the formula up in several ways. More expressive movement changed the way players raced, the excellent Knockout Tour mode usurped Grand Prix as the series’ signature mode, and an open-world twist completely changed how tracks were designed and how races flowed.

Now far removed from the initial hype around it at launch, Mario Kart World can be characterized as a polarizing experiment. While some players vibed with its twists out the gate, others have bemoaned its untraditional structure and begged Nintendo to rework it to better match Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. That tension likely isn’t what Nintendo was aiming for with its first big game, but it speaks to something that has made the Switch 2’s opening lineup unexpectedly exciting: It’s anything but boring.

Take the console’s first real killer app, for example: Donkey Kong Bananza. While the safe bet would have been to get the team behind Super Mario Odyssey working on a direct sequel, Nintendo took a major risk by letting those developers literally deconstruct its tried-and-true approach to platforming. That gamble paid off, earning Bananza critical praise and a Game of the Year nomination at the 2025 Game Awards. You don’t get that without a willingness to throw some curveballs.

Image: Nintendo/Nintendo EPD

That hasn’t worked out for Nintendo across the board. Of all of its Switch 2 games released so far, the ones that dare to experiment with the console’s unique features have been its duds. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, with its collection of dull quizzes and tech demo minigames, didn’t do much to make the new tech feel all too exciting (and is one of 2025’s lowest-rated games on Metacritic). Just a few months after that, the thin Drag x Drive would struggle to make the system’s two-mouse control option look like anything other than a hard-to-control gimmick. It already feels like some of the Switch 2’s more unique features are dead in the water after a few months, following the same fate as the Switch’s IR sensors.

But there have been effective swerves between the system’s polar extremes. The console’s most exciting stretch of games has come in the last few months, even if none of them have reached the same universal acclaim as Bananza. Pokémon Legends: Z-A didn’t just stray from the traditional Pokémon RPG formula; it entirely upended the last Pokémon Legends game too. Kirby Air Riders defied all logic by confidently doubling down on a once-maligned GameCube game in the most maximalist way possible. Even Metroid Prime 4: Beyond would surprise players — for better or worse — by flirting with open-world elements and going heavy on character-driven narrative. (It’s fitting that the least interesting Switch 2 release this year might just be Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, Nintendo’s most expected and by-the-books sequel.)

Image: Nintendo

There isn’t consensus around those three games. Some players adore what Pokémon Legends: Z-A does with the series’ basics, while others find it to be a shallow reinvention. Kirby Air Riders isn’t a mainstream phenomenon, but the people who love it really love it. (It made the top 10 in Polygon’s own year-end list.) And for all the fiery debates it has caused, Metroid Prime 4 is a true “love it or hate it” kind of game that’s, at the very least, interesting to dissect. Did I play these games as much as I played games like Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey in 2017? Likely not, but they were always fun to think about.

That’s one thing the Switch 2 has going for it at the end of 2025. If nothing else, its games have served as good conversation starters. Few games are a must-play, but just about everything is a tempting curiosity. In an age where there are a million ways to divide attention, the most impressive thing you can do is keep people gathered around the watercooler. I’m still camped out in the break room with my Switch 2 at the end of 2025, and I imagine I’ll be staying there next year to talk about Pokémon Pokopia with anyone who will listen.