The best Nintendo Switch multiplayer games for families

Even before I spent every single day at home with my family, figuring out what we should do to entertain ourselves, the Nintendo Switch was a great family game console. It’s doubly, triply, quadruply more now. Unfortunately, it’s also hard to get at the moment. The original TV-connected Switch is the harder system to find, but it’s also the one I’d recommend for families, since it has better battery life, and it connect and be used for home multiplayer — on the smaller Switch Lite, you’d have to huddle around that tiny screen and buy extra controllers.

Assuming you only have one Switch, here are the best multiplayer games for families that are worth gathering together to play. You have plenty of options. 

Note: Links below are for physical copies of the game, which are recommended if you have multiple Switch systems and accounts. But it’s easy to just download all of these directly from Nintendo’s eShop, too, provided you have a decent MicroSD memory card inserted to store game data.

Let’s just start with this one, which has become an absolute phenomenon. The casual, calming, social community game just lasts forever, and a new mode allows multiple players to wander around and play at the same time. It has a lot of ways to connect with other players and friends, too.

Nintendo

You’ll never get tired of Mario Kart 8 — the game’s dozens of tracks are excellent, and local four-player multiplayer can get crowded on a smaller TV, but it’s fantastic. It’s one of the very first games that we’d recommend for Switch multiplayer.

Nintendo

Nintendo’s long-running Mario Party series is like a video board game with a bunch of wacky minigames thrown in. The Switch version also has a rhythm-dancing party game that’s a good little workout, too, and a collaborative game where players paddle down a river together. My family loves this one.

Nintendo

You may get into some arguments, or you may find this builds teamwork. This party cooking game is madness, and it’s a perfect one for four players at once. Seriously, you’re going to get stressed. But it’s so great.

Josh Goldman/CNET

Besides being a Mario construction kit and mini-course on game design, not to mention being full of user-made levels to download, four players can play levels together too. It’s an endless fountain of things to try. By the way: if you’re playing directly on the Switch, a basic stylus (seen here) is a great tool to use.

Read the review.

Alfred Ng / CNET

The Switch’s best fighting game is also a ridiculous multiplayer brawl, with eight players at once. This will get all your frustrations out. Also, there are a growing number of characters to add to a roster that’s already at… 75? More?

Read the review.

Screenshot by Scott Stein/CNET

Nintendo’s version of Ghostbusters, but with Luigi — if you haven’t played, that’s the best way to think of this ridiculously charming, Disney-like haunted house game. A collaborative two-player mode works through the whole game and might be the best way to play.

Read the review.

Nintendo

A cheaper Mario Kart, or perhaps Wipeout for the Switch, this futuristic hover-racing game was an early Switch launch title, and it’s really underrated. It does multiplayer wonderfully.

Nintendo

Mario Tennis is unforgiving. Mario Tennis has lots of characters and enemies. Mario Tennis has online modes, and it’s maybe one of the best Switch sports games. There you go. It’s Mario characters playing tennis with crazy power-ups.

Read Gamespot’s review.

Screenshot by Scott Stein/CNET

The sequel to an older console Marvel series of games, Ultimate Alliance 3 feels like Diablo or an arcade brawler, but with a roster of dozens of Marvel characters to play. It’s repetitive at times, but the joy of collecting characters is a lot of fun, and you can keep switching your heroes throughout.

Read the review.

Two paper-things solve puzzles together by snipping pieces of each other. Or battling each other with snips. It’s a puzzle game with a lot of different play modes, perfect for two at a time.

Sega

Tetris 99 is a must-have Tetris battle-royale online game, but Sega’s other Tetris game works with four-player battles, and includes Puyo-Puyo, which is another puzzle game worth your time. There’s a long story mode, too.

EA

Now that real sports leagues are on hold, either of these franchises are excellent stops to play out the season virtually and challenge your family. Depends on whether you prefer FIFA or the NBA (we’re picking FIFA here, just based on personal preference).

Nintendo

There’s a Smash Bros. vibe running through this side-scrolling game, surprisingly, and the extra minigame and battle modes give this four-player co-op game extra life. It’s a better package than you’d expect.

Read the Gamespot review.

Ubisoft

If it’s hard to get exercise indoors, Just Dance is an active alternative to Ring Fit Adventure and works with the Switch’s included Joy-Con controllers. You could buy any version of Just Dance and be happy.

Nintendo

Super Mario Odyssey is a stellar Switch Mario game, but this remaster of a Wii U classic is the one for four-player action. It’s an old-school, platformer-style Mario game, with an extra Luigi mode that adds harder challenges.

Read the Gamespot review.

Nintendo

The cheapest great pick on our list, this is a co-op puzzle game with two- and even four-player modes. No-brainer buy — it’s currently $2.24.

Sarah Tew/CNET

This all-cardboard folding construction kit, which takes hours to put together, is as perfect a trapped-inside activity as you could ever find. Especially if it’s on sale. Once built, the wild inventions in each Labo kit have a ton of extra games and things to tinker with and try. It’s crafting and gaming combined. (While there’s also a very cool Labo VR set that’s worth trying, the original Labo 1 variety kit may be the best package to go for with several kids.)

Read the review.

source: cnet.com