Nintendo Year In Review 2019

2019 may have not have had as many heavy hitters as previous years, but Switch owners still got a hefty offering of great exclusives like Pokemon, Luigi's Mansion 3, and Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

2019 is coming to a close, and this past year has been a great one for video games. That holds especially true for the Switch. Nintendo's hybrid console has been selling consistently well since it launched back in March 2017, and Nintendo continued the system's momentum with another slew of great releases.

While the year started off slowly for the Switch in terms of exclusives, it ramped up considerably in the summer. The back half of the year was filled with big-name exclusive after big-name exclusive, including Super Mario Maker 2, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and Pokemon Sword and Shield, the latter of which have overtaken Smash Bros. Ultimate as Switch's fastest-selling games to date.

Nintendo has also made some modest but welcome improvements to its paid Switch Online service. The company slowly rolled out more NES games for subscribers to play throughout the year, and it even dropped a batch of SNES classics this past September. Nintendo also treated subscribers to some exclusive freebies throughout the year, most notably Tetris 99, a battle royale-inspired take on the puzzler that is free to download and play for NSO members.

As good as the past year was, however, 2019 also had its share of rough patches. For all the improvements Nintendo has made to Switch Online, the service still can't measure up to the subscription services offered by rival companies, and the fact that new NES and SNES games are no longer being added on a monthly basis undercuts the advancements Nintendo has made. In the video above, we discuss how Nintendo fared during the year that was. Be sure to also check out our full Nintendo 2019 report card.

[rudolphdaniel]

Wow no talk about astral chain. And that was one of the best game on Nintendo swtich

[OtakuUnderground]

Nintendo’s has their best couple of years on a decade. Pokémon SS isn’t as bad as people were saying and Fire Emblem is a great holdover for P5 Royal. Sony had its worst year all gen and Microsoft missed their opportunity to shine.

[stevejohnson]

What can I personally say, it's been a successful year for them. and will continue into the new year.

[utopianacht]

for a perfect 2020 we need SMT and Metroid \m/.

[haresmahmood]

They included Sword and Shield, but left out Astral Chain...

[snowmanA]

Why isn’t anyone talking about Lucy’s fabulous haircut

[Gambit]

Astral Chain
Luigis Mansion 3
Link's Awakening
Fire Emblem three houses
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3
And Pokemon S&S
Are the main standouts. That's 6 AAA exclusives!

[iznax]

Astral Chain my GOTY for 2019.
Some other great games that I played on my Switch and xbox are: FE 3 Houses, Katana Zero, DQ11S, MM2, LM3, Marvel UA3, Link's Awakening, Pokemon SnS, Yoshi, Gears 5, Control, DMC5, RE2.

[marcos]

No talk about Cuphead and Ori ports on Switch! I feel like that was a big deal.

[paradoxacres]

Dang, it's Lucy, Tamoor _and_ Kallie all in the same video! 😍

[ShinyMew]

Now all we need is




DP REMAKES! 3D WORLD REMAKES! MARIO KART 9! YES I SAID MARIO KART 9, NOT UGLY NINTENDO KART! ODDESSEY 2!

Maybe a wild card but what about bringing back Pokémon mystery dungeon! NINTENDO 64 ONLINE MAYBE!?

[Nono-lrry]

I love Pokemon, but Sword/Shield doesn't deserve so much of the praise and spotlight.

[NaikoArt]

Buncho exclusives! Like a loooot of em

[maxiumoverdrive]

sword and shield is really mediocre. this game should have been so much more but it feels like step back for the series. I'm talking about it being behind the og games in the series. I left the series after gen 3 and my return to series was lets go. Let's go blows sword and shield out of the fucking water.

[paulszki]

I don't quite understand the appeal of the Nintendo Switch. It depends on perspective I guess, but here is mine: I have a medium PC, a PS4. I got a Wii U like a year ago (including more controllers, my ten most relevant games on it, e.g Breath of the Wild, DK Tropical Freeze, Bayonetta 2 etc.) for 200 bucks and and honestly, besides a handful of titles I wouldn't really know what to play on the Switch between all these remastered Wii U-Games, which I now already have played, and the downgraded ports from more powerful platforms which I have zero interest in. Of course by now there are "some" juicy relevant exclusives that aren't Wii U remasters but I feel like PS4 really has Nintendo beat in terms of relevant exclusives this generation. And while it's limping behind a bit, I wouldn't make fun of anybody getting an Xbox for cheap now as their first and only gaming platform, as the minimally less powerful hardware (compared to PS4) on the standard console is really not much of an issue, especially when we're ALSO talking about switch and its ports. I'm guessing the games are very cheap too, especially when bought second hand, so the entire XBox Eco-System seems to be the best bet for budget minded players.

Between all three current gen consoles the switch is still weirdly expensive which extends to the prices for the peripherals and the actual games itself.
It's strange to me that a Nintendo Switch is kind of the luxury item, especially if you want a traditional/regular controller because the joycons are just bad. Nintendo IS the premium brand for living room multiplayer (Smash Bros / Mariokart) but in order to fulfill that promise you're looking at a price of at least 3x $60 for three more controllers because nobody wants to play on a single joy con. There really is no other choice since the "Joycon counting as two controllers" is a lie. Bundles for switch this black Friday were all with Nintendo Labo because they badly needed to get rid of it. Probably because few people over 12 are actually interested in this.


Meanwhile the PS4 is constantly bundled with good stuff (like a relevant game and a second controller) and a NEW Xbox One was priced at 100€ on black Friday in Europe.

I may be tempted to get a Nintendo switch in about a year, after a more serious price drop and when some more relevant games are out and can be had cheap on the secondary market. I remember trying to get the switch last year during the black Friday sale being frustrated with the price, when I realized I could pay like a third of the money to get Wii U, a bunch of controllers and a whole library of the best games instead and I've been really happy with that decision.

BUT I'm Looking forward to finally playing Mario Odyssey in a year. :D

[skewerthis]

We just gonna forget that deadly premonition was ported to the switch and it's the best running version of the game?

[davelee]

Witcher 3 looks unreal on switch lite ! Dont have to talk it down

[willrueb]

For not working out her metabolism is quite exquisite

[felipearaujo]

Y'all ignored Astral Chain which was an amazing game and gave Pokemon, an unfinished rushed game, the spotlight...

[nred]

Sword and shield is mediocre at best the game is to easy. The story is meh it's tolerable the graphics are bad compared to the other switch games. The fps in the wild area is bad when you go online. The game is way to easy I haven't lost a single battle yet, Dynamax raids are only fun a few times Exp share feels like it's been buffed. The new Pokemon look Meh compared to last entries. I've caught 240 of the Pokemon in the pokedex in 4 hours. The game is not perfect it should have been delayed imo.