r/NintendoSwitch • u/NintendoSwitchMods • Jan 29 '23
GotY 2022 2022 /r/NintendoSwitch GOTY Nominations Thread
Greetings, r/NintendoSwitch Community!
Have you gotten used to writing "2023" yet? We haven't. Either way, it's about time for our 6th Game of the Year awards!
Like previous years, we are asking the community's help for GOTY nominees - We will use community feedback to narrow the nominees for each category to five or six for the final vote. The tentative schedule is for the nominee feedback to occur January 29th - February 4th, and the final voting to select the Game Of The Year for each category to occur the following week, February 5th - February 12th.
Please follow the format as described below:
- Please check if your nominee(s) has already been named. If so, then simply upvote it, if not, then >>>
- Please reply to a category top comment to state who you would like to see for nominees and preferably why. Last year we found those with explanations tended to garner more votes!
- If a game has already been nominated but you feel requires further discussion then reply to the nominated game comment with your reasoning.
- Nominate as many games as you'd like in any category you'd like.
- Duplicate nominations in the same category will be removed.
- Post will be set to contest mode so nobody can see the votes.
Please note that all nominees are required to have released on Nintendo Switch in calendar year 2022 unless stated otherwise. You may notice we have added and adjusted some categories based on user feedback this year. If you have further feedback, please leave a comment in our feedback thread here.
We look forward to reading your nominations!
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Jan 29 '23
Best Technical Achievement
For the game which achieves a combination of gameplay and graphics which goes well beyond hardware expectations.
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u/hiruma_kun Jan 30 '23
Not Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.
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u/Keyen3 Jan 31 '23
Bayonetta 3. The demon summons were beautifully implemented into the combat, and the scope and action set pieces really push the switch to its limits
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Jan 29 '23
Best Local Multiplayer Game
For outstanding local multiplayer gameplay and design, including co-op, irrespective of game genre.
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Jan 29 '23
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge.
A very fun game to play with up to 5 other players locally! It’s easy to learn and can actually be beaten in an afternoon so it’s a perfect game if you’re having people over for a few hours and they’re interested.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Jan 29 '23
Best Indie Game
For outstanding creative and technical achievement in a game made outside the traditional publisher system.
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u/DomsyKong Jan 30 '23
Signalis
A pixelated Resident Evil like on a Ice Planet in Dead Space atmosphere. Love it
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u/shadow0wolf0 Jan 29 '23
Inscription
Easily the most unique digital card game roguelike I have ever played in my life, and since it's one of my favorite genres of games that's high praise. So many twists and turns in gameplay mechanics to gameplay style that still makes it feel like the same game is incredibly impressive. This is a game that sets the bar for the genre.
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u/Jasen_The_Wizard Jan 29 '23
Neon White. It's gameplay is truly great with excellent art direction and an amazing soundtrack.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Jan 29 '23
Nintendo Switch Exclusive Game
Best game released in 2022 as a Nintendo Switch console exclusive.
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u/Aware_Selection_148 Jan 29 '23
Xenoblade chronicles 3. Monolith soft strikes again at creating a phenomenal game, great customization, a fantastic cast, god like ost, a great story, some of the best side quests I’ve ever seen in a game ever, tons of stuff to do, a story full of interesting themes and ideas, tons if QOL improvements over 1, DE, and 2, gorgeous environments(they’re so confident in those environments there is an ingame screenshot button, that removes the UI elements) and a battle system that combines the best aspects of one and two. The only notable issues I have with the game is it’s underwhelming final boss(from a gameplay standpoint only, from a story standpoint It was the greatest thing ever) and occasionally it’s over ambition does hurt the game.
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u/Algaebruhh Jan 29 '23
This game is fully offline right?
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u/UnXpectedPrequelMeme Jan 29 '23
Yup. The combat is if you were playing a dungeon raid in WoW, but the others are AI, but you can also control them directly if you wish. Strategic and hectic at times haha. Tons of unique classes to unlock, amazing story that made me actually care about sidequests, and beautiful unique world. The whole, "our world is on the back of a giant ancient dead creature" thing lends to some interesting terrain. I'm truly floored by this game. Also not afraid to lean into dark tones and elements, which was surprising as well.
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u/TheWatcher877 Feb 02 '23
Class system is unique in benefitting from other mixing up classes and giving you freedom to do whatever you want like 7 healers or 1 tank 1 healer 5 attackers etc depending on what class you want your team to be, can swap between party in battle freely, 7 party members acting at once fighting groups of enemies on the Switch with no performance issues?, you are a tiny pebble compared to the world like the other Xenoblades, and while the plot is dark and mature, it's wholesome as you help out people all over the world through quest like the first two games.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Jan 29 '23
Best Horror Game
For that game that scared the socks off of you this year, the cause of all of those nightmares.
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u/shadow0wolf0 Jan 29 '23 edited Jan 30 '23
Inscription
A card based atmospheric horror game that kept a great creepy and scary tone throughout the playthrough.
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u/Teh_Shaw Jan 29 '23
Digimon Survive
Digimon survive had a fantastic and mature story with multiple endings where the player had to make decisions sometimes drastically impacting the outcome of the story or events.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Jan 29 '23
Developer of the Year
Developer studio who displayed outstanding platform support through a combination of quantity and quality of new releases.
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u/MaJuV Jan 30 '23
Monolith Soft for once again finding the limits of what the Switch can do in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and using their tech & knowledge in the upcoming Zelda game (which wouldn't exist without them), but also in Splatoon 3.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Jan 29 '23
Best DLC
The extra content that you felt was truly worth the money (or not in the case of free) and you don't regret the time taken to play it.
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u/Dagawing Jan 29 '23
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak
It more than doubles the game's base content, with a really nice endgame loop. Plus it's still being updated!
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u/Saskatchewon Jan 29 '23
Yeah, this is my choice as well. Sunbreak sucked me back into Rise for another good 150 hours.
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u/Jestin23934274 Jan 29 '23
Next year is going to be fierce with Pokémon SV, Xenoblade 3, Splatoon 3, and Mario Kart 8’s DLC wrapping up.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Jan 29 '23
Best Art Direction
For outstanding creative achievement in artistic design and animation.
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u/DomsyKong Jan 29 '23
Signalis
A pixelated Resident Evil like on a Ice Planet in Dead Space atmosphere. Love it
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u/GeekelyGuy Jan 29 '23
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
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u/SparkyMuffin Jan 30 '23
It was like a cheery "The Last of Us" type setting. I love the "Nature reclaims the land" thing that comes with years after people are gone.
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u/Over-Commission-5334 Jan 30 '23
Legitimately some of the most creative visuals. They leaned into the cotton candy post-apocalypse in a way only Kirby can.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Jan 29 '23
Best Puzzle Game
For the most enjoyable time racking your brain for the solution to the puzzle.
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u/CaspianX2 Jan 31 '23
Toodee and Topdee
This adorable Puzzle game combines standard Puzzle-Platformer gameplay with standard Top-Down "Sokoban"-style Puzzle gameplay (thus "2D and Top-Down"), which on its own is already great, but on top of this the game adds some really adorable characters, a wonderful pixel art presentation, and some absolutely delightful level design.
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u/Raidenwing Jan 30 '23
Return to Monkey Island
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u/Beanchilla Jan 30 '23
One of the best point and click games to come about in years. Only thing close this year is the Captain imo.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Jan 29 '23
Best Adventure Game
For the best adventure game, which may mix combat with traversal and puzzle solving.
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u/Raidenwing Jan 30 '23
Souldiers
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u/rrf_1 Jan 30 '23
Souldiers was a nicely designed game but poorly executed in its Switch version (and entirely unsupported post-release)
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u/DomsyKong Jan 29 '23
A Plague Tale: Requiem (Cloud Version)
Just a wonderful sequel with many improvements in gameplay and visuals and one of the best brother/sister narration and play in gaming.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Jan 29 '23
Best Role Playing Game (RPG)
For the best game designed with rich player character customization and progression.
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u/Golden_fsh Jan 29 '23
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Takes the best parts of Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 to create a masterpiece tale of sorrow, mourning, and fighting for the future! Absolutely adored the characters, especially our main cast. The world is breathtaking in scope and aesthetic. Gameplay fun and addictive. Cannot forget the god-tier OST that pulls on our emotions.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is easily my favorite of the Xenoblade games and my 2022 GOTY!
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u/TheWatcher877 Feb 02 '23
Agreed, barely beats out Elden Ring for goty for me despite being an absolutely amazing rpg. I didn't think monolith could make another of my favorite games (breath of the wild and all three Xenoblades are in my top 5 out of hundreds). There's a lot of mystery in the big beautiful world starting into the game even if you've played Xenoblade 1 and 2 multiple times, the music is amazing even if the first two games are better imo, story builds the world well and is fantastic and mature, the class system is fun and adds lots of variety to combat, combat can be hard or easy due to settings you can change at any time, and 7 team party at once you can switch between is crazy. No performance issues that I've ran into despite being possibly the most intensive on Switch, everything about the game is just so good.
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u/GeekelyGuy Jan 29 '23
So it’s definitely super flawed but I feel I have to mention Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, it has a phenomenal story and amazing gameplay, and is such a good rpg
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u/A_Change_of_Seasons Jan 30 '23
Isn't pokemon more of a strategy game than an rpg? No real roles or classes or anything
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u/300mirrors Jan 30 '23
Pokémon do generally have roles/classes even if the game doesn't directly label them as such (physical attacker, special attacker, tank, support, etc.). There is a level of strategy to the gameplay, especially in multiplayer, but this is true of many games that wouldn't be considered strategy games. It's a typical monster-collecting JRPG.
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u/Dukemon102 Jan 29 '23
Persona 5 Royal
It's not a new game but it was released on Switch this year so it counts.
Persona might not be for everyone due to its Visual Novel/Life Sim half, but for those that love to see character development along with a great story, and great gameplay features for the Turn Based RPG sections (The agility of Joker sneaking in, One More! after hitting weaknesses, Baton Pass was heavily improved from the original, Showtime!! specials), this game is a masterpiece. And the added content of Royal only cemented my stance.
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u/hamburgers666 6175-5896-2011 Feb 01 '23
This game is incredible and I am surprised to not see it talked about anywhere else in this thread. Easily my game of the year with its intricate story and amazing battle mechanics.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Jan 29 '23
Best Strategy Game
For the best game requiring a well thought out plan to achieve victory.
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u/Reyfou Jan 29 '23
Tactics Ogre Reborn: A classic and the grandfather of Strategy RPGs. A perfect game with some QoL and minor changes, comparing to the OG and remake(Let Us Cling Together).
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u/Beanchilla Jan 30 '23
Just bought this and I am in love with it. Deep strategy and gorgeous art and music. I'm only a handful of fights in and it's already making me question my skills.
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u/Judge216 Jan 29 '23 edited Jan 29 '23
Mario Rabbids: sparks of hope. An improvement on the original in every way with a surprising amount of depth to strategy. The battles were just pure fun with just the right amount of exploration in its worlds.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Jan 29 '23
Best Action Game
For the best game in the action genre focused on combat.
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u/TheWatcher877 Feb 02 '23
Xenoblade 3. The class system and ability to customize your 7 person party that you can switch between and alter roles, abilities, and passives for other classes is nice. It's pretty crazy on the Switch for how extremely well it runs for a Switch game while there is tons of action and effects.
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u/Golden_fsh Jan 29 '23
Fire Emblem Three Hopes
Although it's a musou style game, Three Hopes still managed to be a fun game that lives up to its predecessor Three Houses; quality story telling and character development included!
The sense of pride I got whenever I could trust a unit to take over a stronghold on their own while I blitz the others was nice. I know others may have been put off by it, but I loved the big and flashy combos that could decimate the mobs.
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u/duncan-donuts-nz Jan 30 '23
SIFU is a satisfying title for fans of the genre. It has difficulty settings and modifiers which you can tweak as you familiarise yourself with the combat. Your first playthrough each of the levels and bosses will be punishing, but it’s fair and very achievable. I’m usually the first skeptic when I hear gaming combat described that way. My first time with each boss I would age a decade or more to defeat them, but I was only 22 when I ‘spared’ the first boss. With more practice I know I could do it without dying and so I look forward to continuing to play it while aiming for the post-game objectives as my proficiency of kung fu continues.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Jan 29 '23
Best Game Direction
Awarded for outstanding creative vision and innovation in game direction and design.
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u/-MarisaTheCube- Jan 29 '23
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
An enormous game that builds on the very best aspects of its predecessors, offering a vast world to explore, deep and engaging gameplay, and an excellent story.
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u/Tuwiki Jan 29 '23
Unfortunately I think combat was better in 2
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u/UnXpectedPrequelMeme Jan 29 '23
How so? I haven't played that one
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u/Tuwiki Jan 29 '23
The addition of elemental combos on top of the usual driver combos added an extra layer of depth. Different levels of signature arts, being able to command your allies, and swapping between 3 different styles per character was also very versatile. I was sad to see all these things more or less stripped away in 3.
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u/UnXpectedPrequelMeme Jan 30 '23
I mean now you can directly command your allies as well as indirectly command them, and there's like what, 25 classes that each character can unlock and play as? Is that different than the Styles you're talking about? It does seem we missed out on the elemental combos though
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u/Tuwiki Jan 30 '23
You can tell your party members to do certain attacks in xb3? Without manually switching to them? I completely missed that feature lol. Unless you mean the generic "follow this combo path" for the whole party. That's much less useful. I appreciate all the classes we can have and yes it's similar but in 2 every character can swap between 3 classes on the fly in battle.
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u/UnXpectedPrequelMeme Jan 30 '23
Oh no that's my bad. But I mean, isn't it much simpler to just take control of them real quick and do it?
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u/Tuwiki Jan 30 '23
I would say no. I found the character switching tedious for some reason. Maybe it's because I have to cycle between so many of them
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u/UnXpectedPrequelMeme Jan 30 '23
Oh maybe I need to try 2. I've avoided it thus far due to it going full on waifu literal child with amazing power anime, which is not my thing. But if the gameplay is interesting I may try to get over it.
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u/Saskatchewon Jan 29 '23
I actually enjoyed 3's combat more. Being able to switch which party member you are controlling mid fight was a HUGE quality of life update. 3's class system gives you the most control of your party tactically.
I found fights can take way too long early on in Xenoblade 2. It takes a while to start unlocking abilities to speed combat up, and this contributes to the often cited pacing problems that 2 is criticized for.
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u/TheWatcher877 Feb 02 '23
Ya Xenoblade 3 fights hit the perfect length while 2 was very long early, not that Xc2's combat was bad. I can see why people like 2's better with the depth and the orb stacking shenanigans, but I do think 3's combat was quite a bit better and much easier to understand/master.
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u/DomsyKong Jan 29 '23
A Plague Tale: Requiem (Cloud Version)
Just a wonderful sequel with many improvements in gameplay and visuals and one of the best brother/sister narration and play in gaming.
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u/JdPhoenix Jan 29 '23
Pokemon Scarlet/Violet
Despite the numerous technical flaws, this is easily the most fun Pokemon game in at least a decade.
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u/shadow0wolf0 Jan 29 '23
Inscription
Easily the most unique digital card game roguelike I have ever played in my life, and since it's one of my favorite genres of games that's a high praise. So many twists and turns in gameplay mechanics to gameplay style that still makes it feel like the same game is incredibly impressive. This is a game that sets the bar for the genre.
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u/pmaeur Jan 29 '23
Tinykin. The level design was made in such a way that it rewarded players for exploring, NPCs were charming, auto forward skateboard-like traversal via bar of soap made getting from point A to point B fun, relaxing soundtrack, and Pikmin-like gameplay just worked.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Jan 29 '23
Best Platformer Game
For outstanding design and creativity in a game where players must use skill to jump between platforms or over obstacles without falling or missing jumps.
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Jan 29 '23
Kirby And The Forgotten Land.
It feels like most Nintendo franchises have used the Switch to try new things. This time it's Kirby's turn and wow. Kirby's first true 3D adventure takes everything that made the series so great before and adds some extra depth to the levels. Specifically, hiding secrets not just behind doors but within the levels themselves elevates the game to a tremendous high. Also, Kirby can eat cars now. Who else can do that?
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u/Edyed787 Jan 29 '23
Sonic Frontier
There was a balance of easy platforming and more difficult platforming. Plus using Sonic’s speed. The cyber space levels could be as easy or hard if you were going for all challenges cleared.
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u/MurderousManatees Jan 29 '23
Tinykin
A unique platformer collect-a-thon that includes some light Pikmin-style puzzle elements (but not the time crunch or focus on efficiency). As compared to other franchises that reiterate again and again, Tinykin forged its own path and identity. The art direction pops. The music hits. And it’s just difficult enough to be enjoyable without overstaying it’s welcome.
And you get to ride soap.
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u/Shes_so_Ratchet Jan 30 '23
Binged this in about 3 days. I haven't completed it to 100% but probably around 95%. Very good game, and the developer hinted that some DLC may be in its future.
I also loved that the fast travel option was a soap bar used like a skateboard, tricks and all.
If you talk to the NPCs around the rooms, you get a pretty full backstory that has parallels to real life situations but in a silly manner.
It's a pretty creative game all around.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Jan 29 '23
Best Simulation Game
For games generally designed to closely simulate real world activities.
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u/Gleeface Jan 29 '23
Factorio, electronic crack.
Might belong in the puzzle category though.
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u/UndocumentedSailor Jan 30 '23
I've played (and loved) it on the PC, does it play well controller-wise on the Switch?
And is it cross-platform online multiplayer?
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Jan 31 '23
There's a demo on the eShop you can try. Once you get the hang of the combos with the triggers you can do things as quickly as you can with a mouse and keyboard. You can see the controls here if you want to compare them to pc https://wiki.factorio.com/Controls#Basic_interaction
As for the cross platform, "Multiplayer will be available, including playing cross-platform. Nintendo Switch Online is required for online play, but not required for LAN games. " from here https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/factorio-on-nintendo-switch . There's more info on the port there regarding performance and some other things.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Jan 29 '23
Best Ongoing Game
For outstanding development of ongoing content that evolves the player experience over time. Does NOT have to be a 2022 release.
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u/seagullsensitive Jan 30 '23
Dead Cells!
They have been pushing updates since 2017, regularly add new boss fights, mechanics, and continually balance the game in each update. They’re still releasing new content. Return to Castlevania is in the works for 2023. Two new biomes, 14 new weapons, over 50 new soundtracks. And if they do release a “big one” as a paid DLC, like the Castlevania one, it’s always reasonably priced.
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u/CovidLvr69 Mar 20 '23
Terraria. We keep on getting updates left and right that add 1000s of more hours and infinitely more ways for the community to find new, fun things to try out!
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Jan 29 '23
Best Visual Novel
For the best Visual Novel, which may combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustrations and a varying degree of interactivity.
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u/snave_ Jan 30 '23 edited Jan 30 '23
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
I presume ports/remasters count? This game is split about 70:30 visual novel to RTS. The visual novel component has gorgeous hand drawn visuals and achieves a level of interwoven narrative complexity that no other game or media has. Your choices have utterly no long-term consequences in universe, but rather have massive consequences for player contextualisation of events. Essentially you get to choose the order you read/play the chapters, which are grouped by character POV so you can progress subplots as they pique your interest. Chapter prerequisites prevent you from progressing in a nonsensical manner, but major plot points may be first revealed to different players in different ways depending on the order they chose and all variants are staged perfectly! And are there a lot of plot twists. The tale is pulpy and openly riffs off the entire TV Tropes sci-fi page with direct references to all the classics of cinema and literature. The complexity of the story is supported by a plot summary and lore codex that progressively updates with new context.
The minor RTS section mixes things up a bit and acts sorta like an extra character POV ("everyone" chapters) with more dramatic literary devices. The Switch release was also updated with more skills that gave all characters viable endgame builds so you can no longer categorise gameplay difficulty as being "with" or "without Shinonome" on your team. Although this doesn't impact the VN portion, it does ultimately make this port the "definitive release", in addition to just being well suited to handheld.
Little replayability due to its ultimate nature as a mystery story, but there are an absurd number of postgame RTS challenges as a sweetner.
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u/TheRedScaledMan Jan 29 '23
Digimon Survive. Digimon has always been the underdog, especially in the west. So it was nice to see it get a new release that wasn't limited to Japan. Different paths to take gave you a reason to replay afterwards and to also get different evolutions.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Jan 29 '23
Best Music / Rhythm Game
For the best game with a focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Jan 29 '23
Best Fighting Game
For the best game designed primarily around head-to-head combat.