8 Nintendo Switch games that missed the mark
Disappointment is not always the same as poor quality. Some games below are enjoyable in the right mood, but each fell short of what its concept, series history or launch presentation seemed to promise. This ranking moves from the mildest let-down to the game that most clearly felt like a paid demonstration.
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8. Princess Peach: Showtime! (2024)
Expectation: A substantial Peach-led action adventure.
Reality: A charming but very gentle stage show.
Princess Peach takes centre stage in themed theatrical adventures, appearing as characters including a detective, mermaid and swordfighter. The costume abilities are appealing, particularly for players who enjoy Peach’s character and the game’s dress-up presentation.
The problem is depth. The experience lasts roughly four to 10 hours, offers little challenge, and omits useful features such as backtracking and jumping directly to selected points. Despite suggesting a broad action-adventure, much of the game relies on two buttons for basic actions and jumps. It is attractive and approachable, but its price feels difficult to justify for such a shallow campaign.
7. Mario Golf: Super Rush (2021)
Expectation: A larger, richer Mario Golf.
Reality: A surprisingly thin package at launch.
Speed Golf is the strongest idea here: players race between shots while opponents do the same, giving traditional golf an energetic twist. Unfortunately, the launch package contained only six courses and a short adventure mode.
The game also replaced the familiar timed swing system with a more randomised alternative. Later updates added content, but the initial release felt less complete than the much older Game Boy Color Mario Golf.
6. Nintendo Switch Sports (2022)
Expectation: A modern successor to Wii Sports.
Reality: Too few activities at launch.
Nintendo Switch Sports launched with six sports for $39.99, placing it under pressure from the exceptionally popular Wii Sports. Golf, one of the five original Wii Sports staples, was missing at release and arrived months later as a free update.
The game also replaced Miis with customisable Sportsmates and placed considerable emphasis on online play. A Switch 2 follow-up scheduled for October 22 will feature 12 sports, but the original release felt closer to an expensive demo than a fully rounded successor—especially for a game that seemed as though it should have been bundled with the console.
5. Mario Strikers: Battle League (2022)
Expectation: A complete return for Mario’s chaotic football series.
Reality: Competent matches surrounded by too little content.
Battle League had strong foundations. The series’ GameCube and Wii entries built a loyal audience with fast matches, few rules, throwable items, powerful Super Strikes and memorable sidekicks. Expectations were also high because Next Level Games, the studio behind Luigi’s Mansion 3, handled development.
The matches themselves work reasonably well, but the wider package is sparse. Players criticised the limited single-player offering, and the game lacked the exuberant extras that made earlier Strikers releases distinctive. At launch, it felt less like a full arcade-style football party and more like a solid match engine with a small menu around it.
4. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD (2019)
Expectation: A welcome revival for Sega’s rolling-monkey series.
Reality: A reduced remake of an awkward choice.
The original Wii version of Banana Blitz used motion controls across 50 minigames, including dart throwing and tilting stages. The HD remake retained only 10 of those activities and converted the controls for a conventional gamepad. Monkey Bowling, Monkey Race and Monkey Golf were among the casualties.
That reduction weakened the remake’s appeal, especially when the included minigames varied considerably in quality. The bigger question was why Banana Blitz was selected for revival instead of a more celebrated entry such as Super Monkey Ball 2.
3. Sports Story (2022)
Expectation: A broader and more ambitious Golf Story.
Reality: Several sports with uneven development.
Golf Story succeeded because it gave its golf mechanics, humour and underdog story enough room to shine. Sports Story kept the protagonist and expanded the activity list with tennis, football, cricket, volleyball, BMX, fishing and baseball.
That variety came at the expense of focus. Golf received a relatively substantial treatment, while baseball was largely a batting cage and football had only a handful of goal challenges. Several sports felt like brief diversions rather than complete systems, making the sequel less cohesive than the focused original.
2. Endless Ocean Luminous (2024)
Expectation: Another relaxing underwater adventure with a strong story.
Reality: An exploratory ocean wrapped around a grind.
The two Wii Endless Ocean games offered peaceful scuba-diving adventures between 2007 and 2010. Luminous moved to a procedurally generated sea and supported online exploration with up to 30 players, which sounded promising.
Its story progression is where the experience loses momentum. Missions require players to scan hundreds of fish, while the final quests remain locked until 99 mysteries have been cleared. Those mysteries are tablet squares unlocked by tasks such as reading lore excerpts. The result is a grindier structure than the series’ relaxed reputation suggests. Critics also noted that less than an hour of story was stretched across more than 20 hours of play. The sea may be procedurally endless, but the narrative is not.
1. 1-2-Switch (2017)
Expectation: A bundled showcase for the new console.
Reality: A full-price collection of 28 minigames.
1-2-Switch was designed to demonstrate what the Joy-Con controllers could do. Its activities, including Table Tennis and Quick Draw, encouraged players to look at one another rather than stare at the screen. That made sense as a technology showcase.
The disappointment came from the pricing. Unlike Wii Sports, it was not included with the console, so buyers paid full price for what often felt like a Joy-Con tutorial. Nintendo reported that it had shipped nearly a million copies by April 2017, but its critical reputation remained weak, including a Metacritic score of 58. Ball Count and the rest of the limited collection were never enough to make it feel like a complete game.
Final thoughts
These games demonstrate several ways a promising release can fall short: too little content, too much repetition, weakened series identity or an awkward price. For players who prefer physical, social gameplay, a dedicated arcade machine can offer a more focused experience, while compact bartop arcades suit smaller Australian living spaces.
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