Biggest pleasant surprise of the Switch era

[Doctor_MG]

I honestly have a couple big positive surprises.

1) Xenoblade Chronicles 2: I did not own a Wii U (initially, I did buy one a few years after the Switch) and I was not in a good position to buy new games when the original came along. When they announced and showed of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 I thought I'd give it a shot, since I heard such good things about the other games. For the first ten or so hours I was actually bored and I thought it just wasn't a game for me, then it just clicked and I was absolutely hooked. It took me a long time to beat the game due to work and school, but it's absolutely one of my favorites for Switch, and it helped me buy both Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and X as well.

2) Ring Fit Adventure: When this game was announced (just dropped out of the blue if I recall correctly) I thought "Oh, of course. Nintendo is being Nintendo. This will drop like Labo). Months after it launched I didn't really hear about it. Then the pandemic hit and I couldn't go to the gym anymore. My girlfriend saw the game and really wanted it, so I was able to pick up the very last one at a store for Easter (this is when it was notably hard to come by). I thought I'd try it and give up on it and let it be her thing, but I've sunk so many hours into that game, and I still have more to do. I've only stopped using it because I'm now incredibly busy with both work and my graduate degree, but I cannot tell you how great of a workout and game this is. It's much better than Wii Fit in pretty much every way, and my only complaint is with the joycon disconnections and not the game itself. Even then, it's very rare for me.

3) Metroid Dread: I have to admit, I was never great at 2D Metroid games. The first Metroid game I ever played was Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and I really enjoyed it. I tried to get into the other games that weren't part of the Prime series, but I just wasn't good at them. I purchased Samus Returns for the 3DS, and didn't finish it. I just had game ADHD and kept switching to other things, then I'd come back and have no idea where to go. Metroid Dread not only influenced me to go back and play the entire Metroid series again and beat each and every 2D game, but the game itself is absolutely phenomenal and really gives me hope for the Metroid series as a whole. So far sales look fantastic, and I hope this is the much needed boost in both quality and sales that fans of the Metroid series haven't had in well over a decade.