Another year, another time to talk about the best games I played in the last year. The fact that I’ve already had my Switch for 4 full years is a bit crazy to me. It really just seems like yesterday. This year in particular seemed to have a lot of games that clumped together on my overall rankings. A lot of this has to do with the fact that 2021 was my largest year, both in terms of purchases and games played, by quite a long margin. With 42 games bought and 31 games played (32 including my current game) it really makes me wonder what I was doing before I regularly played games. It was really hard in a lot of cases to decide which games I liked more than others. As a reminder, this isn’t my favorite games of 2021 but my favorite games I played during 2021 (and the last week of 2020, but shh). However this year is largely focused on 2021 releases as I have begun winding down on older Switch games that I haven’t played yet (although the old 3rd party ports are definitely appreciated). While some will still appear, it doesn’t feel like as many as previous years. [I’ll also be including an updated version of my completion sheet](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hR2SnLgzgA9rtOn7j8OPritCHPum7fmr11PHN_8dP9k/edit) that I use to track my games (and various other Switch info) because that seemed to be appreciated last year and there are obviously more games that have been played and given sheets.
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**Currently playing: Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair Anniversary Edition**
**Backlog:**
* **Assassin’s Creed: The Rebel Collection**
* **Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey DX**
* **Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings DX**
* **BioShock Remastered**
* **BioShock 2 Remastered**
* **BioShock Infinite: The Complete Edition**
* **Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling**
* **Crysis Remastered**
* **Crysis 2 Remastered**
* **Crysis 3 Remastered**
* **Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony Anniversary Edition**
* **Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp**
* **Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition**
* **Hades**
* **LEGO City Undercover**
* **LEGO Marvel Super Heroes**
* **LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2**
* **Immortals Fenyx Rising**
* **Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin**
* **Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom – Prince’s Edition**
* **No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle**
* **The Outer Worlds**
Last year I included all the games that didn’t make my top 10 but didn’t say anything about them in terms of where they placed. This year had such a high number of games outside of my top 10 that I legitimately enjoyed that it would feel wrong to at least go without mentioning how much I enjoyed them. I originally wanted to give each of these games a smaller blurb talking about how much I enjoy them, but as the year went on and more games were added to the list it would have simply detracted from the overall point. So, in order to have the best of both worlds, I decided that just adding a star rating as well as an overall ranking would do to avoid this running on longer than necessary. I’d be glad to go further into detail on any of the games outside of my top 10 in the comments if anyone wanted me to.
★★★★★ = A perfect/nearly perfect game. May have flaws but personally I enjoyed my time a lot.
★★★★☆ = Great game, however flawed enjoyment in some aspect.
★★★☆☆ = Typically games that I switched back and forth between being good and annoyed/bored.
★★☆☆☆ = Was usually annoyed at the game or found it boring, usually still has qualities I greatly enjoy.
★☆☆☆☆ = Almost exclusively games I didn’t finish playing, not the game for me.
★☆☆☆☆
**DOOM 64 (1 hour, 8.86%) – 86/87**
★★☆☆☆
**Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (10+ hours, 54.39%) – 77/87**
★★★☆☆
**No More Heroes (10+ hours, 77.95%) – 72/87**
**Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time (+ hours, 63.11%) – 67/87**
**Daemon X Machina (20+ hours, 73.12%) – 65/87**
**Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (40+ hours, 67.29%) – 64/87**
★★★★☆
**Spyro Reignited Trilogy (20+ hours, 80.82%) – 53/87**
**Hollow Knight (35+ hours, 72.27%) – 50/87**
**Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin (25+ hours, 80.56%) – 49/87**
**Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury (20+ hours, 93.75%) – 46/87**
**Trials of Mana (55+ hours, 99.02%) – 44/87**
**Among Us (10+ hours, 16.50%) – 42/87**
**Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book DX (+ hours, %) – 41/87**
★★★★★
**Mario Party Superstars (10+ hours, 36.97%) – 40/87**
**Pikmin 3 Deluxe (15+ hours, 84.85%) – 38/87**
**World’s End Club (15+ hours, 100.00%) – 37/87**
**Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! (10+ hours, 100.00%) – 36/87**
**Ys Origin (20+ hours, 92.78%) – 33/87**
**Pokemon Shining Pearl (45+ hours, 70.74%) – 32/87**
**The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD (30+ hours, 90.00%) – 31/87**
**DOOM Eternal (30+ hours, 91.07%) – 30/87**
**—-**
**10. New Pokemon Snap (60+ hours, 88.11%) – 28/87**
I was one of many who had never played the original Snap on the N64. I was cautious going in because I didn’t want to buy the game if it was going to have about 5 hours of content to complete it like the original. Once it was clear that wasn’t the case I bought it and enjoyed the hell out of it. While the concept, and the gameplay, are extremely simple by being an on-rails photo-taking adventure, I still greatly enjoyed my time with the game due to the new view of the Pokemon world. While I believe the mainline games have been suffering lately, New Pokemon Snap brings a beautiful appearance and nature to the series. The interactions are amazing and really help to sell the world. It is quite literally nothing like any other Pokemon game can and likely will be for a long time. It is a game that is extremely similar throughout, so if you do not think the premise looks enjoyable then it is fairly likely it won’t be. However I do think that anyone who could get enjoyment out of Pokemon being more than RNG-based stat machines should really consider looking into this. The level of personality that some Pokemon have really adds to the wow factor.
**9. Jurassic World Evolution (85+ hours, 94.17%) – 24/87**
The first game I ever played was Zoo Tycoon. As a kid, I spent a lot of time playing both the original and the sequel. The park building genre is not a very large genre, but it is one I always found relaxing and enjoyable. Cut to 2018 when Jurassic World Evolution released on every platform besides Switch, I was excited to see it, however I was not as excited about the fact that I would not be playing it. Now the Switch port finally comes along and man does it deliver. While the handheld image is very blurry, it runs perfectly fine in docked mode and I never really had any issues with it there (although take my experiences with a grain of salt, I don’t tend to care as much when it comes to fps or anything unless it is notably and objectively bad). It has a lot of content and if you had no other games to jump to you could easily play this for hundreds of hours building parks and completing challenge modes. Improving how my parks looked and functioned over the course of the game, finally leading up to one big final showing in the end, was a lot of fun (although apparently the Switch version places a limit on the number of unique species and total dinosaurs you can have… bummer). Overall a lot of fun and definitely a game I will potentially go back to once my backlog is empty (ha).
**8. Monster Hunter Rise (110+ hours, 81.26%) – 20/87**
A game that I was very cautious yet excited moving into. Monster Hunter always seemed like the sort of combat that I wouldn’t really enjoy too much; slow, could be difficult, hard-hitting monsters… but I pretty quickly discovered the Dual Blades and just started going to town on things. This game was an absolute joy to play when you have friends to play with, especially ones with previous knowledge on the series. I’ve also never seen such flawless online play in a Nintendo game, although maybe that is Smash Bros. speaking for me. The game is a lot of fun with a large amount of content, and while the base concept is very grindy and repetitive it never felt boring. While I stuck with the Dual Blades for my entire time, you can definitely mix and match your weapons and armor to try out new sets. There are a ton of different weapons to choose from ranging from swords, axes, guns, and… some kind of bug thing. The movement can vary depending on your weapon, but the addition of the Palamute and the Wirebug really help to move along. Each monster feels thrilling to fight, my personal favorite being Magnamalo, and really tests your mind on when to move in for the kill and when to stand back. Despite not being the best at combat requiring quick reaction times or tells, I either adjusted quick or it is forgiving enough for it to not be a problem. It’s arguably one of the best games of the year (as in not on my list) and I’m looking forward to the Sunbreak expansion next summer.
**7. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (80+ hours, 81.99%) – 18/87**
While I enjoyed the base concept of Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition, the absolutely massive amount of content made it feel empty and shallow somehow. It felt like the entire thing was a grindfest because there was just so much to do. While Age of Calamity could be seen in the same way, the comparably smaller amount of content, while also being more focused and not as widespread in what is available, made it more relaxing and enjoyable to me. The combat having elements of Breath of the Wild built into it added a lot that you could do, and I found myself enjoying most of the playable characters (1-handed Link, Mipha, Impa, and Urbosa being my favorites). Seeing a further exploration of the Champions was also enjoyable, as while Breath of the Wild did a good job at making me care about them, getting to see further interactions was always a desire. The strategy aspect of the game didn’t feel as urgent as the previous one. Instead of constantly feeling like everything is collapsing around you, this time the AI characters (both NPC and the other fighters you bring along) feel much more competent. They aren’t going to be taking down bosses and stronger enemies on their own, but they can at least hold a fortress for a few minutes while you do other things. The only downside I can think of (besides the return of the Koroks) is the performance. While I personally did not notice it being anywhere nearly as bad as people have said (I’ve seen it referred to as a slideshow), maybe if you are especially prone to poor performance you should consider looking into that.
**6. Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy (60+ hours, 86.01%) – 17/87**
With the first Atelier Ryza being my initial exposure to the series, I was all too happy to get the sequel. The sequel builds on the original in a lot of ways and solidifies itself as one of the best JRPGs on the Switch. The Atelier series is based around alchemy and constantly improving yourself throughout the game. This can range from the items you use in combat, your weapons and armor, or just random items to help out the townsfolk. The combat is an ATB system, basically a mix between action and turn-based. Your success in the combat is entirely dependent on how well you are keeping up with your alchemy. If your alchemy starts to lag behind, you’ll probably start struggling in battles. One major improvement that Ryza 2 has over the original is the inclusion of character stories in the base game. While these were present in the original, they were locked behind DLC. This led to the characters not gaining the same amount of growth or attachment as I would have liked. Now that they have been returned to the base game, you are able to experience the stories of the important characters and grow attachments to them. It sounds relatively small in the grand scheme of things, but for a game that lives and dies by its slice-of-life character interactions it makes all the difference. Overall I would be hard-pressed to think of any real flaws, however if you’re not a fan of more anime and/or cutesy games then it probably isn’t the right game for you. As a growing fan of JRPGs? Well, this game has me exploring the past games in the series (especially in anticipation of Atelier Sophie 2 coming out in February).
**5. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc Anniversary Edition (30+ hours, 90.16%) – 13/87**
My most recently played game, and what a ride. Danganronpa is a visual novel series involving a group of high school students who compete in friendly activities because they want to be best friends. And by friendly activities I mean murdering and by wanting to be friends I mean… well, no, I guess they do mostly want to try and be friendly with each other. The basic gameplay loop was a lot of fun with each chapter having some level of story progress, some number of free time slots where you could hang out with any of the other (living) characters of your choice in order to get to know them better, all culminating in you realizing you should have hung out with that other guy some more because now they’ve been stabbed to death. Just a normal school experience. Anyways, every time someone dies you’re forced by this little black and white stuffed bear to figure out whodunnit before diving into a class trial where you stand around in circles and yell about increasingly convoluted murder plots. Oh, and then as time goes on you must find out who is controlling said bear and diving into what is going on in the world around you. Basically don’t get too attached to a character, you might get burned. The game is amazing if you’re a fan of visual novels (however I get the feeling you’re likely already very aware of it if you are). The gameplay is great, the style is great, the music is great. Really the only thing holding it back from being higher is I simply enjoyed the other games slightly more, but really any of these top games could swap around if I put too much thought into it.
**4. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (70+ hours, 100.00%) – 12/87**
This game’s placement honestly surprised me a little bit. While I greatly enjoyed the original Ace Attorney trilogy, I had this feeling throughout a lot of this game that things were a bit… slow, sometimes not as interesting. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a great game, but I would’ve expected it to be lower. Oh, right, until the last 3 cases came along and I went along with the rollercoaster. This game has quite possibly the most enjoyable finale (last 30% in this case) of any game I’ve played purely based on a handful of characters; most notably Herlock Sholmes (surely you must have heard of him?). The Ace Attorney series is a visual novel, although instead of a bunch of kids murdering each other now it’s just a bunch of people murdering each other (I’m noticing a trend…) while you have to figure out how their increasingly convoluted murder plot (no, really…) really happened and why your client is innocent. GAA specifically takes place some number of hundreds of years before the series began and takes place in Britain. It’s not really a game I can delve into too much due to how spoiler-sensitive these types of games can be, but if you want a game that will last you a long time, give you some puzzles to think your way through, and then add in a good healthy dose of fun characters then this is the type of game you should consider. Alternatively…
**3. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy (50+ hours, 100.00%) – 11/87**
Alright, fine, this is the last visual novel. While I tend to give out plenty of game recommendations to my friends, it is rare for me to get the recommendation in reverse. The AA Trilogy is one of the first games I’ve bought at the (very insistent) recommendation of a friend, and I can’t be happier with it. While I believe the ending of GAA is much more entertaining, that does not leave the original trilogy slacking. Pretty much everything I said about GAA applies to this game as well, but this time I never really had a feeling that the game was going a bit slow. While there could be an occasional case where the game might lose a bit of steam, it would usually pick it right back up in the next chapter. Each of the games have a final case which really tests you on everything you’ve been doing throughout the game, with the final case of the 3rd game really not pulling any punches and just feeling like it wanted to pull together every single loose thread in sight, even ones you might not have realized were there. Overall it’s a great experience and well worth the price.
**2. Ys IX: Monstrum Nox (45+ hours, 97.04%) – 10/86**
If there were a game that I went into this year expecting to take the gold, it was this one. After **Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana** blew me away with how enjoyable it was, I was more than just a little bit excited for this one to finally make its way out of Japan. While it may not be the prettiest game in the world (on Switch), and it can have a bit of a hard time handling anything too flashy and large if there are a lot of enemies, it basically feels like nitpicking at that point. Unless you have a huge aversion to anything that isn’t 4k60fps, as long as you enjoy JRPGs (and even if you don’t, consider it) you’ll want to look into the series. The game continues with the fast-paced action combat and absolutely nails it. Each party member is enjoyable and the overall movement is a joy. The music is top notch and also includes my new favorite track in any game ever. The overworld, while not visually or environmentally as enjoyable as the Isle of Seiren in Ys VIII, is amazing to explore with the ever growing list of Monstrum abilities that you gain throughout the game. The story is also much better in my eyes, with multiple characters being high-ranking across games in general and none of them feeling weak. Even Adol, a mostly mute protagonist, is given a lot of personality through his dialogue options. Honestly the only thing holding it below Ys VIII is that I enjoyed the Isle of Seiren significantly more than the Prison City of Balduq, but I have seriously considered which of them is truly the higher ranking game. Overall it’s an amazing game and you owe it to yourselves to play the series (which on Switch includes Ys VIII, Ys Origin, and Ys IX).
**1. Metroid Dread (25+ hours, 97.14%) – 9/86**
Is this the number 1 slot because it is my game of the year or is it the number 1 slot because I am trying to get as much propaganda to fund more Metroid games? Yes to both. Metroid Dread is locked in place as my favorite game of the year and it honestly wasn’t fair to poor Ys IX. While I went into the year ready to crown Ys IX, Nintendo just had to come along at E3 with Metroid Dread. From that point on I avoided every single video, post, comment, anything about the game at all. I didn’t want an ounce of information that I didn’t get from the E3 reveal, I was simply just ready to buy the game. Metroid is one of the few series I played before I got my Switch, so having a new game to play for the first time in 13 years (cough), and a new 2D Metroid for the first time in nearly 20 years, was enough all on its own to convince me to buy it. Metroid Dread turned out to not need just its name for me to love it, though. While it may not have the amount of content you can expect out of something like Hollow Knight, as well as costing much more, I would gladly pay the $60 for Dread again in a heartbeat. An average playthrough can range from 8-15 hours depending on how good you are as well as how much you want to go for completion. However Dread, like the games that came before it, has a focus on replaying the game to improve your time. It took me all of 5 seconds to finish playing my first time to dive back in (this time on Hard Mode) and try to get a faster time. As for why I love the game so much, it really just comes down to the classic style of the game being fine-tuned. Metroid is the mother of the Metroidvania genre, and this entry really does a good job at making Samus’ return as amazing as possible. Samus’ movement is amazingly fluid with every jump, turn, and shot being just how it should be. The boss fights are all amazing as you try to find the weak point, try to observe their patterns, and each time (or on the first time, I suppose) improving gradually until you finally break through. The environment begins a bit more on the gloomy and boring side, but as you start exploring planet ZDR it makes sense why it was like that initially. I think that overall it makes sense if the price or length pushes you away, especially when other Metroidvanias such as Ori or Hollow Knight can compete with it in terms of length and definitely price. That being said, I think Dread is absolutely worth the asking price not just as a fan of the series but as a fan of the game. Anyways, please fund Metroid 6 for me. Thanks.
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So there is my list for this year! I’d love to know what games you all played this year and what your favorites were. I think it’s a lot of fun to find out what games people enjoyed even if they didn’t release this year since maybe I, and the rest of you, find a new game to play out of it!