The short answer

There were already plenty of reasons to put a Switch 2 in the middle of the family room, but games made the difference between a lovely bit of hardware and something everyone actually asked to play. At the time of writing, the shortlist is admirably focused. Nintendo Mario Kart World is the natural first purchase for most households: a colourful kart racer with local and online multiplayer, a genuinely broad racing format and enough immediacy to get people playing before the kettle has boiled.

Nintendo Splatoon Raiders, released on 23 July 2026, was the more specialised recommendation. It is a story-led Splatoon spin-off in which you play a mechanic alongside Deep Cut, customise your character and mechanical gadgets, use ink-splattering weapons and raid the Spirhalite Islands for treasure. It has cooperative play for up to four players locally or online, with difficulty adjusted according to player count. That makes it a rather different sort of family proposition: less "pass the controller after the next race", more "shall we tackle one more wave together?"

Neither game is trying to do the other's job. Mario Kart World is the better all-rounder for a mixed group. Splatoon Raiders is the better choice for a household that wants a shared co-op adventure with a story and a little more continuity between sessions. It is pleasingly simple, really. The hard bit is deciding whose turn it is.

At a glance: the current family shortlist

This guide is deliberately a shortlist rather than a desperate attempt to turn every available game into an award winner. For a family room, the important distinction is not whether a game has a famous character on its cover. It is whether its structure gives different people a useful way to join in. One offers quick competitive races and broad multiplayer. The other offers cooperative island raiding, a continuing story and difficulty that responds to the size of the team.

How we separated a good game from a good family game

I have a soft spot for games that are brilliant in theory and then require a 40-minute explanation, three diagrams and a child to have learned accounting. They have their place. The family living room is usually not that place. This roundup prioritises games with a clear communal role: local play, online play that can extend the group, or a cooperative structure that gives a household a reason to return together.

That is why Mario Kart World ranked first despite Splatoon Raiders having the more focused co-op system. Racing is unusually forgiving as a social format. A family can have one person who is fiercely invested in winning, another who simply likes finding a favourite character, and a third who has only appeared because they heard shouting. All three can still have a proper part in the event. Mario Kart World also added elimination mode, off-roading techniques and unlockable costumes, so it was not merely a familiar kart game wearing a new number.

Splatoon Raiders earned its place because it deliberately changes the rhythm. Its premise begins when the helicopter carrying Deep Cut is forced down by a strange storm on the Spirhalite Islands. After a month of preparation, the group heads out to raid for treasure. That is a useful framework for a co-op game: there is a destination, a team and a reason for the session to feel like more than a string of disconnected matches. The Salmonid waves also give the group a shared problem. Sometimes that is exactly what a competitive household needs.

Ranked picks

1. Nintendo Mario Kart World — Best for the whole household

Shop Nintendo Mario Kart World on Amazon UK

Mario Kart World was released worldwide on 5 June 2025, alongside Switch 2, and it quickly became the system's defining communal game. By the end of June 2026 it had sold 15.39 million copies, making it the best-selling Switch 2 game. Sales figures do not decide whether your family will love something, of course. They do, however, underline what became immediately clear in real homes: this was the game people understood without a meeting.

Its central appeal remained gloriously direct. Pick a Mario character, race against opponents and try to finish first. But World broadened that familiar foundation with an open-world design, off-roading techniques, elimination mode and unlockable costumes. The result is a game that can be approached at different levels. Someone can enjoy the basic fact that they are driving around a big, bright Nintendo world. Somebody else can care deeply about the line through a course, a new technique or getting the costume they wanted. Both are valid. Both will probably complain about a blue shell.

The 24-player race support is the headline number. For a living-room household, its real benefit is the sense of occasion it brings when you take play online. A race can feel much bigger than the people physically on the sofa, while local multiplayer keeps the room itself involved. Nintendo also sold Joy-Con 2 Steering Wheel controllers in a two-pack for $20, with controllers attaching magnetically to the wheels. They are an optional flourish rather than a condition of fun, but they make the driving gesture instantly legible to anyone who has wandered in halfway through.

Mario Kart World was built for the lively side of family play: pick a character, line up, race, laugh, and somehow become very invested in the result.

2. Nintendo Splatoon Raiders — Best for cooperative adventures

Shop Nintendo Splatoon Raiders on Amazon UK

Splatoon Raiders arrived on 23 July 2026, so it had been out for just under three weeks by Wednesday 12 August 2026. That matters because it should be judged for what it actually is, rather than forced into a comparison with Mario Kart World simply because both are excellent reasons to gather around a Switch 2. Raiders is primarily a single-player, story-focused third-person shooter spin-off. Its cooperative mode, though, gives it a very credible family-living-room role.

You play as a mechanic working with Deep Cut after their helicopter makes an emergency landing on the Spirhalite Islands during a strange storm. Following a month of preparation, the crew sets out to raid the islands for treasure. The core activity combines character customisation, mechanical gadgets, ink-splattering weapons and battles against waves of Salmonids. There is a nice practical logic to that combination: the mechanic identity makes gadgets feel central, whilst the waves create problems for the entire team rather than asking four people to pursue separate objectives in the same room.

Co-op supported up to four players locally or online, and the game adjusted difficulty according to the number of players. That is the most family-friendly detail in the whole pitch. A full four-player group and a smaller session do not need to be treated as identical experiences. It also means the game has a useful life beyond the one big evening when everyone happened to be free. A pair can continue the raid; a larger group can come back later. Nobody has to pretend that coordinating four calendars is easy.

Splatoon Raiders sent Deep Cut and the player's custom mechanic to the Spirhalite Islands, where treasure raids and Salmonid waves became the cooperative focus.

Head-to-head: which game fits your evenings?

The simplest comparison is competitive racing versus cooperative raiding, but that sells both games short. Mario Kart World is about immediate shared spectacle. It can become the thing a household puts on because the group has 20 minutes and wants a winner. Splatoon Raiders has more of a "let's continue" quality. Its story, islands, customisation and Deep Cut partnership create a reason to return to the same adventure.

Neither column "wins" outright. If the most important word in your household is together, Splatoon Raiders has the cleaner answer. If the most important word is everyone, especially when relatives or friends are involved, Mario Kart World has the broader social reach. The latter was also the safer single-game purchase because racing requires so little explanation. It has the sort of premise that can be understood while somebody is still holding a bowl of crisps.

The key choice was not graphical flourish or a spec-sheet contest: it was whether your household preferred a 24-player race occasion or a four-player cooperative expedition.

Prices and editions worth knowing

Game pricing was one of the more meaningful differences between these two recommendations. Mario Kart World's US digital price was $80. Splatoon Raiders cost $49.99 digitally in the US, £41.99 digitally in the UK, and had an official physical MSRP of $59.99 in the US and £49.99 in the UK. Those are useful figures for households deciding whether their first additional Switch 2 game should be a big communal racer or a more contained co-op adventure.

There is a small but important trap in treating a game's price as its entire living-room cost. Mario Kart World had optional Joy-Con 2 Steering Wheel controllers available in a two-pack for $20. They are not required, and nobody should feel obliged to kit out the lounge like a miniature driving school. Still, if physical steering gestures are part of the appeal for your group, that accessory is part of the purchasing conversation. Splatoon Raiders, by contrast, put its appeal in the team structure and tools within the game rather than an additional controller format.

How to choose for your household

Choose Mario Kart World if the console needs to be a social magnet. It is the recommendation for the family that wants short, lively sessions, familiar characters and a game that can turn a visiting friend into a participant without a tutorial. It also makes particular sense where online play is part of the plan: the 24-player race support gives it a scale that Splatoon Raiders is not trying to match.

Choose Splatoon Raiders if competition has a tendency to become a full constitutional crisis in your home. Its co-op mode shifts the focus from beating the person beside you to handling Salmonid waves, working through the island raids and building a shared story. The player-count-based difficulty adjustment is a strong reason to choose it when the number of people playing varies from session to session.

The optional Joy-Con 2 Steering Wheel two-pack cost $20 in the US and attached magnetically, adding a more physical flourish to Mario Kart World races.

Best-for awards

There are only two ranked picks here, but their roles are clear enough that the awards are not filler. Think of them as a quick way to match the game to the people actually on your sofa, rather than the imaginary household that never argues, always has four players available and somehow keeps the snacks out of the cushions.

Who should buy which?

Our family-room buying advice

If I were buying only one Switch 2 title for a broadly mixed family room, I would start with Mario Kart World. It is not because it has to be played in one particular way; it is because it supports different levels of investment gracefully. One person can care about off-roading techniques. Another can care about unlocking costumes. A third can simply care about beating Dad. It all lands in the same race.

But I would not dismiss Splatoon Raiders as "the second one" in any pejorative sense. It solves a different problem. Families do not only need games that fill a room; they also need games that bring a smaller group together without making somebody the permanent loser. The adaptive co-op difficulty is therefore more than a bullet point. It is the feature that makes a two-player weekday session and a fuller weekend group feel like part of the same game.

The ideal collection contains both. Start with the one that matches your home's current habits. Add the other when you want the opposite kind of evening. It is a better approach than buying two games that both ask the household to do the same thing, then discovering that everyone had quietly wanted some variety all along.

A well-chosen Switch 2 living-room library benefits from contrast: Mario Kart World for shared competition, Splatoon Raiders for shared problem-solving.

Frequently asked questions

For most homes, Mario Kart World was the first buy; Splatoon Raiders was the excellent companion game when the family wanted to work together instead.