Whether they were testing the limits of the hardware or focusing on gameplay over tech, our Nintendo Switch Game of the Year 2022 selections all stand out through fun and mechanical polish. Check out which games made the cut below.
These awards represent the consensus of the Siliconera staff. For more of the year’s award selections, check out our Game of the Year 2022 archive.
Winner: Xenoblade Chronicles 3
The phrase “fans of the genre” can be something of a punchline these days. Xenoblade Chronicles 3, though? It really seems to embrace the concept. The game delivers so much JRPG fans want, almost as if it’s making a list and checking it twice. And done right? That can be just fine. It gives Xenoblade 3 a unified focus that keeps things fun for players. Also, when we’re talking about JRPGs? “Fans of the genre” is basically everyone reading this right now.
Triangle Strategy
It’s been such a good year for both tactical RPGs and pixel-art revivals, and Triangle Strategy is a shining example of both. It can take some time to get going, and it needs you to care about its world to get through its text-heavy storytelling. But once you’re in? There aren’t many games that can match its depth.
Gotta Protectors: Cart of Darkness
It certainly took its sweet time making it out of Japan, but Gotta Protectors: Cart of Darkness meshes the RPG-style depth of the 3DS release with the same-screen fun of the Xbox 360 original. And the localization? It’s legitimately funny, and that’s so hard to do even without language complications. If you missed it when it launched earlier this year, you owe it to yourself to rectify that now.
What are your Nintendo Switch Game of the Year 2022 selections? Let us know in the comments! And stay tuned for more of Siliconera’s GotY 2022 awards.
Related: AOTF Game of the Year 2022 on Attack of the Fanboy
