Another month, another whopping great eShop sale to peruse, and another round up from your friends at NL who over the years have reviewed a hefty chunk of Switch games.
Indeed, a quick look in our backend (steady!) shows we’ve got… blimey… 3,415 Switch 1 & 2 game reviews live at the time of writing. We’ve been busy since 2017!
Looking at the games in Nintendo’s European “FIND SAVE PLAY” eShop sale, there’s 130 by our count that we’ve scored 9/10+. We’ve consolidated some of those into the entries below and added any we couldn’t fit in the list at the very end.
As ever, if you’re looking to grab some eShop credit before diving in, we’ve got you covered with the following links from our store.
£14.99 (-70% off) £49.99
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is a wonderful achievement for dynamic storytelling, as it puts forth a compelling and multifaceted narrative that’ll keep you guessing right up until the very end.
This excellent story, combined with enjoyable combat portions, a striking art style, and some top-notch voice acting make for an experience that you shouldn’t miss. It’s the kind of game that’ll have you wishing that you could play it again for the first time, just so all its best elements could be new again.
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£3.74 (-75% off) £14.99
Abzû is certainly a standout release on the eShop, offering up an experience that breaks from the norm of goal-based gaming in favour of something that’s more focused on simply existing in a world and enjoying all its little intricacies.
Those of you who appreciate casual adventures like taking a walk in a forest will be sure to enjoy what Giant Squid has to offer, as the dreamlike visuals, entrancing orchestral score, and deliberately sedate pace do a fantastic job of drawing the player into this alien world. Abzû isn’t a game about winning, but about the journey you take getting there.
£3.74 (-75% off) £14.99
Aegis Defenders is a fantastic game, brilliantly blending the tower defence and platforming genres in a unique way to produce a memorable and enjoyable experience.
Lovable characters, interesting lore, plenty of secrets, engaging gameplay, and gorgeous presentation combine to make this a must-have for your Switch, a real gem on the eShop.
£9.99 (-23% off) £12.99
Alien: Isolation is a survival horror masterpiece and straight-up one of the very best horror video games ever released.
It’s a nerve-wracking affair — a slow, methodical game of cat and mouse against a brilliantly clever recreation of one of cinema’s most infamous killers — but if you’re up to the task you’ll find one of the most satisfying gameplay experiences in the genre; a brilliant and beautiful homage to one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time.
Feral Interactive has done a stellar job with this Switch port and the excellent motion controls and inclusion of all previously-released DLC only go to sweeten the deal. This is essential stuff for survival horror fans.
£4.72 (-65% off) £13.49
Alwa’s Legacy is an excellent example of how to do a proper sequel; it takes everything that Alwa’s Awakening did well and builds on it, adds in a few new ideas of its own, and corrects the issues that were previously present.
It may be a little on the short side, but Alwa’s Legacy is the special sort of game that only comes around once in a great while, reminding you of the kind of quality that’s possible when a dedicated crew puts in the time to make a polished and tightly designed final product.
£1.88 (-86% off) £13.49
The Nintendo eShop would be a considerably more exciting and interesting place if it were packed full of games like Ape Out. It’s a refreshingly original experience that more than deserves a place in any Switch owner’s library.
Difficult, frenetic gameplay, strong art direction, and an even stronger jazz drum soundtrack make this the sort of memorable game that you’ll likely keep coming back to over and over for another few runs in arcade mode. Ape Out gets a strong recommendation to anyone looking for a distinct and unforgettable game for their Switch collection; it’s a bit of an acquired taste, but well worth your time.
£19.99 (-50% off) £39.98
We genuinely can’t believe how lucky we are that the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy games exist, let alone that they’ve been lovingly polished up for the Switch. Here is some of the best writing you’ll find on the console, and it’s a steal for all three games plus extras.
A couple of bumps here and there are to be expected with such a wealth of content (three games, DLC, and extras), but they barely leave a dent on the brilliance of this well-written and beautifully illustrated trilogy.
And if you can’t get enough Ace Attorneys, both the Phoenix Wright Trilogy and The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles are on sale, too.
£5.99 (-50% off) £11.99
Archvale is a triumphant bullet-hell/RPG genre mashup. Although you could argue its similarity to one or two recent releases, it trumps the competition with incredibly slick combat, simple and satisfying progression, and varied environments and enemies.
The difficulty ramps up heavily as you progress to the later levels, so the inability to change difficulty on the fly may prove a bit of an issue for some players. Push through, however, and you’ll find Archvale to be one of the most satisfying twin-stick games available right now.
£3.74 (-75% off) £14.99
Axiom Verge on Switch is truly an outstanding port of an outstanding game, no more and no less.
We would strongly urge those of you who missed this game on other platforms to pick it up here; this is the full Axiom Verge experience, and it’s available in a format that supports both handheld and home play. A fantastic example of how to do a Metroidvania right.
£2.69 (-80% off) £13.49
A slice of Viking strategic combat right out of the heart of Scandinavia’s indie development scene, Bad North was at the vanguard of a wave of smart yet intrinsically accessible real-time strategy titles.
Swedish developer Plausible Concept calls it ‘micro-strategy’ and it’s the perfect encapsulation of a minimalist approach that covers everything from unit management to the Monument Valley-style isometric art style.
With enough enemy variance to convince you you’re playing an interactive episode of the Vikings TV show, this endlessly entertaining sea of bitesize battles will teach you to fear — and love — the sound of the oncoming horde.
£10.23 (-20% off) £12.79
Balatro is a roguelike for gamers who don’t like roguelikes… and then everybody else on top of that. It utterly nails what it sets out to do, providing an instantly accessible, satisfying, and addictive gameplay loop that anybody can grasp.
It’s an immensely enjoyable experience from the start, but as you get deeper in, there’s really nothing else quite like it. Sublime.
It’s out on Switch 2, too, although that version isn’t on sale. Beware that there’s no upgrading or cross-save between versions.
£10.79 (-20% off) £13.49
BALL x PIT is a tremendous brew of so many ideas it ought to collapse under the confusion. However, it operates in such perfect balance that it appeals both to the one-more-go instinct and to more cerebral planning and creativity. Kenny Sun Studios set itself a heck of a challenge but, fortunately, hasn’t dropped the ball.
It’s out on Switch 2, too – and the upgrade is free.
£8.74 (-75% off) £34.99
BlazBlue CentralFiction Special Edition may have arrived a few years late on Switch, but that delay didn’t dull the sharpness of its 2D fighting package.
Not only does it give the Ragna saga a proper send-off with a story mode that’s so rich in character development it could be a full anime season in its own right, but it offers a staggering number of modes to keep you playing long after the credits roll. It runs silky-smooth docked or in handheld modes and runs like a dream online.
The lack of an English dub still rankles, and new adopters are going to have to do a lot of research to understand what’s going on, but it’s well worth the effort.
BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle is also on sale.
£15.74 (-30% off) £22.49
It looks like The Witness and it plays a bit like StreetPass Garden, but Botany Manor blooms into something that’s not only entirely its own, but also something quite special. Don’t let its cosy aesthetics fool you — Botany Manor is packed with nicely challenging, well-designed puzzles, and isn’t afraid to tackle heavy subjects, too.
£22.74 (-35% off) £34.99
Capcom Fighting Collection 2 brings an incredibly strong roster of classic arcade fighters to Nintendo Switch in one of the best compendiums of its work to date.
This is top-notch fare, a slew of incredible games, some appearing for the first time since their original releases, replete with rollback netcode for online play, tons of unlockables, Japanese versions of all eight titles, and modern training modes to catch you up to speed.
With both Power Stones, an unbeatable Capcom vs SNK double bill and Project Justice leading the charge, there’s really very little to complain about here. Excellent stuff.
Capcom has loads on sale, so check out the Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle, Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, and Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection if you like brawling.
£3.59 (-80% off) £17.99
Card Shark is the kind of game that at first blush seems like it just won’t work. Lots of dialogue bookended by brief, simplistic minigame sequences seems like it would make for an experience that would lose its lustre quickly, yet we couldn’t put it down.
Witty writing, high-stakes gameplay, and a gorgeous art style all come together here to make for a game that’s well-executed and unique in its appeal. If you’re looking to try something awesome that notably bucks most modern gaming trends, Card Shark is absolutely something we’d recommend, well worth your time and money.
£8.99 (-80% off) £44.99
Catherine: Full Body is a fantastic revamp of a bona fide cult classic. With an excellent new character and several new endings slickly inserted into an already highly entertaining narrative – not to mention a slew of fun new modes – this is the definitive version of an outstanding game.
If you’ve never played Catherine before, then you’re in for an absolute treat, and if you have, we’d say there’s enough new content here to make it worth diving in all over again.
£8.54 (-50% off) £17.09
As an adventure game, Chicory: A Colorful Tale is quite sincerely up there with the very best of the genre.
There’s plenty to see and do and a full completion run will probably take you 25-30 hours. The characters and their travails are rich and likeable, the game’s sense of humour is generally inspired, and it’s all very sweet without being sugary-twee and talking down to the player. It’s also an affecting little tearjerker that will definitely strike a chord if you make art, and almost certainly will even if you don’t – so long as you’re capable of pretty basic empathy.
Chicory is simple to play but impressively long and complex, with perfect controls, performance and visuals. Throw yourself into painting the world and you’ll be left with a game that’s very much your own and speaks to you directly – a beautiful marriage of mechanics, themes and visuals.
£2.69 (-70% off) £8.99
Clockwork Aquario was a long time coming, but it was definitely worth the wait. An obvious labour of love, this ill-fated arcade gem has been improbably recovered, restored, and reassembled, and it never feels like anything less than a carefully unearthed treasure that’s been polished until it shines.
It won’t take long to beat — and it shouldn’t, because a good 30-year-old arcade platformer is supposed to be short and sweet — but what the game lacks in length it more than makes up for in entertainment and raw creativity, with stages pitting you against everything from mechanical flying fish to a gigantic egg-dropping robo-penguin.
It’s the sort of game you come back to again and again because you want to rather than have to, and we feel lucky to have it.
£34.49 (-43% off) £59.99
Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition was a remarkable launch-day port for Switch 2. CD Projekt Red’s deep, diverse, and tangible world is fully realised with impressive performance for such a low-powered device.
If you’ve not taken your first steps into Night City already, or you’re a long-time player with a portable-play itch that needs scratching, you’re in for a serious treat, choom.
£10.19 (-40% off) £16.99
In 2023, a year dominated by titanic, big-budget releases like Tears of the Kingdom and Mario Wonder, off-the-wall roguelike Dave The Diver stepped up to the plate and knocked the ball clear of the park with a heaving swing.
Its charming animations and writing supplement a mechanically dense experience that never stops dangling a new carrot to chase. You owe it to yourself to pick up this outstandingly funny, enthralling, and weird gem.
£4.49 (-75% off) £17.99
Death’s Door is a modern classic, utilising old gameplay ideas in a new setting to make for a short and sweet experience you won’t want to miss. The snappy combat, rewarding exploration, and relaxing music will stick with you once you’ve finished, and while it may not have anything ‘new’ to offer, Death’s Door is so high quality that you’ll hardly have time to think about its lack of innovation.
Any fans of Zelda or Soulslike games will adore this – Acid Nerve has crafted an experience that’s absolutely worth your time and money.
£2.99 (-40% off) £4.99
Demon Turf: Neon Splash is a much better game than its predecessor thanks to the complete removal of the underwhelming combat. Not only that, but the experience feels more focused and streamlined without the requirement of a hub world or mandatory collectibles. This is Demon Turf at its best, and we sincerely hope to see more of the same in a true sequel later down the line.
£6.74 (-50% off) £13.49
An attractive art style, strong combat system, and meaningful player choices make Dicefolk a brilliant addition to the library, as it manages to feel fresh without getting too far away from the core ideas that make these sorts of games so addictive and popular.
Dicefolk is a good entry point to the genre, in fact; approachable without being patronising and it’s tons of fun once you get a grasp of its various quirks.
£19.99 (-20% off) £24.99
Thanks to the sublime writing, fantastic voiceovers, and a level of animation you’d usually expect from a big-budget streaming series, Dispatch is the kind of superhero drama that draws you in with the sexy characters and funny one-liners, and hooks you until the bitter end with the potential of its ever-changing arcs.
The lack of visual censorship removal options on Switch is a strange one, and some will undoubtedly find things lacking in the gameplay department, but we’re already gearing up for a potential ‘season 2’. It won’t be for everyone, but if it clicks, it really clicks. Is it too soon for a ‘rewatch’?
£1.99 (-75% off) £7.99
Evergate is a wonderfully designed puzzle/platformer that starts off strong and goes from strength to strength over the course of its campaign. Every new world you encounter here adds a new twist to proceedings, gradually becoming more complex as it layers mechanics on top of one each other, enabling you to experiment and come up with your own unique ways to bound across its intricate levels.
Speed-running here, for us, feels like it was tacked on for no real reason but, besides this one little misstep, this really is an essential purchase for puzzle/platforming fans and a standout example of its genre on Switch.
£9.44 (-30% off) £13.49
Fast Fusion may not have the most comprehensive collection of tracks, but it’s easily the most accomplished entry in Shin’en Multimedia’s series so far. The new jump ability adds a new layer of strategy to the gameplay, while experimenting with the fusion mechanic to find the perfect vehicle is a joy.
The occasional grinding to save up money can be a momentary drag, but if you’re after something a bit more ‘hardcore’ than Mario Kart World, Fast Fusion is a no-brainer, and an absolute must-buy.
Fast RMX is also on sale, and looks particularly fetching on Switch 2 using the new Handheld Boost Mode.
£8.99 (-50% off) £17.99
Fight’N Rage is one of the must-own action games on Nintendo’s console. Its surprisingly deep and satisfyingly weighty combat engine, combined with three strong and varied player characters and a host of cleverly-designed enemies, elevates it above the usual button-mashing experience perhaps expected of entries in this genre.
It’s got an excellent arcade mode that branches off in various directions as you make your way to the final boss battle, as well as a ton of unlockable modes and extras to keep you coming back for more. Whether you’re a learned fan of old-school beat ’em ups or you just like pummelling the life out of mutant punk pussycats and monkeys dressed as Bruce Lee, you owe it to yourself to experience what Sebastian Garcia has created here; it’s easily one of the best beat’em ups we’ve played.
£6.29 (-65% off) £17.99
Every now and then, a game comes along that captures our hearts and reminds us why we love the medium in the first place. Forager features wonderfully designed crafting mechanics, addictive progression systems and more charm than you can possibly handle. Although it has very minor drawbacks, there’s enough good stuff present here for us to confidently recommend adding Forager to your collection.
£1.49 (-90% off) £14.99
Full Metal Furies is an impressive fusion of genres from Cellar Door Games, the makers of Rogue Legacy. A beat ‘em up brawler at heart, we wish more developers would invest such considerable effort into this sort of puzzle design in action games, and coupling that with the deep RPG systems, punchy co-op gameplay, and memorable writing makes for an experience that no Switch owner will want to be without.
We can’t recommend this release enough; put in the time to explore the different tactics required with each character and you’ll find a much deeper, more replayable experience than a typical brawler.
£2.99 (-75% off) £11.99
Grapple Dog is one of the most refreshingly unfussy platformers we’ve seen in a long time. The central mechanic (other than, well, being a dog) is the titular grapple which allows you to traverse the game’s perfectly-sized levels using said hook to swing from ceilings, build momentum, attach to enemies and Donkey Kong Country-style cannons, and generally add a whole layer of mechanical complexity while maintaining extremely simple three-button controls.
It isn’t quite perfect, but developer Medallion does precisely what it sets out to do: deliver an unpretentious platformer that’s a hell of a lot of fun to play.
The sequel, Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines, is also discounted.
£2.49 (-83% off) £14.49
We’re very careful when we use this word, but Gris is a masterpiece. Its jaw-dropping visual style and heart-wrenching score combine for one of the most emotional pieces of interactive art you’ll ever play.
It may be too short for some, its puzzles may be on the simple side and the lack of any real challenge may not be to everyone’s taste, but this is a game focused more on fragility than ability and as long as you’re willing to go along for the ride, it’s one that will stick with you for a very long time indeed.
£4.39 (-60% off) £10.99
Horace is something very special — the only vaguely negative thing we can say about it is the fact that there are so many spectacularly brilliant indie games on Switch already vying for your attention that we fear Horace may fall somewhat by the wayside.
If you have any interest in superb level design, excellent storytelling, terrific art, evocative music, great characters, hilarious situations and emotional gut punches, Horace is a no-brainer. It’s moving without being manipulative, clever without being smug, and nostalgic without being a lazy rehash. It’s a platformer, but it’s so much more than that.
So yes, Horace is another indie masterpiece, and every gamer who enjoys quality experiences should play it; a masterpiece that owes so much to its medium, but has the strength, creativity and identity to stand alone as something very, very special. Buy this.
£3.59 (-80% off) £17.99
Huntdown is a delightfully detailed and expertly crafted throwback to old-school run ‘n’ gun arcade shooters.
The 16-bit graphical style is immaculately recreated whilst adding lots of modern bells and whistles to proceedings, including a fantastic soundtrack and audio design, optional CRT filter, and an arsenal of heavy-duty weapons that chew scenery and enemies to pieces as your bounty hunter makes their way from boss fight to excellent boss fight.
The flow of levels may be quite repetitive but the moment-to-moment gameplay, overall sense of fun that comes from the level of carnage you can dish out, surprising amount of hammy spoken dialogue, and constant pop-culture references all combine to make this one an easy recommendation, and another excellent addition to the Switch’s action catalogue.
