It’s expensive.
Really expensive.
The Nintendo Switch 2 isn’t cheap. It’s a hybrid home-and-handheld beast that will only cost more by the time 2026 wraps up, thanks to tariffs and general inflation strangling hardware prices.
But nobody is complaining. Not really.
Nintendo hasn’t let go. They never do. The company kicked off this generation with a roster so stacked it basically forced a purchase: Donkey Kong Bananza, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, and the cozy charm of Pokémon Pokopia. Those titles pulled people in. Even now. Nearly 20 million units have sold globally since the console dropped in June 2024. Wait. June 2025? Yeah. It’s moving slow? No. It’s churning.
Can it run every game on the PS5 or Xbox? No.
But it doesn’t need to. It crushes the original Switch. Remember how Tears of the Kingdom choked on the old hardware? How Scarlet and Violet ran at a slide show? Not here. The Switch 2 runs them at a locked 60 FPS. No stutter. Just motion. And if you dock it? 4K native resolution. Your favorites look sharp. Crisp. Actually good.
The new hardware fixes the biggest sin of the previous generation: performance anxiety.
Nintendo threw some experimental bones too. The new Joy-Cons support a mouse control scheme if you want it. Weird? Yes. Useful? Maybe. GameChat is back too. Voice and video with friends on a Nintendo system. Finally. A party feature that works like everyone expected.
Are you looking for multiplayer adrenaline? Single-player wandering? It doesn’t matter.
The list
So what should you play?
We picked the games that actually matter.
When CNET compiled this list, we ignored hype. We looked at what players feel. How unique is it? How fun is it after hour twenty? We weighed graphical fidelity against mechanic innovation and story pull.
The genres vary wildly. Fantasy epics sit next to retro platformers. Classical RPGs share shelf space with racing titles.
Did we ignore third-party ports? No. We favored exclusives—games you won’t find on Xbox or PC—but some multiplatform giants were too good to skip. If you’re staring at an eShop store paralyzed by choice? Stop.
Here are the ones worth your money. Right now.
