Best and Worst of Nintendo – My Favourite Games in 2021

I played a ton of Nintendo Switch in 2021 due to me getting my YouTube channel off the ground, but I think some of my favourite games of the year might surprise you. You won’t find Metroid Dread on this years list, nor will you find New Pokemon Snap. You will, however, find things like…Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 & 2?! Let’s take a look!

Note that these are in no particular order – these are just my favourite games I played this year, and I’m kicking it off with two great titles that came bundled together – Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind and Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir. Both titles were fantastic to play through, and the voice acting was so good I didn’t even drop commentary on top of the episodes that I created. For visual novel fans, this is an easy recommendation from me. Pick it up…now!

Want to watch instead of read? You can see all my picks below:

Ok moving onto something I know you all will understand – Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town. With over 110 episodes on YouTube, it was easily my most played game of 2021, and I’m not ashamed to say it. Despite letting me down in certain ways, which was more end game than anything, the overall experience was definitely worth the investment, and it’s been the best the genre has been in years! Too bad Harvest Moon: One World wasn’t better. This could have been a fantastic year!

Time for something off the charts, at least probably your charts – Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 & 2! While the Nintendo Switch version of this rerelease is the inferior product compared to Xbox and PlayStation, I couldn’t help but drop tons of hours into this experience on Nostalgia alone. This brought back so many great memories of the first two games in the franchise, and honestly…it’s been a steady decline in fun for the franchise over the past half decade. This makes up for it!

Who doesn’t enjoy Mario Party, and once again my pick for the list is based on nostalgia. The N64 Mario Party titles were easily some of my favourite ever, and I’m glad to see some of those boards back in Mario Party Superstars. While some boards are missing here – Western Land anyone? – I think the initial package is fantastic. And we are getting DLC, right?

Rounding out the list will be another predictable one I think – Pokemon Shining Pearl. I think this one makes the list because of how difficult the game is. Usually I don’t need to think much about the team I take to the Elite 4 because by the time I get there, I can easily take care of whatever is here. But with this one, it was much harder and I still haven’t beat the Champion! That should change soon, though, as this is one I will return to soon in 2022!