One Year of the Switch Voting Thread (Seventh-Year Games Lists on Page 12)

5: Celeste
4: Splatoon 2
3: MK8D
2: BotW
1: Odyssey

Sonic Mania
(17 points, 3 votes)



"It’s one of the most exciting, playable and uplifting games I’ve played in years. It’s a complete overload of the senses – it looks, sounds and feels absolutely sensational. Sonic Mania reminds why I started playing games in the first place and, honestly, I was touched by how good this turned out to be."

"I cant believe in 2017 we actually got a Sonic game that was good... like...actually really good. Christian Whiteheads team masterfully recreated the feel of the Mega Drive games whilst also adding modern quality and fan service. Its easily the best Sonic game ever made!"

"The love, the craft and the H.P. (nice) that have gone into this game is simply amazing. A real treat for Sonic fans who might have lost faith with the franchise in recent years - deservedly, I might add - and a very sharp, colourful, playable riot of a game for anyone else not in that boat."


L.A. Noire
(14 points, 2 votes)



"I don't play many of the big sandbox-y type games... so much so that I don't think they're supposed to be called 'sandboxes' any more. That might mean it doesn't take a lot to impress me, maybe; only a pretty good recreation of late 1940's Los Angeles (I'm told), the most realistic facial animation I've ever seen and a plot that, whilst a bit of a late bloomer, is woven with the kind of skill and audacity that you rarely see in games. Mesmerising stuff."

"Top quality 3rd party game that really suits the Switch."


Bayonetta 2 (and the 2-in-1 job)
(12 points, 2 votes)



"Not quite as good as the original but another banger that I will always return to."

"Lightening struck twice; Bayonetta 2 is at least as good as the legendary original...and the first one is a good as the second one, natch. I couldn’t decide which Bayonetta to vote for, but seeing the Bayonetta + Bayonetta 2 is the game that came out, I’m having them both. Don’t like it? Suck my willy."


Fire Emblem Warriors
(12 points, 3 votes)



"Takes the best bits of the warriors series and combines them with some of the best bits of Fire Emblem to an almost great effect but it falls a little short of pulling on the series nostalgia strings that Hyrule Warriors did."

"Overall just a fun game hacking and slashing those enemies."

"I like Fire Emblem. I liked Hyrule Warriors. Fire Emblem Warriors? Yes, please! At its core this is still the same hack and slash musou madness, but I do like what they've done in incorporating the Fire Emblem mechanics. The team-up from Awakening is prevalent and pretty useful to boot, and the series' staple permadeath adds an extra bit of urgency to each battle.
"I do wish the roster was more varied though - there's only so many times I can put up with all seeing all of your (not mine, that's for sure) favourite waifus from Fates and Awakening turn up."

Again, I'll call out the cases where a game got more than one vote.


Ten Points

Bayonetta 1 (two votes)
"It's just fantastic. I can't see myself ever getting bored of it. I go back to it almost every year and now it's even easier to pick up."
"Bayonetta is the best character action game of all time, in fact one of the great games of all time. Having the option to practice away from the TV, and having the power of the Switch to fix some framerate issues in Bayonetta 2 in particular, mean this is probably the best version of the best game. I haven’t actually picked it up on Switch yet though, so I feel it’d be a bit cheeky to put it any higher."


Nine Points

Oxenfree "Fantastic story driven adventure."


Eight Points

(No game got eight points, but doesn't this post look better with this section here? Arithmetic progressions and that!)


Seven Points

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 "If you hate JRPGs, they’ve got a copy of this waiting for you in Hell.  For the rest of us, this is the sequel XC1 deserved.  Back to a strong story-driven single-player campaign, with huge lands to explore, solid side-quests, a massive streamlining of item gathering, some good characters if you can look past Pyra, handling a man’s turtle, twists, turns, deaths, ‘I’ll bash you up proper next time I swear,’ and a tiger in a nightcap."


Six Points

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 "I'm the only person on the forum who cares about this. It's a Dragon Ball game with your own original characters (do not steal). It is not for everyone... but it definitely was for me. The fighting was fun enough to power up a good 40 hour adventure and there was something genuinely engaging about seeing my own OC scrapping with Goku and pals."

Golf Story (two votes)
"now we're talking. Gets as much out of the old three-press golf swing mechanic as possible, with a hilarious and oddly heartwarming tale to boot. On the side it also plays a very good game of golf, would you believe? Oh, you would. Right. Yeah. That's fine. OK."
"Golf games are fun, this really took that to the next level. Banger."

Night in the Woods (two votes)
"I’ve only just started this, but the despondent charm hidden behind the lead character’s snark has parachuted it up above a few other decent games I’ve played on Switch."
"A bit slow even for the genre but is a delight."

Owlboy "This could jump or sink very fast, I've only had a few hours with it but I was frankly pretty peeved that I had to stop playing to type out this bollocks. If only we had a reasonable amount of time to play all the games released in the first year window I'd be able to place this more accurately."

Snipperclips PLUS "The first game i played on Switch and one of the best value so far for sure. Played this with friends on Launch weekend and had a great time, still gets pulled out at parties!"

Thimbleweed Park "I've not quite finished it yet, but unless the ending turns out to be terrible (and the bit just before the ending is applause-worthy) this is a hillarious P-n-C-er, full of classic LucasArts-era wackiness. Probably plays better with a mouse than with a controller, but no biggie. The music haunts me as well (no, really, I had the flu last week, it's all I could hear in my head)"


Five Points

Jackbox Party Pack 3 (two votes)
"The best of the Jackbox packs for my money on Switch. Quiplash 2 is just brilliant, Fakin' It is hilarious and tested my acting prowess to its limits, Tee KO is decent (although it's eclipsed by Drawful) and I've not played enough of the other two to form a great opinion. However - and this applies to any of the Jackbox games - your mileage may very depending on who you're playing with."
"Like Cards Against Humanity – except instead of laughing awkwardly because somebody played a card about mass murder or paedophilia, you’re bricking it because your mate actually thought of a clever funny answer themselves."

Severed "I WILL GO DOWN WITH THIS SHIP.  A beautiful slash-fest of a game that does one thing (and some dungeon-crawling, okay two things), but does it really well.  Story’s surprisingly good too."

Steamworld Dig "A neat little platformer, with a satisfying Minecraft-aping section, and actually clever staged levels that blend into the action. The sequel is apparently better - I haven't played it yet..."


Four Points

Doom "This is so brutal and gory and I love it for it, not what we expected on the little ol' Switch but it runs beautifully, or as beautifully as a game about slaying the forces of hell can."

Pokken Tournament DX (two votes)
"Completely missed out on this on Wii U so when a friend bought me this i was pleased to play it. It is what it says on the tin Pokemon + Tekken and its good. The DLC is a little overpriced for what it is but its still a pretty fun time until Smash makes its way to the system."
"Much the same as the Wii U game with a few extra modes and characters, good fun but tough as nails at times, also Pikachu Libre."

Puyo Puyo Tetris "One player mode is a bit repetitive, but it plays a mean game of both Puyo Puyo and, yes, Tetris. That fusion mode's bobbins though."


Three Points

Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove "I played through this on the 3DS before – on the airplane and in the hotel of a family ski trip, no less – but never got around to playing the other campaigns. When it released on Switch, I saw my chance to relive this gorgeous and charming game. It was even more satisfying reaching the end on a big TV, in a dark room and on a comfy sofa, and enjoying the music through the big speakers. I still haven’t played the other campaigns though. Too many games!"

Subsurface Circular "A short delightful well-written text adventure."


Two Points

Batman: the Telltale Series "The sight of the comic book Bruce Wayne in his knickers is enough to grant this one a place. Bom-chicka-wah-wah! Possibly also because it's the first in the new breed of point'n'click adventures that I've played and I kinda liked it."

Blaster Master ZERO "This came out of nowhere in the early days of Switch. This was a satisfying retro romp with a very fair difficulty level. It didn't overstay its welcome by becoming a sprawling and confusing Metroidvania, nor did it rely too much on its old-school trappings. Recommended!"

Graceful Explosion Machine "A wonderful game. superbly designed and satifying to play. The game ive played the most in handheld mode for sure. Really worth what i paid."

Gorogoa "Beautiful sound and visuals which play into the mind-bending puzzlery. Your mileage may vary on whether it does its thing well enough all the way through the game – the best puzzle is undeniably the one at the half way mark – but the thing it does is very excellent indeed."

Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 "It's only just come out, but it's ace! It brings the concept of Pac-Man into the current generation without pooing on it. Power-pill time is like they imagined in the 80s what today's games would be like."

Rime "My dark horse as it is a really good game that really deserves some recognition."

Shantae: Half Genie Hero (two votes)
"WayForward's purple-haired half genie scrapes into my Top Ten by the skin of her perfect white teeth. Still one big level away from being a great game, although pretty much everything else is in place."
"Ultimately, the positives outweigh the negatives, and due to that it’s my favourite Metroidvania in years. It’s the Shantae game that Shantae should have always been: absolutely beautiful, appealingly catchy soundtrack, entirely enjoyable to play through, and tight like a tiger."

Super Bomberman R "Much improved after launch, now a very good Bomberman game, perhaps one of the best, credit to Konami for sticking with it."

The Sexy Brutale "Technical shonkiness and a dubious twist hinder an otherwise solid game, mixing elements of Majora’s Mask and Ghost Trick with a charm that’s all its own.  A decidedly bloody charm."


The Game With The Least Votes In This Award

Ironcast "A cool battle/puzzle hybrid with some nice strategy elements. Really cool, easy to pick up and see how far you can get. I'll probably never finish it."


(Editor's note: Ironcast was not actually the least popular game in these awards, as it garnered the same one point from the Downloadables too.  Vs. Super Mario Bros. got only one point across all categories!  Then FIFA 2018, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, Mantis Burn Racing, Pan-Pan, Snake Pass, and Yooka-Laylee only got an honourable mention each; Dragon Quest Builders got only a fifth of an honourable mention; and finally 10tons' entire output, Flip Wars, Lego City Undercover, Thumper, Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers, Vaccine, Wheels of Aurelia, and (doubly so) Picross S only got dishonourables.  Truly, the bottom of the barrel in an otherwise extraordinary year.)

The Rabbid Dash Attack Award for First Man Up
There were much-repeated concerns about running this vote so soon after two others, so the first vote was always going to set my mind at ease.  Thanks to The Cappuccino Kid for setting the ball rolling, especially as he was one of the people who questioned the point of the vote in the first place.  From that moment on, success was assured...?

The Goomba Stack Award for Most Votes Like Other People's
Like a tower of Goombas, some votes all moved in the same direction.  In the main award, The Cappuccino Kid's games received a whopping 52 votes!  (So 42 ignoring his.)  Next highest was 48.  Truly, Cappa's taste captures the zeitgeist better than the rest of ours.

The Ironcast Award for the Biggest Voting Hipster
At the other end of the spectrum, Crumpy Andy's big vote games got only 39 votes across the piste, narrowly edging out masofdas on 40 votes.  But I have to split this award with Jimbob, who managed a suite of five downloadable games that only he voted for.  Congratulations to these folks who plough their own trails.  Or do they blaze their own furrows?

The Monado Award for Predicting the Future
Step forward masofdas, in his prediction that some laughed off.  He saw the final results as they really were.  Whether this is due to keeping a cool head, or his loathing of BotW, or genuine psychic powers is anyone's guess.  Nothing for Jay this time: 'predictions' published after the event don't count.

The Thimbleweed Park Award for Wordiest Votepost
I don't reckon I need to do wordcounts for everyone to give this to Drunkalilly.  Helped substantially by an (excellent I should note) essay in favour of Celeste, his voting MP totalled 1713 words.  Thanks, sir - as ever, it's the comments that make our votes threads great!

The Yoshi Singing Totaka's Song Award for Best Bystander
Not liking vote threads is fine.  Not liking vote threads and voting in them is tantamount to heroism (no hyperbole, honest).  Not liking vote threads and still posting in them is the next best thing.  Thanks to The_Jaster for hanging around and participating in the chat.

The Isabelle in Mario Kart Award for Best Special Guest
On the other hand, you have people who (relatively speaking) are barely online here, but make an effort in a vote thread anyway. An organiser’s dream, these people really do make all this gubbins feel worthwhile. Many thanks to EofGizmo, who has 2k posts short of the next voter, saw this flagged on Twitter, and gave me a full slate, for his votes!

The Ganon Award for Most Hate
It's not generally considered fair to give oneself an award, but I don't think I do myself any particular favours here.  Ballladeer submitted the most dishonourable mentions with 6; the next most hatred-filled forumites had 4.  He/I also submitted the most honourable mentions, for what it's worth: five, with none of them games.

The Mt. Celeste Summit Award for Persistence
Speaking of honourable mentions...  My OP was huge, I know that, and I think I was probably writing most of it for myself.  I certainly didn't expect many to read it all.  However, if anybody read the whole thing, it was most likely JayMoyles.  His three honourable mentions didn't mention any specific games, as I suggested (but certainly didn't demand - the rest of y'all are good).  And he mentioned the now-retail-available Rocket League, which I used as an example of a possible downloadable-only game for voting purposes, in his downloadable-only votes.  Thank you, sir, I do wonder if anybody reads half this tripe!  (And if you didn't, we're obviously on the same wavelength, so have an award out of cronyism. )

The Sardinium Special Thanks Awards
For all of you who voted in every award and gave me full, or almost full, voting slates...  Step forward The Cappuccino Kid, JayMoyles, Jimbob, ZeroJones, masofdas, Drunkalilly, EofGizmo, Crumpy Andy, and Treesmurf.  Yes, everyone who voted gave me ten Switch games overall, at least three downloadables, and at least four multiplayer games.  Oh - and comments.  You gents are all top forumites.

The Link Award for the Voting Hero
Finally, I'd like to give some special thanks to Jimbob.  He's been ill, as we all know; yet still found time to send me a full voting slate selflessly.  Selflessly?  Yes, typing this on Sunday he hasn't been around for the entire thread, meaning that his typically humorous communications are solely for the benefit of other forumites.  Tip of the hat to masofdas, who has also been ill and has submitted votes, but the man's a victim of his own consistency I'm afraid: I'd be surprised if he didn't contribute to a vote thread while Noah's Flood happened outside.

First, the games.  Blimey there's a lot of corkers.  The top four games (outside the top ten) all seemed to be in with a shout at points, but ultimately couldn't quite make it over the line.  None admittedly really my thing, but they all clearly deserve their own pictures.

Perhaps obviously, a lot of games had surprisingly few votes.  Jackbox 3 placed in both the minor awards, yet languished with two votes in this one.  What happened there?  Other games I was surprised to see so low include Snipperclips the launch favourite, Shovel Knight the expansion of the Wii U's favourite downloadable (for all its foibles, the Wii U had a decent downloadable scene), and DOOM, which seemed to have enough support as a portable third-party offering earlier in the year.  I was unsurprised, but saddened, to be the only person to vote for Xenoblade 2: there's certainly not as big a quality gulf between it and our third-favourite game on Wii as these votes would suggest.  Finally, nothing at all for Skyrim?  My mind, she is boggled.

The awards are just a bit of silly fun, and anyone who doesn't like them can suck the Bayo double pack voter's willy.


Finally, my summing up!  I think this was a good vote thread what happened and that it was good.  MK8D may not have been challenged in the way I thought, but the order of the top three and the high placing of a February-release game definitely made it worthwhile.  Nothing mind-boggling in the other two categories, but they were fun enough to run.  It all definitely benefited from being brisker and breezier than the EoY thread.

Ten voters is a moderately good outcome, although I did see some Switch-owners online who weren't Jas who didn't vote, which is a shame.  That said, the number of votes, and volume of comments, I received from those ten voters was top-notch.  Words everywhere.  As I said above, the comments make any vote, and I hope people enjoyed reading them... as well as the quantity of other nonsense that I ploughed into this thread.  (Did anyone notice what I did with the award titles?)

I've done basically nothing bar setting these up in the weekday evenings this week gone.  This week coming, I look forward to being able to play some of the games y'all voted for.  Starting with single-vote-garnerer, Owlboy.

1. Mario Odyssey
2. Bayonetta
3. Bayonetta 2
4. MHXX
5. Owlboy
6. Steamworld Dig 2
7. Celeste
8. Golf Story
9. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
10. Ironcast

1. Super Mario Odyssey,
2. Oxenfree,
3. SteamWorld Dig 2,
4. Fire Emblem Warriors,
5. L.A. Noire,
6. Night in the Woods,
7. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe,
8. Subsurface Circular,
9. Rime,
10. Splatoon 2,

Night in the Woods
The Sexy Brutale
Rocket League
Jackbox 3
Severed
MK8D
XC2
Celeste
Mario Odyssey
Breath of the Wild

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
2. Super Mario Oddysey
3. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
4. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
5. Rocket League
6. Splatoon 2
7. Doom
8. Pokken Tournament DX
9. Super Bomberman R
10. Fire Emblem Warriors

10. Shantae: Half Genie Hero
9. Batman: The Telltale Series
8. Golf Story
7. Sonic Mania
6. ARMS
5. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
4. Super Mario Odyssey
3. L.A. Noire
2. SteamWorld Dig 2
1. Celeste

1. Super Mario Odyssey
2. Sonic Mania
3. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
4. Breath of the Wild
5. ARMS
6. Rocket League
7. Bayonetta + Bayonetta 2
8. Splatoon 2
9. SteamWorld Dig 2
10. Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

...the top nine were sound, but the tenth one needed a bit more thought. Ultimately, Shantae was the game I enjoyed tenth-most in the Switch's first year....though I'm certain that it wouldn't be on the list if we did it a month from now.