Feature: Game Of The Year 2024 - Nintendo Life Staff Awards

Image: Nintendo Life

As we head into the final week of 2024, it's time to slay the GOTY monster that devours the Decembers of many a gamer.

While Nintendo itself has been in wind-down mode, with most internal resources focused on the next console and a software lineup to kickstart it, Switch itself has had a pretty great year. Nintendo enlisted its various partner studios to shoulder the first-party load as Switch went into its eighth year, and third parties and indies have continued to keep things interesting.

As ever, there are more great games to play than time to play them, but news that the Switch successor will be backwards compatible gives our backlogs a reprieve for another generation.

Here at Nintendo Life Towers, we'll be sending out our reader-ranked Top 50 Switch GOTYs soon, but to shine a personal light on a range of 2024 gems, today we'll be highlighting the NL team's unranked picks. Our staff members submitted their Top 5 Switch games of the year and they're presented below, in no particular order, spotlighting some NL favourites that may get overshadowed elsewhere by your Zeldas and your Marios (although you'll find those below too, naturally).