Was it a very good year?
2021 was an interesting year for gaming. We had a lot of projects that were basically already done coming out at the start of it, and a lot of delays. It impacted the entire industry in a huge way, more so than the lull in mid-to-late 2020. That’s why our Destructoid Switch nominees for Game of the Year are so unique.
Thankfully, it’s not dominated by first-party releases, and several other studios get a chance to shine. The Switch has had a massive influence on the gaming sphere since it launched, but over the years, we’ve been able to see that fully take shape. You have publishers like Capcom, Atlus, Square Enix, and Grasshopper supporting the system with exclusives, or timed exclusives.
Shin Megami Tensei V deserves a special shoutout, as it’s seen such a huge level of success since it came out. Seeing SMT derided as “lesser” than Persona by some recent fans of the latter has been rough to deal with, but now it seems as if it actually has the respect it deserves. And can I just say how happy I am that 14 years (almost to the day) after the release of the original No More Heroes in Japan, we’re celebrating the third mainline entry in our Destructoid Switch nominees list.
Here are the nominees for Destructoid’s Best Switch Game of 2021:
- Metroid Dread
- Monster Hunter Rise
- New Pokemon Snap
- No More Heroes III
- Shin Megami Tensei V
- Bravely Default 2
- Neo: The World Ends With You
