Feature: Nintendo Life's Alternative Game Awards 2024

Image: Nintendo Life

The end of 2024 is nigh, but before we get there it's time to look back on what has been a surprisingly chonky year for Switch, software-wise, in the eighth year since we first got our hands on the thing.

We've listed our personal Switch GOTYs, you've ranked yours - now it's time to round up the stragglers with a light-hearted celebration of the year's highs (and a handful of lows). Yes, it's time for this year's round of NL's Alternative Game Awards.

We've got 12 awards across two pages, starting with the game title which raised the most eyebrows at Nintendo Life Towers...

On this page: Feature: Nintendo Life's Alternative Game Awards 2024

1. 1.Most Long-Winded Switch Game Title 2024
2. 2.Best 'Game We Wish We Liked More' 2024
3. 3.Best 'End-Of-Year Arrival That Dropped Too Late To Make Our GOTY List' 2024
4. 4.Best Retro Remake / Remaster / Re-Release 2024
5. 5.Most 'Oh Crap, That Came Out This Year?' Game 2024
6. 6.Best Switch DLC 2024

Most Long-Winded Switch Game Title 2024

Winner: The Hokkaido Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance ~Memories in Ice, Tearful Figurine~

Tildes are the new semicolons, don't you know — Image: G-Mode

Putting all the keyword-filled crap to one side, here we're honouring the Switch game with the most needlessly convoluted name. We were delighted to see Yuji Horii's curio come to the West for the first time, we applaud everyone who made it happen, and we were surprised to see a cheeky original easter egg still in there. But couldn't they have come up with a better title?

We get it, it's a niche game and it was never going to sell loads, but 13 words is too many words. As if the $45 price tag wasn't enough to put you off. And if for some reason you're dead set on an enormous title, let's not just play Thesaurus roulette and stick whatever comes up between some tildes! We can all throw some thematically evocative words in a blender (Crystal Oenology: Transom of Bloodlust ~Legs down Glass, Fruit Finish~) but it doesn't make them good.

Runners-up: Yeah! You Want "those Games," Right? So Here You Go! Now, Let's See You Clear Them! 2, Hashihime of the Old Book Town append　fullscreen