As the Nintendo Switch is a hybrid console capable of being played in both handheld and docked mode (with the exception of the Switch Lite), it isn't expected that the system would be particularly powerful in the graphics department. However, there have been many games released on the Switch that prove it can compete with the others.
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While there are certainly titles that fall short of showcasing the Switch's true potential, there are also other titles that show just how far developers can push the technology and bring out the best possible version of their product.
Updated June 16 2023, by Jack Webb: The Nintendo Switch might not be the most graphically-intensive console out there, but the little console that could does still have some impressive-looking games on it. This list of games continues to grow as more titles are released and ported over to Nintendo's handheld.
Spritfarer isn't a massive, 3D open-world experience, yet it is still a graphically impressive piece of art. The game has terrific hand-drawn graphics that make it look incredible. It is full of cute, exciting characters to meet, and every location will take your breath away. It can be tempting to just idle in this game, enjoying the graphics, animations, and views, but the gameplay is a lot of fun too.
In this side-scrolling game, you simultaneously manage your boat home while helping various spirits journey into the afterlife. Spiritfarer is a relaxed experience but has an emotional story that will engross you as much as its graphics will.
Splatoon 3 is a visually striking game, full of vibrant colours, great music, and chaotic gameplay. Set in a post-apocalypse, this third-person shooter has teams battling it out to spread as much colourful ink around an area as possible.
Being the third entry into the series, the game has improved upon many different aspects: There is a lot of customization to be had with your character, the gameplay has been streamlined, and of course, the graphics are even better than before. The series has always had a distinct style, and it is always a delight to see how bright and colourful the game gets during a few rounds of play.
If you like the idea of racing across waves and exploring sunken cities, be sure to give Wavetale a try. Full of unforgettable characters to meet and a gripping, mysterious narrative to follow, Wavetale has you taking on the role of Sigrid, doing whatever she can to save her friends. She can walk on water and swing across rooftops, navigating this beautiful, watery landscape.
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This game has a very artistic style, and seeing the water ripple as you speed across it is really satisfying. Even ported onto the Switch, the game holds up well due to its simplistic but captivating graphics. Wavetale is a short experience but one really worth savouring.
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion is a complete remaster of the original game. If you did not get to experience this thrilling story the first time or want to enjoy it again with updated graphics and controls, now is the perfect opportunity. The remaster of Crisis Core is impressive and looks incredible on the Nintendo Switch. Not only have the graphics been updated, but it also has a new soundtrack and dialogue recordings to enjoy.
From epic quests to fun minigames, there is plenty to do in this remaster to make it worth playing. The story follows a warrior known as Zack Fair as he investigates a series of secretive experiments. The narrative will undoubtedly tug on a few heartstrings throughout your playthrough.
While there's no shortage of more stylized, colourful RPGs on the Switch, Capcom fills a void with this grandiose adventure, bringing a near-next-gen experience to Nintendo's hybrid console.
The game dazzles with stunning visuals and detailed monster models and doesn't hold back when it comes to the lush, expansive lands of Kamura and beyond. Monster Hunter Rise is perhaps the best way to enjoy this renowned series on Switch, with its gorgeous graphics, improved mechanics, and thrilling, rewarding gameplay.
Taking its cue from the breakout Wii hit Xenoblade Chronicles, this robust sequel captivates with atmospheric locales and charming, vibrant visuals that blend style and technical detail. Our heroes find themselves venturing across several distinct Titans drifting in a sea of clouds to reach the mystical World Tree.
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While doing so, they'll gather Blades-a sort of Pokemon-esque weaponized lifeform-which unleash unique moves and epic animations. With its enticing aesthetics, likeable characters, and fun, inventive battle system, this journey will fly by despite comprising dozens of hours.
In a game stressing alluring photos, sleek and dynamic visuals are crucial-and Bandai Namco certainly delivers with this lush, eye-catching sequel to the N64 hit Pokemon Snap.
It's simply a treat taking the tour through the serene, detailed biomes whilst admiring a far more extensive and diverse group of Pokemon subjects.
It's especially refreshing given the far-cruder, blockier, and muddled representations of the N64 relic. Crisp, vibrant textures, impressive lighting and water effects, and lengthy draw distances really complement this delightful sequel.
With its huge collection of great Mario Party minigames and boards as well as solid online support, NDcube's Mario Party Superstars is a true celebration of classic MP and a more-than-worthy remaster. This is further enhanced by vastly polished graphics and colourful aesthetics that really pop this time around.
This pretty facelift, coupled with smoother mechanics and quality-of-life refinements, makes Superstars shine as the definitive way to play the party franchise in its heyday.
Few games have been able to make a comeback in the same way that the Rayman series has. While EA seems adamant in ensuring that the man with no limbs doesn't overshadow any of its larger, bigger-budget games, it's hard to ignore how much love has gone into the Rayman reboot titles, particularly when it comes to the graphics and art style.
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The Saturday Morning Cartoon vibe in Rayman Origins and Legends has been used a few times over the years, most recently with the Battletoads remake. And yet, Rayman is one of the few other games to make it work well.
When gamers speak of video games as art, few games are spoken of as highly as Gris, the side-scrolling platformer that looks more like a watercolour painting than a video game.
Aside from the gripping gameplay, Gris is just a treat to look at-and can be very distracting to gamers who are trying to finish their backlog of other great games published by Devolver Digital, who seem to have a knack for being able to recognize great indie studios.
For many years, Nintendo fans have been crying out for a new entry in the F-Zero series of zero-gravity racing games. While it seems unlikely that this will happen any time soon, fans of Captain Falcon can instead sink their teeth into Fast RMX, the racing game with graphics that look more at home on a high-end PC than a hybrid handheld console.
The insane graphical quality of Fast RMX would mean nothing if the game wasn't a blast to play, which, thankfully, it is and is a great placeholder for the next F-Zero game, whenever that may come out.
The original Bravely Default on the 3DS was a graphically impressive game for its time, so it's no surprise that Bravely Default 2 is just as sharp on Nintendo's follow-up console to the 3Ds.
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Not only is Bravely Default 2 great to look at, but its performance is also one of the best on the Switch by a wide margin, with frame rates much higher than most first-party Nintendo games and respectable load times to boot.
Another gorgeous indie title, this time by Colombian developers Dreams Incorporated, Cris Tales has a similar aesthetic to Gris with its hand-drawn, watercolour designs, but this time is set in a turn-based RPG rather than a platformer.
With a heavy emphasis on time travel to affect both combat and the overworld, Cris Tales is a great RPG that's sure to go down as one of the Switch's best-looking games as well.
Hollow Knight may have a very simple art style and side-scrolling gameplay that normally lends itself to weaker graphics, but Team Cherry managed to make one of the best-looking and best-playing games of the last console generation. It just so happens to also look fantastic on the Switch.
The true test for any Switch game is how it looks and performs in handheld mode, and Hollow Knight is one of the few that may actually look better handheld than on a TV screen. There have been several attempts to replicate cartoonish and simplistic visuals, such as in Cuphead and Gleamlight, but Hollow Knight arguably takes the prize for the most interesting 2D graphics.
As one of the biggest launch titles in the history of gaming, it's hard to look past Breath of the Wild from both a gameplay and a graphical standpoint. Compared to any other Zelda game that had been released, Breath of the Wild is on an entirely different graphical level and it became something of a benchmark when seeing how long the Switch's battery would last in handheld mode.
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Breath of the Wild's art style might not be that realistic, but that just means that Nintendo could make the game look much better compared to past 3D Zelda games.
The 2019 remake of Link's Awakening was an unexpected but welcome addition to the Switch's game library, particularly considering the overwhelming success of Breath of the Wild. Taking the original 2D designs of the original Game Boy game and morphing it into a kind of toy world was a strange idea that could have flopped, but paid off spectacularly.
Like with Breath of the Wild, Link's Awakening's simple art style meant that the graphical quality could shine through much brighter than any other 2D Zelda game has in the past, even compared to the likes of A Link Between Worlds. Although the game does suffer in the performance department from time to time, Link's Awakening is easily one of the best-looking games on the Switch despite this.
Modern Mario games are usually quite graphically sleek, to begin with, but Luigi's recent adventure in Luigi's Mansion 3 was a surprise even when compared to his more popular brother's outings.
While the levels in Super Mario Odyssey were impressive and sprawling, Luigi's Mansion 3 took a more intimate approach. This allowed for far more detail between rooms in the Last Resort hotel as well as better overall graphics. Luigi may be the runner-up most of the time, but his latest ghostly adventure is better than many Mario games that have come before it.
Voxel art games have been hit or miss since the likes of Minecraft made this visual direction so popular, though none have been as much of a hit as The Touryst, a game with a very simple premise that could have easily become boring if not for how beautiful it looks.
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What is most intriguing about this game, aside from how well its voxel art style works both in handheld and docked, is just how well it runs compared to many other Switch titles. This is even more impressive considering The Touryst's indie status compared to most of the other graphically-potent games.
What games like The Touryst and Cloudpunk do for voxel art, Octopath Traveler does for pixel art; and it does so tastefully. Taking the design of classic Final Fantasy RPGs and bringing them into a modern age was no small task, but Square Enix managed to do it with this throwback to classic gaming.
It would have been easy for the turn-based RPG heavyweight to make every aspect of Octopath Traveler stock standard pixel art, but adding a 3D twist makes the game more visually impressive while lending an amount of depth that allows its world to look far more alive.
Luigi's Mansion 3 may have been impressive, but the protagonist's older brother still managed to outdo the younger in terms of the graphical quality of their latest 3D adventures. With the release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Super Mario Odyssey's vast improvements are made even more apparent compared to the many games that came before it.
Odyssey was able to make Mario and the other Mushroom Kingdom citizens look better than ever. Nintendo was also able to introduce more realistic character models, including a T-Rex while making them look like they belong in the same game as Mario.