Revered gaming mag EDGE has revealed its top 10 games of 2021 in the latest issue, and while Sony and Microsoft fans will be delighted to see platform exclusives from both PS5 and Xbox consoles put in an appearance, no Nintendo-developed or published games managed to make the list this year.
That’s not to say Switch doesn’t feature, of course. Six of the games in the top 10 are available on Nintendo’s console in some form, with Capcom’s excellent Monster Hunter Rise being a platform exclusive, no less (well, until 12th January when it’s scheduled for launch on PC) — but first-party Nintendo titles are absent from the publication’s GOTY selection this year.
That may be a little surprising to Nintendo fans, but it has to be said that it’s been a great year for games across the board, so the competition was fierce. Arkane Studios’ PS5 exclusive Deathloop came in first place, followed by indie darling Chicory: A Colorful Tale (recently launched on Switch) and PC tactical RPG Wildermyth in third place.
Other games playable on Switch that made the grade include Dungeon Encounters (fourth), the previously mentioned Monster Hunter Rise (sixth), Hitman 3 (seventh — Switch got the Cloud Version treatment), and Bonfire Peaks (eighth).
According to EDGE, the top 10 games of 2021 are as follows:
1. Deathloop
2. Chicory: A Colorful Tale
3. Wildermyth
4. Dungeon Encounters
5. Forza Horizon 5
6. Monster Hunter Rise
7. Hitman 3
8. Bonfire Peaks
9. Returnal
10. Psychonauts 2
Elsewhere, Metroid Dread and New Pokémon Snap were named as runners-up in the Nintendo-specific awards category (which Monster Hunter Rise won, of course).
As we noted above, the field is extremely strong this year, and while personally we would have worked Metroid Dread in there, it’s fantastic to see that every single one of the non-exclusive games listed is playable on Nintendo Switch, even if it’s a cloud version version in the case of Hitman 3. For Switch owners, that alone is worth celebrating after so many years (since the Wii era, really) of multiplatform games skipping Nintendo consoles entirely.
So, Nintendo the company may have missed out on an EDGE Award, but Switch gamers are able to sample a big chunk of that fine list. It’s definitely a great time to be playing video games.
