{"id":135561,"date":"2026-01-06T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-195833"},"modified":"2026-01-06T19:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T19:00:00","slug":"feature-nintendo-life-eshop-selects-december-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2026\/01\/06\/feature-nintendo-life-eshop-selects-december-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Feature: Nintendo Life eShop Selects (December 2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/91e9d815c552e\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/91e9d815c552e\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<figure class=\"picture\" data-uuid=\"91e9d815c552e\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"eShop Selects December 2025\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/91e9d815c552e\/eshop-selects-december-2025.large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/91e9d815c552e\/eshop-selects-december-2025.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" alt=\"eShop Selects December 2025\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\"><em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Image: Nintendo Life<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Hello and welcome to 2026 <em>and<\/em> the first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/tags\/eshop-selects\">eShop Selects<\/a> of the year. You made it! Congrats!<\/p>\n<p>Of course, we start the year off by looking at the last month of 2025, December. And boy, what a December we had \u2014 probably one of the most-stacked we&#8217;ve ever had, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch-2\/metroid-prime-4-beyond-nintendo-switch-2-edition\">Metroid Prime 4: Beyond<\/a>&#8216;s release and a bunch of surprise Nintendo Switch 2 Editions.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, that means the eShop has been pretty busy, with some genuine surprises sneaking in before the Holiday season. So we&#8217;ve voted for the best of the best of the digital-only selection. The reles, as always: our writers and contributors vote for their top three eShop games from December 2025 from titles we&#8217;ve reviewed, and the three games with the highest scores will make the podium.<\/p>\n<p>Alrighty then, let&#8217;s have a look at the very best of December&#8217;s eShop releases.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cache: html:nintendolife.com\/ssl\/switch-eshop\/related-articles:195306,181925 @ 1767778357 --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"block object-related\"> <\/aside>\n<h3>Honourable mentions<\/h3>\n<p>We don&#8217;t think anyone was expecting the amount of game releases we got in December 2025. Usually, the end of the year is a little quieter, but we were kept rather busy in the run up to Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, there are two bigger games we haven&#8217;t had the chance to review yet \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch-2\/stardew-valley-nintendo-switch-2-edition\">Stardew Valley: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition<\/a> dropped on Christmas Day in the US, and we&#8217;re working on covering that very soon. And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch-2\/cast-n-chill-nintendo-switch-2-edition\">Cast n Chill<\/a>, which (now-former) Nintendo Lifer Felix <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/features\/games-of-the-year-2025-nintendo-life-staff-picks\">ranks among his favourite games of the year<\/a>, also slipped through the cracks of a busy festive period.<\/p>\n<p>That leaves us with a total of eight games that scored an 8\/\/10 or above that are eShop exclusives (at the time of writing this). Here&#8217;s the five that didn&#8217;t quite make the top in a closely-fought battle of votes:<\/p>\n<div class=\"list\">\n<div class=\"list-item\">\n<aside class=\"list-hero\" data-subject=\"games\/nintendo-switch-2\/marvel-cosmic-invasion\">\n<div class=\"scanlines-before\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/96a8bce92d5dc\/marvel-cosmic-invasion-artwork.900x250.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"250\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"3rd Place - Marvel Cosmic Invasion (Switch 1 &amp; 2)\"><\/div>\n<p><a class=\"cover scanlines\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch-2\/marvel-cosmic-invasion\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/3b736da686c96\/marvel-cosmic-invasion-cover.cover_small.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"244\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"3rd Place - Marvel Cosmic Invasion (Switch 1 &amp; 2)\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"list-hero-info\">\n<p><span>Publisher: <\/span><strong>Dotemu<\/strong> \/ <span>Developer: <\/span><strong>Tribute Games<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"release\"><span>Release Date: <\/span><strong>1st Dec 2025 (<abbr title=\"United States \/ North America\">USA<\/abbr>)<\/strong> \/ <strong>1st Dec 2025 (<abbr title=\"UK \/ European\">UK\/EU<\/abbr>)<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"picture embed pictures\" id=\"screenshots\"><\/aside>\n<p>Trust Tribute Games to give us a near-perfect Marvel beat &#8217;em up in the same vein as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/teenage_mutant_ninja_turtles_shredders_revenge\">TMNT: Shredder&#8217;s Revenge<\/a>. And that&#8217;s exactly what <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch-2\/marvel-cosmic-invasion\">Marvel Cosmic Invasion<\/a> is \u2014 not only a love letter to Marvel&#8217;s rich comic book history, but a beautiful and excellent arcade side-scroller.<\/p>\n<p>The roster is surprisingly robust and varied here, with every character feeling extremely distinct. And with the tag-team mechanic, you can play through the game multiple times with your favourite pairings and change things up as many times as you want. Add in the unlockable hard mode, and you have your new favourite co-op experience with a friend.<\/p>\n<p>Available on both Switch 1 and 2 \u2014 and fantastic on both platforms \u2014 we scored the game <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/marvel-cosmic-invasion\">an 8\/10<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cache: html:nintendolife.com\/ssl\/switch-eshop\/related-articles:195164,194231 @ 1767777058 --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"block object-related\"> <\/aside>\n<p class=\"disclaimer\">Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/advertising\">FTC Disclosure<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"article-products article-products-list\">\n<div class=\"items\">\n<div class=\"item\" data-product-id=\"31125\">\n<div class=\"image\"><a class=\"external\" rel=\"sponsored noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/nintendolife.com\/p\/31125\/195833\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/products\/31125\/100x100.jpg\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Marvel Cosmic Invasion - Switch 2\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"list-item\">\n<aside class=\"list-hero\" data-subject=\"games\/nintendo-switch-2\/sonic-racing-crossworlds-nintendo-switch-2-edition\">\n<div class=\"scanlines-before\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/8c7e381abc91f\/sonic-racing-crossworlds-nintendo-switch-2-edition-artwork.900x250.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"250\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"2nd Place - Sonic Racing CrossWorlds -(Switch 2)\"><\/div>\n<p><a class=\"cover scanlines\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch-2\/sonic-racing-crossworlds-nintendo-switch-2-edition\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/5dfebb8343a58\/sonic-racing-crossworlds-nintendo-switch-2-edition-cover.cover_small.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"2nd Place - Sonic Racing CrossWorlds -(Switch 2)\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"list-hero-info\">\n<p><span>Publisher: <\/span><strong>SEGA<\/strong> \/ <span>Developer: <\/span><strong>SEGA<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"release\"><span>Release Date: <\/span><strong>3rd Dec 2025 (<abbr title=\"United States \/ North America\">USA<\/abbr>)<\/strong> \/ <strong>4th Dec 2025 (<abbr title=\"UK \/ European\">UK\/EU<\/abbr>)<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"picture embed pictures\" id=\"screenshots\"><\/aside>\n<p>Surprise! Speeding onto Switch 2 at the end of the 2025, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is <em>finally<\/em> fully realised on the newer console. Yes, it is getting a full physical later in 2026, but right now, this is a digital-only purchase or upgrade.<\/p>\n<p>Thank goodness for this port, too, as CrossWorlds really struggled on the older hardware. Here, it&#8217;s beautifully smooth with sharper resolutions and 60fps in both docked and handheld mode; all the other excellent bells and whistles are in tact, meaning this excellent racer can stand alongside Mario Kart World as one of the system&#8217;s best, at least in the early days.<\/p>\n<p>The Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds scored an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/nintendo-switch-2\/sonic-racing-crossworlds-nintendo-switch-2-edition\">8\/10 from us<\/a>, and there&#8217;s more free content and DLC to come in the future.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cache: html:nintendolife.com\/ssl\/switch-eshop\/related-articles:194831 @ 1767777058 --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"block object-related\"> <\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"list-item\">\n<aside class=\"list-hero\" data-subject=\"games\/switch-eshop\/despelote\">\n<div class=\"scanlines-before\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/1c7479f59334a\/despelote-artwork.900x250.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"250\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"1st Place - despelote (Switch 1)\"><\/div>\n<p><a class=\"cover scanlines\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/despelote\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/0090a402faeba\/despelote-cover.cover_small.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"1st Place - despelote (Switch 1)\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"list-hero-info\">\n<p><span>Publisher: <\/span><strong>Panic<\/strong> \/ <span>Developer: <\/span><strong>Juli\u00e1n Cordero<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"release\"><span>Release Date: <\/span><strong>11th Dec 2025 (<abbr title=\"United States \/ North America\">USA<\/abbr>)<\/strong> \/ <strong>13th Jan 2026 (<abbr title=\"UK \/ European\">UK\/EU<\/abbr>)<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"picture embed pictures\" id=\"screenshots\"><\/aside>\n<p>One of 2025&#8217;s very best games released on other platforms earlier in 2025 \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.purexbox.com\/news\/2025\/12\/nobodys-really-heard-of-it-but-this-is-one-of-my-xbox-games-of-the-year-for-2025\" class=\"external\">Pure Xbox<\/a> is among the outlets celebrating it \u2014 and it <em>just<\/em> managed to squeak its way onto Switch in December. And thank goodness, because <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/despelote\">despelote<\/a> is a special one, and it barely beat out Sonic to win December&#8217;s eShop Selects.<\/p>\n<p>This short, sweet game follows Juli\u00e1n as he reflects on the time Ecuador qualified for the 2002 World Cup. This is not a soccer game, though \u2014 it&#8217;s a beautiful narrative tale about Juli\u00e1n&#8217;s experience growing up amidst this fervour. It&#8217;s largely flown under the radar, but those who have played it have raved about it. And we&#8217;re joining the chorus.<\/p>\n<p>despelote scored <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/despelote\">a well-deserved 9\/10 from us<\/a> and takes the final eShop Selects trophy of 2025.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cache: html:nintendolife.com\/ssl\/switch-eshop\/related-articles:195236 @ 1767779311 --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"block object-related\"> <\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/features\/nintendo-life-eshop-selects-november-2025\"><strong>&lt; Nintendo eShop Selects &#8211; November 2025<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Do you agree with our ranking? Tell us about your favourite eShop releases of last month by voting in our poll and sharing your thoughts in the comments.<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"poll-11393\" class=\"poll\" data-uri=\"polls\/whats_your_favourite_december_2025_eshop_game_from_our_picks\" data-id=\"11393\" data-question=\"What's your favourite December 2025 eShop game from our picks?\">\n<div class=\"results hidden\">\n<h3 data-toc=\"skip\">What&#8217;s your favourite December 2025 eShop game from our picks? (120 votes)<\/h3>\n<ol class=\"poll-results\">\n<li class=\"result first\"><strong class=\"answer\">despelote (Switch eShop)<\/strong><span class=\"votes\"><span title=\"9 votes (7.5%)\"><span class=\"bar accent-bg has-votes\" data-value=\"8\"><span class=\"val\">8<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"result\"><strong class=\"answer\">Divinity: Original Sin 2 &#8211; Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (Switch 2)<\/strong><span class=\"votes\"><span title=\"15 votes (12.5%)\"><span class=\"bar accent-bg has-votes\" data-value=\"13\"><span class=\"val\">13<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"result\"><strong class=\"answer\">Marvel Cosmic Invasion (Switch 2)<\/strong><span class=\"votes\"><span title=\"34 votes (28.3%)\"><span class=\"bar accent-bg has-votes\" data-value=\"28\"><span class=\"val\">28<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"result\"><strong class=\"answer\">Red Dead Redemption: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (Switch 2)<\/strong><span class=\"votes\"><span title=\"20 votes (16.7%)\"><span class=\"bar accent-bg has-votes\" data-value=\"17\"><span class=\"val\">17<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"result\"><strong class=\"answer\">Simogo Legacy Collection &#8211; Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (Switch 2)<\/strong><span class=\"votes\"><span title=\"2 votes (1.7%)\"><span class=\"bar accent-bg has-votes\" data-value=\"2\"><span class=\"val\">2<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"result\"><strong class=\"answer\">Skate Story (Switch 2)<\/strong><span class=\"votes\"><span title=\"5 votes (4.2%)\"><span class=\"bar accent-bg has-votes\" data-value=\"4\"><span class=\"val\">4<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"result\"><strong class=\"answer\">Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds &#8211; Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (Switch 2)<\/strong><span class=\"votes\"><span title=\"16 votes (13.3%)\"><span class=\"bar accent-bg has-votes\" data-value=\"13\"><span class=\"val\">13<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"result last\"><strong class=\"answer\">The Rogue Prince of Persia (Switch 2)<\/strong><span class=\"votes\"><span title=\"19 votes (15.8%)\"><span class=\"bar accent-bg has-votes\" data-value=\"16\"><span class=\"val\">16<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>How we decide our eShop Selects top three:<\/strong> As we reach the end of every month, the Nintendo Life staff vote on their favourite titles from a list of games selected by the editorial team. To qualify for this list, these games must have been released as a digital-only Nintendo Switch eShop title in that particular month, and must have been reviewed on Nintendo Life; we select the qualifying games based on their review scores.<\/p>\n<p>Staff are then asked to vote for three games that they think deserve to sit right at the very top of that list; first choice gets three points, second choice gets two points, and third choice gets one point. These votes are then tallied to create a top-three list, with the overall winner taking that month&#8217;s top prize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image: Nintendo Life Hello and welcome to 2026 and the first eShop Selects of the year. You made it! Congrats! Of course, we start the year off by looking at the last month of 2025, December. And boy, what a December we had \u2014 probably one of the most-stacked we&#8217;ve ever had, including Metroid Prime [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}