The Best Party Games On Nintendo Switch

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home November 5, 2024 13 Views 21 Min Read
The Best Party Games On Nintendo Switch



Key Takeaways

  • There are a bunch of fantastic indie games perfect for the party scene, like Stick Fight and Duck Game.
  • Some games utilize the privacy of handheld mode or smartphones, allowing for asymmetrical gameplay, like with Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes and Jackbox.
  • Triple A titles like Mario Party and Mario Kart are all-time hits for a reason.

Throughout its lifetime, The Nintendo Switch has been promoted as the premiere game system for any social gathering. While we’re not exactly packing a Switch dock on our way to our work friend’s niece’s quinceañera (unless she asks us to, of course), we generally agree that the Switch is great for parties.

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The Nintendo Switch has dominated since its launch in 2017, and now we have a vast selection of fantastic games to take on the go.

But not every game on the handheld console is necessarily a good fit for outings, birthdays, or anything with more than three people. If you want to effectively subvert talking to people with the sweet temptation of gaming, you’ll need to have the right games prepped and ready. To help facilitate this, we’ve picked out and ranked the best party games on Nintendo Switch. Just don’t forget to bring enough controllers.

Updated on November 5, 2024, by Branden Lizardi: There’s a new Mario Party title! Super Mario Party Jamboree released on the Nintendo Switch recently. Nintendo learned a lot from the reception of the last few titles, and this one makes the absolute most of that. Naturally, this earns it a place on the list. We’ve updated the list accordingly, so go check out our in-depth thoughts on this one (Spoiler: it’s worth it).

13

Stick Fight: The Game

Concentrated Competitive Chaos

The rules for Stick Fight: The Game are as clear as the motivations: fight your friends with floppy stick figures. Up to four players are dropped into a random hazardous environment, with random weapons falling from the sky. Grab what you can and use it to slay the other players. Don’t expect a smooth time, though. Between the unpredictable landscapes, the strange weapons, and the ragdoll-ish movement of your character, every fight is a chaotic encounter.

This all combines to make for an amazing party game. The fast-paced action makes for extremely exciting gameplay; the short fight times mean it’s easy to hop in and out of, and the “everyone’s equal” aspect means there’s no true penalty for losing, short of someone bragging. This is a fantastic game to leave running, letting people hop in and out as they see fit.

12

Moving Out

Friends Help Other Friends Move Out, After All

You and up to three others have to work collaboratively to take all the furniture out of a house and into a loading van. But this time, the most important thing is that you do it quickly. If you have to break a few windows throwing the couch out into the front lawn, then so be it, as long as you get it done in under three minutes.

Moving Out follows a similar style to Overcooked (which we mention further down the list). It’s a top-down view of a colorful and silly landscape, where the mundane is exaggerated into chaos as you race against the clock to perform the task. The short timer means you can swap out turns with a large group of players every level, and the silly style promotes equally silly shenanigans as you play.

11

Mario Party Superstars

The Premiere Digital Board Game

It would be criminal to omit this title from the list. It literally has “party” right in the name. Mario Party Superstars is a modern remake of classic levels throughout the series. And while, yes, it’s an approachable game fit for a wide audience, it has one major flaw that holds it back as a viable party item: it’s too time-consuming for such a small player count.

At its core, it’s a digital board game. The best way to experience what it offers is through dice rolling, landing on spaces, and playing mini-games. There’s a time commitment to that. Even a ten-turn game, which is on the small end, takes around an hour to complete. For a max of four players, that’s not a lot of fun for everyone else. All thumbs up for a game of Mario Party if it’s just you and three others, though.

10

Super Mario Party Jamboree

The Follow Up To The Premiere Digital Board Game

Where Mario Party Superstars is a sort of ‘hall of fame’ conglomeration of classic boards and mini games throughout Mario Party history, Super Mario Party Jamboree puts a greater focus on Originality. It offers a greater variety of characters, maps, mini games, items, and more.

Max Player Count

4 local, 20 online (select game modes)

This includes new mechanics like the buddy system (which is different from Super Mario Party’s buddy system, we promise) and alternate game modes. They even offer two different party settings for more casual or hardcore gamers accordingly. If you loved Superstars, then Jamboree is a fantastic follow-up.

9

Overcooked 1 Or 2

Feel The Chaos Of A Kitchen

Both of the Overcooked games are the perfect recipe for a party game. Each level is short, exciting, and (generally) has easy-to-understand rules. People can swap in and out on each level, and there’s plenty of replayability going on so that it stays fresh for everyone. However, there remains a secret ingredient that might make things go sour: a large serving of stress.

In Overcooked, you are a chef who needs to chop, cook, and prepare as many dishes as possible before time runs out. Too slow, and the level fails. While up to three friends can join, prioritizing your time and what ingredients you prepare can be tough. As tensions rise with the falling timer, so do voices. Before you know it, you’re yelling at your friends like Gordon Ramsey, calling the Best Man at your wedding an idiot sandwich. But if you can take the heat, it’s a tremendously fun time.

8

Pico Park

When Cooperation Is Key

Pico Park
Systems
super greyscale 8-bit logo


PC-1

Released

May 7, 2021

Developer(s)

Tecopark

Publisher(s)

Tecopark

ESRB

e

Want all of the cooperation without any of the timers? Then Pico Park may be more up your alley. In this minimally designed platformer, you and up to eight others must work together to solve puzzles and reach the end goal. It is one of the few games to offer split-screen multiplayer with more than four players, which makes it a particularly entertaining choice for larger groups at parties.

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How smooth and problem-free your experience is depends entirely on how mischievous your friends are. Since the game is designed for co-op, proper cooperation is required, and it takes only a little bit of playful rebellion to make levels take much longer. There’s no single-player mode, too. So this is a party-exclusive game.

7

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

It’s no surprise to see the hard hitter of Nintendo make an appearance. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the culmination of everything people love about Mario Kart. Select from a wide collection of Nintendo characters and race against each other on wild and creatively designed tracks with countless kart builds, all while using items to help and hinder as much as chaos sees fit.

Max Player Count

4 single console, 8 local, 12 online

It’s one of the most popular games of this decade for a reason. It’s tremendously fun, easy to pick up, and hard to put down. With each level being relatively short, you can easily get a rotation of players going at whatever event you’re at. It also has a massive potential player count, with four-person split screen, eight-person local connections, and up to 12 racers if done through an online connection.

6

Jackbox Party Pack – Any Of Them, Really

Assuming You’re Any Good At Improv

The video game for non-gamers, introducing Jackbox! Through some clever innovation, the Jackbox games allow numerous players to join a game through their smartphone by visiting a webpage. They can then participate from there. Each game included in a party pack is explained at the start, and each concept is easy to follow. All of this combines to be one of the most approachable games you’ll ever find at a party.

Max Player Count

16 plus Audience

Jackbox Party Pack 4 is, in our professional opinion, the best one. It offers five different games, each with a different style and theme. Fibbage 3 is the best one of the bunch, though. The biggest obstacle here is the level of social charisma that is sometimes needed to play. It requires creative thinking, improv, and humor. It’s not for the shy of heart.

5

Duck Game

A Silly But Competitive Multiplayer Platform Shooter

There’s been too much cooperative play; it’s time to duke duck it out. Duck Game is a fast-paced multiplayer platformer shooter game. Each participant is a duck in a silly hat who must quickly locate a weapon on the battlefield and use it to defeat the other. Everyone dies in one strike, and the countless weapons behave in unexpected ways.

Nothing lowers your opponent’s guard quite like pressing the ‘Quack’ button, by the way.

This all combines to make for split-section action and heart-pounding fun, delivered in one to two minute encounters. The game knows how to be silly, too. With quirky items, a button exclusively for quacking, and chaotic landscapes that lead to self-destruction more often than success, it’s a game that knows how to pull hearty laughter out of duck-on-duck violence.

4

Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes

Party Under Pressure

Technically a single-player game, technically a ‘however many people can read the manual at one time’ player game, Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes is an asymmetrical multiplayer game where one lone user has access to a ticking bomb covered in widgets. The only way to diffuse the bomb is to deactivate each module. But the process of doing so is so obtuse that it’s impossible to do it from memory.

Max Player Count

As many people as you can share Bomb Diffusal Manuals with

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Instead, you have one or more folks nearby with the official Bomb Diffusal Manual, which has a detailed breakdown of how to defuse every module. They can’t see the screen (or the bomb), though. So they need to communicate with you to solve everything before time runs out. It’s a perfect combination of tension, cooperation, and creativity. It’s a game anyone, even non-gamers, can enjoy without needing any extra screens, controllers, or gaming expertise.

3

Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics

Old School Gaming With Modern Convenience

Do you enjoy the classic games of the decades past? Want to play classics like Yahtzee, Go, Chess, Sorry, and Hanafuda but don’t want to fuss with the setup, breakdown, and remembering rules? That’s what Clubhouse Games is here for. As the name implies, this game contains 51 of the best board, card, and table games throughout history. Each one comes with visually stunning settings, convenient control schemes, and in-depth explanations of the rules.

What Clubhouse Games lacks in player count, it makes up for in approachability. Absolutely anyone will recognize a handful of the games available here. And it’s very easy to pop in and participate in a game or two before moving on or letting another person give it a try. Each game is famously fun for a reason, so you’re sure to have a good time.

2

Heave Ho

“Grab My Hand!”

Heave ho is the platformer equivalent of watching dogs struggle to run across a freshly polished kitchen floor; it’s the chaos and comedy of watching some poor fool struggle to maintain control. In Heave Ho, you control a head with two arms. You must manually open and close your left and right hands while moving your arms to navigate platforms and reach the goal bowl.

The magic happens when you introduce a few more players to the stage. In cooperative play, everyone needs to reach the end, with a handful of levels requiring cooperation to make it possible. Now you’re clunkily climbing over each other, flopping and failing, each death managing to tickle your funny bone another time. It’s a tremendously silly game, and each friend that joins in only amplifies the fun.

1

Super Smash Bros Ultimate

It’s Time To Smash

It comes as no surprise to see Super Smash Bros Ultimate close the list out. One of the most popular and beloved games on the entirety of the Nintendo Switch, it packs all the fun of a fighting game into a more dynamic and approachable format. And that isn’t to mention the sheer size of company IPs it pulls from. There’s only one game out there where Bowser can fight Samus Aran in a Pokemon arena.

You can also set up a tournament, which will allow, in a sense, as many as 32 individuals to participate in an ongoing tourney. You can even have Amiibo fighters fill in missing spots.

The game is easy to learn and tough to master, making it engaging for anyone familiar with a game controller. The diverse maps, characters, and items allow for nearly endless variety with each match. And with eight-player fights possible on a single screen, you can get plenty of folks in on each game. If you’re looking for any one game to put on at a party of gamers, this one WILL turn heads the entire time.

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