There were many elements to the Nintendo Switch 2 launch that made it unique, not the least of which were all the leaks that happened back in January, the “price date” that started in April, and, of course, the pre-order madness that made many wonder how the Switch 2 would do at launch. Hint: it broke records. However, one thing that honestly got “lost in the shuffle” was that Nintendo intentionally didn’t allow for reviews of its launch titles to go up early by NOT giving away review copies for games like Mario Kart World and so on.
As such, many had to just “buy what they felt was good” at the start, or just take a risk and see how everything played on the Nintendo Switch 2. The good news is that the games have all played well on the console, with Mario Kart World (read my review!) already soaring in the sales department. Fast forward to now, though, and Insider Stealth has made a compilation of the launch titles, and all the scores via Metacritic point to an incredibly strong roster of titles:
Switch 2 Metacritic Averages (so far):1) Tears of the Kingdom – 952) Breath of the Wild – 943) Split Fiction – 894) Street Fighter 6 – 875) Mario Kart World – 866) Yakuza 0: DC – 847) Bravely Default HD – 848) Cyberpunk 2077 – 849) Hogwarts Legacy – 8210) FAST Fusion – 81
— Stealth40k (@stealth40k.bsky.social) 2025-06-23T21:11:12.105Z
Ironically, the Switch 2 versions of Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild are the highest-rated games of 2025 so far. Guess their greatness “transferred over.” Plus, the high scores of other titles show that whether it’s co-op titles like Split Fiction or full-on online madness titles like Street Fighter 6, the Switch 2 can handle them and then some.
Plus, as Stealth noted in a follow-up post, the scores are likely to swing even more Nintendo’s way once games like Metroid Prime 4, Pokemon Legends Z-A and Donkey Kong Bananza arrive.