The 10 Most Anticipated Games Hitting the Nintendo Switch Early This Year

While we wait for Operation Warp Speed to get a little warp-speedier, why not hunker down at home and play some new video games? Escape into the candy-colored world of Nintendo, where you can slay dragons, somersault through arcs of gold coins, or create your own little utopia with the cartoon home décor of your dreams. With reality feeling more and more like a dystopian hellscape, the alternative is looking pretty damn good right about now.

Even before the pandemic, the Nintendo Switch was absolutely killing the console game. Since its release in 2017, it has surpassed lifetime sales of the Super Nintendo and the NES, becoming Nintendo’s second best-selling home console of all time (behind the Wii). Then, in the eternal spring of 2020, even the most reluctant luddites among us found ourselves indulging in Animal Crossing: New Horizons as part of our self-care routines. We gamed and we gamed, and tried to forget the world for a while. We discovered parts of ourselves—our inner hardcore gamers—that had never before seen the light of day. Things got weird (but fun). And with these Nintendo Switch games on the horizon, there’s no doubt that the Switch will continue to be the go-to technicolor break from reality that we all need in the New Year.

From arcade-style ninja adventures to digital board games and everything in between, there are over 80 new games on the Nintendo Switch release calendar for the upcoming months. Here, we've narrowed that down to the 10 most anticipated titles to look forward to in 2021.