Since the SNES, various technical hurdles (and sometimes other obstacles such as low sales and politics) have meant that third party support on Nintendo systems hasn't been as abundant as rival consoles. 

With this year shaping up to be stronger in this regard than we've seen in quite some time, which do you think is the best year for third party titles on Nintendo since the end of the SNES gen, and what's your reasoning as to why?

Edit: I need to read the thread topic more lol. 

2003 GameCube
Prince of Pérsia
Splinter Cell
Beyond good evil
Burnout
Soul calibur 2
NFS
Ssx
Many sports games

Considering most 3rd party games are dropping as Game Key Cards with the Switch 2... I don't even consider them a proper "release" in my eyes.
So for me personally, the Switch 2 has faltered.

Switch 1 in 2020 is hard to beat though with:
* Doom eternal.
* Ori and the will of the Wisps.
* Trials of Mana.
* Outerworlds.
* Metro Redux.
* X Com 2.
* Crysis Remastered.

I did find 2020's line-up underrated myself; of those though Doom Eternal, Crysis Remastered, and Ori didn't get proper physical releases, just limited specialty runs, and Outer Worlds and XCOM 2 required a download, so it wasn't really much different from today.

2019 was quite good, I played a ton of games from that year, and I still play these games to this day.
Witcher 3
Dragon Quest 11
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
Final Fantasy 7 Remastered
Final Fantasy 8 Remastered
Final Fantasy X Remastered
Ni No Kuni
Collection of Mana
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Astral Chain
Resident Evil 4 (though, I’d still say the Wii version is the definitive)
Contra; Anniversary Collection
Terraria


2008 is simply hands down the year I have most games from of any year ever, including SNES. It is also the year that Nintendo sold over 55 million pieces of hardware.
Disaster Day of Crisis
Manhunt 2
Trauma Center New Blood
Dragon Quest 4 DS
Final Fantasy 4 DS
Dragon Quest 5 DS
The World Ends with You
Chrono Trigger DS
Dragon Quest Swords
Just Dance
Zack and Wiki
No More Heroes
House of the Dead 2&3
Okami
PGA World Tour 09
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Geometry Wars: Galaxies
NiGHTS 2
Mario and Sonic and the Olympic Games
Disagree DS
Populous DS
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Rune Factory 2
Trauma Center 2
Contra 4
StarTropics
Harvest Moon
River City Ransom (Street Gangs)
Double Dragon
Street Fighter II
Super Mario RPG
Secret of Mana
Phantasy Star II
Shining Force II
Phantasy Star IV
Metal Slug 1 & 2

Also, if you liked Guitar Hero, DDR, and that sort of thing, they had like 12 of those that year.
I was playing the VC games fairly regularly until around the end of the Covid era, and still play them from time to time to this day, although less so now since many of the games are now on Switch. Unfortunately, I made the monumental mistake of transferring all my games to the Wii U, which I still have hooked up to this day to play Wii games... although, this is in my gym, where I have my old TV set up.

If there was one thing I wish Nintendo would have done... carried the Virtual Console over so we could keep our libraries. I wouldn't have even cared if we needed to pay a fee for each game... I just want them all in one place.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but haven’t Switch 2 software sales for far been like 70%+ first party? Which is actually considerably higher than the average for the Switch I believe.

Yes, sales for third party have been pretty poor. We're looking at about 10m for all third party combined as of end of 2025. Which means an Attach rate of just 0.66 for every third party combined.

So Cyberpunk, Hogwarts, Streetfighter, Yakuza 0, Tony Hawks, WWE, Madden, SW Outlaws, EA FC, NBA, Persona 3, AC Shadows and Kiwami 1/2 plus many more smaller titles only 10m combined.

While first party sold around 27m. Whether that's because of keycards or just Nintendo software dominating to third party's detriment on the system who knows. Let's see how they do in 2026.

On a personal level I don't see it as a platform I'll use for third parties long term.

I intend to get some AAA third party games for SW2, which I didn't expect at all before. But for me the performance is basically just at "good enough". Which for a brand new system doesn't bode well for how I'll feel about it's performance a few years from now. I doubt I'll still get demanding multiplatform titles on it 3-4 years from now.

They all run from cart for me. Some are Limited Run Game releases though that I have.
Ori for instance has all patches and content on cart, but being the AU release which is based on the EU release, things might be different in the old US of A.

I'm actually in Australia too. :)

I don't have XCOM 2 but looking online the cover has the download required label, while I did pick up Outer Worlds on cart myself and IIRC it needed half the game to be downloaded. (It was 5 years ago now so my memory's not 100% but I'm pretty sure and online the cover also says download required)

At any rate, I do agree third parties kinda saved Switch's 2020 as Nintendo's first party lineup was kinda weak.