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So you finally got a Nintendo Switch, just in time for Nintendo to start hinting that the Switch 2 is dropping sometime next year. Well, donât fretâbeing behind the gaming curve can be a good thing!
You might feel like youâre years late to the game, but actually, youâre lucky: Youâve got eight years' worth of catching up to do, and the Switch library is one of the best in gaming historyâparticularly if you look beyond beloved first-party properties like Mario, Zelda, and PokĂŠmon to the massive library of indie titles available for download with a single click. (And usually for a great priceâespecially if you wait for a good sale.)
Here are 25 of the best to get you startedâfrom platformers, to puzzle games, to RPGs. And youâre only scratching the surface.
IGN rating: 9
This just-released puzzle platformer has already garnered rave reviews, if not instant classic status. It's an ingenious twist on the "metroidvania" format: You play as a nondescript blob wandering a darkened forest atmosphere, and your only goal (at first, anyway) is to figure out how to progress to the next screen by solving increasingly complex environmental puzzles. That all sounds simple (and familiar) enough, but what sets Animal Well apart is its singular atmosphere (the pixel graphics are deceptively simple), excellent play mechanics, and quirky sense of humor.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally (24.99)
IGN rating: 10
A cross between a role playing game and an interactive novel, Disco Elysium is as difficult to describe as it is to get out of your head once you've started wandering down its myriad winding narrative rabbit holes. You play as a detective who has lost your memory and must navigate a fictional seaside city still recovering from a war years in the past. Through conversations with NPCs that involving branching conversational choices, you come to learn more about your past and discover your place in a strange world where reality (or your sanity) are less than reliable. This isn't a game for people who love a lot of action and combat, but it is unmatched as an example of interactive storytelling.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($39.99) | Buy a physical copy ($25.50)
IGN rating: 10
Originally an Xbox exclusive, this unique role-playing game puts you in control of Andreas Maler, an artist in 16th-century Germany who becomes embroiled in a succession of murder mysteries that you can solve by investigating the possible subjects through exploration and conversations. The narrative is uniquely open, allowing you to weigh the evidence you collect to decide who to accuse of the crimeâwhether you think they did it, or who you think is most deserving of being punished. All of this unfolds via gorgeous 2D graphics based on the style of medieval paintings, manuscripts, and woodcuts, giving the impression you're playing one of the protagonist's artworks come to life.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($19.99)
IGN rating: 8.5
A standout success from the early days of indie console gaming, Braid has finally made its way to the Switch in an anniversary edition with significantly overhauled graphics but the same tried-and-true play mechanics. Braid is a puzzle-based platformer (or a platforming-based puzzler?) in which you play as a boy name Tim trying to save a princess, though the story is a lot more complex than it seems on the surface, with lots of text boxes that reveal the hero's inner thoughts and motivations. But that's all window dressing for the gameplay itself, which requires you to use a series of evolving time-manipulating mechanics to solve increasingly complex environmental puzzles. If it feels a little familiar in 2024, it's still a fantastic game.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($19.99)
IGN rating: N/A
If you grew up with the early '90s point-and-click adventures from companies like Sierra Games, you'll adore The Case of the Golden Idol, a throwback detective story in which you attempt to solve an archeological mystery spanning four decades by exploring crime scenes, collecting clues, and piecing together the story as you go. You can play in either "exploration" more, which unfolds like one of those aforementioned vintage point-and-click titles as you investigate moments "frozen" in time and across history; or "thinking" mode, which opens a menu of fill-in-the-blank sentences that allows you to fill in words collected in exploration mode to fill out the game's backstory. (Confused? Here's a video that explains how it plays out.) This is a game that will test your wits and use deductive reasoning to figure out what's going onâmore reflective than active, but still entirely satisfying.
Buy it digitally ($19.99)
IGN rating: 9
Have you ever played Mega Man? Shovel Knight is kinda like that. Did you ever play Duck Tales? Shovel Knight is also kinda like that. You play as the titular warrior (guess what your weapon is) on a quest to save your best friend from a group of villains calling themselves the Order of No Quarter. As you progress through each of their themed stages, youâll navigate unique terrain and perfect your skillsâwhich youâll need to defeat the boss at the end. And once youâve finished playing as Shovel Knight, you can replay the game as one of the baddies (most of whom donât turn out to be quite as evil as they seem). More than simple reskins, these are (almost) entirely new adventures with their own play mechanics and control quirks. I couldnât stop playing until I had finished all four of them.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($39.99) | Buy a physical copy ($31.45)
IGN rating: 9.5
Fez is one of the most mind-expanding games I have ever played, a hybrid of platformer and puzzler in which you play a little dude living in a two-dimensional world who suddenly gains the ability to see in three dimensions. As a player, this means you have the ability to, with a tap of the shoulder button, rotate the world on its axis; when viewed from a different angle, platforms that once seemed out of reach are an easy jump away, and hidden doors are revealed around the back side of a tree trunk. You set off on a quest to explore your new, wider worldâand to save itâand youâll need to use your new abilities to their fullest if you want to figure out how to do it. There are no enemies to defeat, only interlocking levels to navigate and traverse between, and a handful of nigh-impossible puzzles to solve. Thereâs even an alien language you can learn to decode (or, if you value your sanity, you can just look up hints online). Also, the music totally slaps.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($14.99)
IGN rating: 7.9
The gorgeous rhythm game-slash-interactive music video plays like a dream (because, conceptual spoiler alert, it kinda is one): You play a young woman chasing (or running from) a bunch of stylish baddies across forests and cityscapes, training your reflexes and tapping buttons at just the right moment in time to the synth pop soundtrack, which sounds like a whole albumâs worth of Chvrches B-sides. If you just want to race through it, you can finish it in about two hours, but the gameplay and the tunes are so addictive youâll be coming back again and again, stretching for that high score.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($12.99) | Buy a physical copy ($24.99)
IGN rating: 8
Like Shovel Knight, The Messenger takes one of the best games of the â80s and betters it by fixing everything that was broken or frustrating about it. This time, the original model being iterated upon is Ninja Gaiden, a classic NES platformer in which you play as a ninja fighting to avenge the death of his father by jumping, flipping, climbing walls, and stabbing a countless number of infinitely generating enemies. It was one of my favorite games as a kid (I was so into the story I even read the novelization), but I was never good enough to beat it, even with the help of a Game Genie, because itâs fiendishly difficult. The Messenger offers basically the same gameplay, but with helpful additions like more frequent save points and the ability to enhance your armor and weapons. Sure, itâs easier, but itâs hardly easyâand the kooky storyline, rife with self-aware humor commenting on the inherent absurdity of gaming in general, only makes it better.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($16.99)
IGN rating: 8.4
The product of a single developer, Joakim Sandberg, Iconoclasts has all the platforming polish of a game produced with a big team, but the idiosyncratic quirks that suggest a singular vision at work. You play as a young engineer in a techno-dystopian world where mechanical know-how is outlawed and the ruling class controls access to energy-supplying âivoryâ with literally religious fervor. OK, so the story is a bit of a head-scratcher (Iâve finished the game and barely understand it), but the gameplay is absolutely fantastic: A Mega Man-influenced Metroidvania in which you use your stun gun and wrench to blast and whack enemies and solve complex environmental puzzles. I loved every minute of it.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($19.99)
IGN rating: 9
If you love Zelda-likes, Deathâs Door is one of my favorites, and was one of the best games of 2021. In this isometric adventure, you play as a soul-collecting crow in the employ of Death himself. When your latest reaping goes wrong, you become an unwitting investigator into a vast conspiracy that spans life and death as you make your way through three dungeons to collect enough soul power to open âdeathâs door.â The game offers a marvelous mix of exploration and combatâperhaps a bit too much of the latter; unless youâre a lot better than I am, youâll need to grind your way through scores of regular baddies to upgrade your spells, defenses, and weapons until you are strong enough to take on the big bosses. But the oddball humor, quirky characters, and melancholy atmosphere will make doing so a pleasure.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($19.99) | Buy a physical copy ($19.99)
IGN rating: 10
Celeste is a breathless platformer in which you play a young woman facing fears both literal and metaphorical as she climbs to the summit of a mystical mountain. Thereâs not much more to the story than that, yet this award-winning game has one of the most affecting narratives Iâve ever experienced, probably because making my way to the emotional ending involved powering my way through some of the well-designed, punishingly difficult, yet somehow never frustrating platforming Iâve ever experienced. The game is built on a single, deceivingly simple mechanicâyour characterâs ability to string together multiple jumps before your stamina drops and forces you to touch solid ground againâthat youâll have to master with precision if you hope to make it to the summit. Best of all, if you ever get stuck, the game allows you to access a deep menu of accessibility options that can help you across a rough patch. (Though I found finally clearing a screen after dozens of deaths or moreâmy total death count for the entire game was in the thousandsâso satisfying, I never turned them on.)
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($19.99) | Buy a physical copy ($34.99)
IGN review: 9
This is tops on every list of the best indie games of the past decade, and with good reason. You play as Zagreus, a child of Hades (yes, that one), on a hopeless quest to fight off the endless hordes of hell, escape the underworld, and reunite with your mother on Earth. And when I say hopeless, I mean it: By design, youâre going to die a lot playing this game (repeated failure being a hallmark of the ârogue liteâ genre; each time you die, youâll carry over some of your strength, loot, and experience to the next run). While a game designed to kill you over and over and over and over might sound like a slog, Hades makes it fun as, each time you set out to be slaughtered, youâll suck a little less, and progress a little farther. And thatâs not even taking into account the fantastic story, which develops slowly over time as you talk with (and occasionally slaughter) your fellow citizens of hell; the narrative is unparalleled for the genre, presented with pitch-perfect voice acting and memorable character designs.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($24.99) | Buy a physical copy ($29.99)
IGN review: 8.8
If Hades didnât turn you into a glutton for punishment, Cuphead will finish the job. Itâs a ârun and gunâ shooter in which you play as a guy with a cup for a head. (Just go with itâthe gameâs old time-y cartoon visuals and humor are half of the fun, and even spawned an animated Netflix series). Youâve accidentally sold your soul to the devil, and you have to work for him as a bounty hunter if you want to get it back. This entails taking on 16 bosses (90% of the game is boss fights), each more frenetic than the last. As you progress, you can upgrade your weapons and gain more health, and youâll probably need it: Claiming each bossâs soul requires quick reflexes, a good memory for patterns, and a lot of determinationâbefore I hit a wall after a dozen or so victories, Iâd died something like 300 times. Itâs the hardest game Iâve ever played.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($19.99/$26.99 with the Delicious Last Course) | Buy a physical copy ($29.99 with The Delicious Last Course)
If you prefer a puzzle game that will put you in a Zen state (or maybe activate your OCD), this recent release is a winner. Each of its many puzzles presents you with a scene of objects in disarrayâa messy toolbox, or an overcrowded bookshelf. Itâs up to you to decide how to put them back in order. How you go about it will depend on how your brain works, and what says âorganizedâ to you; every puzzle has multiple solutions, and finding one that works is like scratching an itchâentirely satisfying, until it triggers another itch a little to the left.
Check it out on IGN.
Buy it digitally ($14.99)
IGN rating: 8
I donât know how to describe this game, and watching the video above is probably only marginally helpful. But basically, you are an undead demon assassin guy and you have to make your way through hundreds of precariously designed levels as quickly as possible by using the powers granted to you by a mountain of weapons, which you activate by burning through a deck of playing cards, in the hopes of winning a place in heaven. Sacrificing a particular gun/card will grant you a special move, from an extra jump to a burst of smashing speed, to help you traverse the hazardous terrain. The point is to finish as fast as you can. No, I donât understand it either, and Iâve already played it. But once youâve oriented yourself, itâs a good timeâand the story is fun too.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($24.99) | Buy a physical copy ($39.99)
IGN rating: 7.5
A chill RPG built around golf was not exactly on my list of must-haves when I got my Switch, and yet here we are. You play a determined golfer who has one last shot at living out their dreams of glory on the greensâbut doing so will mean exploring, traversing, and conquering eight unique courses that mimic the sort of lands youâd venture through on a traditional fantasy adventure. Itâs just that this time, instead of battle monsters and summoning demons to fight battles for you, youâre teeing off and perfecting your puttâin between side quests you can take on to help out the weird characters you meet along the way. Because while you might not expect much in the way of plot from an ostensible sports game, this one isnât kidding about the word âStoryâ in the title. This one is packed with funky humor and otherworldly vibes that will appeal to Earthbound fans. Stardew who?
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($14.99)
IGN rating: 9.5
OK, fine. Iâll mention this one too; Stardew Valley is ostensibly a farming sim, but itâs so much deeper than that. Itâs a game you can basically play forever. As Brendan Hesse put it on this site:
Developed by just one guy, who goes by the moniker ConcernedApe, this game has made its creator something like $30 million, and he deserves every penny of it.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($14.99) | Buy a physical copy ($36.80)
IGN rating: 8.5
Donât let Cave Storyâs super simple graphics fool youâthis game is no relic of the 8-bit era, but a loving tribute to (and arguable improvement upon) old school adventure platformers like Metroid and Castlevaniaâand, like Stardew Valley and Iconoclasts, it was developed and programmed over five years by a single game designer, Daisuke Amaya. You play as a robot that has lost his memory, and you must travel through an underground landscape seeking an escape, and to solve the mystery of your origins along the way. Controls that seem stiff at first eventually reveal themselves to be perfectly calibrated as you upgrade your weapons and obtain new equipment that will soon have you zipping your way back through areas that kicked your ass the first time through.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($29.99)
A âchoose your own pathâ interactive narrative in which you play as a 1930s actress whose star is fadingâa passenger on a cruise ship a few hours out of port in New York City whose husband has gone missing...because you pushed him overboard during the night. Itâs up to you to navigate the ship, and your conversations with your fellow passengers, such that your crime remains undetected until you disembark. With an arch sense of humor and a branching narrative that allows multiple paths to victory, itâs the cozy interactive mystery you didnât know you were missing.
Check it out on IGN.
Buy it digitally ($14.99) | Buy a physical copy ($26.99, also includes 80 Days)
IGN rating: 8
In this game, you play as a curious goose with a penchant for creating havoc in and around a formerly idyllic village community. As you waddle around from place to place, you are given checklists of random tasks to complete, from collecting an entire place setting from an outdoor restaurant to locking a hapless gardener out of his yard. Figuring out how to complete them requires creativity and a grasp of cause-and-effect logic bordering on the absurd. And when that gets too frustrating, you can take a breather and run around honking at children and stealing a shopkeeperâs wares. Itâs pure chaos with feathers.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($19.99) | Buy a physical copy ($22.49)
IGN rating: 8.8
A somber, rewarding psychological journey, What Remains of Edith Finch is a interactive narrative in which you explore the broken history of a family across generations, the story unfolding in episodic chapters as you explore the family home. It might be a stretch to call it a game, as you mostly progress through it in a straightforward manner, without getting caught up on any obstacles along the way, but meandering around the estate under your own steam gives the haunted storyâpossibly involving a family curse that has claimed one generation after anotherâa truly immersive quality.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($19.99)
IGN rating: 9.2
A decidedly lo-fi puzzler that wears its grainy aesthetic like a badge of honor, The Return of the Obra Dinn is an atmospheric first-person detective game that takes you aboard the titular vessel, which has returned from a journey minus all of its passengers. Itâs up to you to explore the ship and find out everything you can about who was aboard it and what happened to them. In defiance of video game cliche, there are no light up arrows or glowing objects to guide your investigation, meaning youâll have to be both creative and thorough in your search to solve the mystery of what befell the ship.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($19.99)
IGN rating: 9
This game was a lifesaver after I finished Deathâs Door and was desperate for another, similar experience. Like that earlier game of the year contender, Tunic is a Zelda-esque adventure starring a small, adorable animal who sets off on a magical quest thatâs pure vibes (when it isnât maddeningly tough combat and complex puzzle-solving). The quirky twist here is that all of the in-game signs and speech are printed in an incomprehensible non-language, which means you have to work extra hard to figure out how to navigate the land and clear the many roadblocks standing in your way. It can be frustrating at first, but once you get the hang of it, the game cracks open and becomes a truly satisfying action-adventure experienceâfamiliar, but wholly different.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($29.99) | Buy a physical copy ($44.99)
IGN review: 9.4
Left off of the original version of this list and its absence pointed out in the comments (as expected), Hollow Knight is one of the most successful and fanatically worshipped indie games of recent years, and deservedly so. Itâs a sprawling Metroidvania adventure in which you play a cute little bone knight exploring a post-apocalyptic world in search of his past, facing impossibly complex environmental puzzles and fiendishly difficult combat. With an artful aesthetic that seems like a cross between Tim Burton and classic Disney animation, itâs truly worth getting lost in (which is good, because finishing it will take you dozens of hours).
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($14.99) | Buy a physical copy ($34.99)
This article was originally published in December 2022 and updated in May 2024 to add new context, additional titles, as well as score ratings and links to IGN reviews.
Full story here:
You might feel like youâre years late to the game, but actually, youâre lucky: Youâve got eight years' worth of catching up to do, and the Switch library is one of the best in gaming historyâparticularly if you look beyond beloved first-party properties like Mario, Zelda, and PokĂŠmon to the massive library of indie titles available for download with a single click. (And usually for a great priceâespecially if you wait for a good sale.)
Here are 25 of the best to get you startedâfrom platformers, to puzzle games, to RPGs. And youâre only scratching the surface.
Animal Well
IGN rating: 9
This just-released puzzle platformer has already garnered rave reviews, if not instant classic status. It's an ingenious twist on the "metroidvania" format: You play as a nondescript blob wandering a darkened forest atmosphere, and your only goal (at first, anyway) is to figure out how to progress to the next screen by solving increasingly complex environmental puzzles. That all sounds simple (and familiar) enough, but what sets Animal Well apart is its singular atmosphere (the pixel graphics are deceptively simple), excellent play mechanics, and quirky sense of humor.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally (24.99)
Disco Elysium: The Final Cut
IGN rating: 10
A cross between a role playing game and an interactive novel, Disco Elysium is as difficult to describe as it is to get out of your head once you've started wandering down its myriad winding narrative rabbit holes. You play as a detective who has lost your memory and must navigate a fictional seaside city still recovering from a war years in the past. Through conversations with NPCs that involving branching conversational choices, you come to learn more about your past and discover your place in a strange world where reality (or your sanity) are less than reliable. This isn't a game for people who love a lot of action and combat, but it is unmatched as an example of interactive storytelling.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($39.99) | Buy a physical copy ($25.50)
Pentiment
IGN rating: 10
Originally an Xbox exclusive, this unique role-playing game puts you in control of Andreas Maler, an artist in 16th-century Germany who becomes embroiled in a succession of murder mysteries that you can solve by investigating the possible subjects through exploration and conversations. The narrative is uniquely open, allowing you to weigh the evidence you collect to decide who to accuse of the crimeâwhether you think they did it, or who you think is most deserving of being punished. All of this unfolds via gorgeous 2D graphics based on the style of medieval paintings, manuscripts, and woodcuts, giving the impression you're playing one of the protagonist's artworks come to life.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($19.99)
Braid: Anniversary Edition
IGN rating: 8.5
A standout success from the early days of indie console gaming, Braid has finally made its way to the Switch in an anniversary edition with significantly overhauled graphics but the same tried-and-true play mechanics. Braid is a puzzle-based platformer (or a platforming-based puzzler?) in which you play as a boy name Tim trying to save a princess, though the story is a lot more complex than it seems on the surface, with lots of text boxes that reveal the hero's inner thoughts and motivations. But that's all window dressing for the gameplay itself, which requires you to use a series of evolving time-manipulating mechanics to solve increasingly complex environmental puzzles. If it feels a little familiar in 2024, it's still a fantastic game.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($19.99)
The Case of the Golden Idol
IGN rating: N/A
If you grew up with the early '90s point-and-click adventures from companies like Sierra Games, you'll adore The Case of the Golden Idol, a throwback detective story in which you attempt to solve an archeological mystery spanning four decades by exploring crime scenes, collecting clues, and piecing together the story as you go. You can play in either "exploration" more, which unfolds like one of those aforementioned vintage point-and-click titles as you investigate moments "frozen" in time and across history; or "thinking" mode, which opens a menu of fill-in-the-blank sentences that allows you to fill in words collected in exploration mode to fill out the game's backstory. (Confused? Here's a video that explains how it plays out.) This is a game that will test your wits and use deductive reasoning to figure out what's going onâmore reflective than active, but still entirely satisfying.
Buy it digitally ($19.99)
Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove
IGN rating: 9
Have you ever played Mega Man? Shovel Knight is kinda like that. Did you ever play Duck Tales? Shovel Knight is also kinda like that. You play as the titular warrior (guess what your weapon is) on a quest to save your best friend from a group of villains calling themselves the Order of No Quarter. As you progress through each of their themed stages, youâll navigate unique terrain and perfect your skillsâwhich youâll need to defeat the boss at the end. And once youâve finished playing as Shovel Knight, you can replay the game as one of the baddies (most of whom donât turn out to be quite as evil as they seem). More than simple reskins, these are (almost) entirely new adventures with their own play mechanics and control quirks. I couldnât stop playing until I had finished all four of them.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($39.99) | Buy a physical copy ($31.45)
Fez
IGN rating: 9.5
Fez is one of the most mind-expanding games I have ever played, a hybrid of platformer and puzzler in which you play a little dude living in a two-dimensional world who suddenly gains the ability to see in three dimensions. As a player, this means you have the ability to, with a tap of the shoulder button, rotate the world on its axis; when viewed from a different angle, platforms that once seemed out of reach are an easy jump away, and hidden doors are revealed around the back side of a tree trunk. You set off on a quest to explore your new, wider worldâand to save itâand youâll need to use your new abilities to their fullest if you want to figure out how to do it. There are no enemies to defeat, only interlocking levels to navigate and traverse between, and a handful of nigh-impossible puzzles to solve. Thereâs even an alien language you can learn to decode (or, if you value your sanity, you can just look up hints online). Also, the music totally slaps.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($14.99)
Sayonara Wild Hearts
IGN rating: 7.9
The gorgeous rhythm game-slash-interactive music video plays like a dream (because, conceptual spoiler alert, it kinda is one): You play a young woman chasing (or running from) a bunch of stylish baddies across forests and cityscapes, training your reflexes and tapping buttons at just the right moment in time to the synth pop soundtrack, which sounds like a whole albumâs worth of Chvrches B-sides. If you just want to race through it, you can finish it in about two hours, but the gameplay and the tunes are so addictive youâll be coming back again and again, stretching for that high score.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($12.99) | Buy a physical copy ($24.99)
The Messenger
IGN rating: 8
Like Shovel Knight, The Messenger takes one of the best games of the â80s and betters it by fixing everything that was broken or frustrating about it. This time, the original model being iterated upon is Ninja Gaiden, a classic NES platformer in which you play as a ninja fighting to avenge the death of his father by jumping, flipping, climbing walls, and stabbing a countless number of infinitely generating enemies. It was one of my favorite games as a kid (I was so into the story I even read the novelization), but I was never good enough to beat it, even with the help of a Game Genie, because itâs fiendishly difficult. The Messenger offers basically the same gameplay, but with helpful additions like more frequent save points and the ability to enhance your armor and weapons. Sure, itâs easier, but itâs hardly easyâand the kooky storyline, rife with self-aware humor commenting on the inherent absurdity of gaming in general, only makes it better.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($16.99)
Iconoclasts
IGN rating: 8.4
The product of a single developer, Joakim Sandberg, Iconoclasts has all the platforming polish of a game produced with a big team, but the idiosyncratic quirks that suggest a singular vision at work. You play as a young engineer in a techno-dystopian world where mechanical know-how is outlawed and the ruling class controls access to energy-supplying âivoryâ with literally religious fervor. OK, so the story is a bit of a head-scratcher (Iâve finished the game and barely understand it), but the gameplay is absolutely fantastic: A Mega Man-influenced Metroidvania in which you use your stun gun and wrench to blast and whack enemies and solve complex environmental puzzles. I loved every minute of it.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($19.99)
Deathâs Door
IGN rating: 9
If you love Zelda-likes, Deathâs Door is one of my favorites, and was one of the best games of 2021. In this isometric adventure, you play as a soul-collecting crow in the employ of Death himself. When your latest reaping goes wrong, you become an unwitting investigator into a vast conspiracy that spans life and death as you make your way through three dungeons to collect enough soul power to open âdeathâs door.â The game offers a marvelous mix of exploration and combatâperhaps a bit too much of the latter; unless youâre a lot better than I am, youâll need to grind your way through scores of regular baddies to upgrade your spells, defenses, and weapons until you are strong enough to take on the big bosses. But the oddball humor, quirky characters, and melancholy atmosphere will make doing so a pleasure.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($19.99) | Buy a physical copy ($19.99)
Celeste
IGN rating: 10
Celeste is a breathless platformer in which you play a young woman facing fears both literal and metaphorical as she climbs to the summit of a mystical mountain. Thereâs not much more to the story than that, yet this award-winning game has one of the most affecting narratives Iâve ever experienced, probably because making my way to the emotional ending involved powering my way through some of the well-designed, punishingly difficult, yet somehow never frustrating platforming Iâve ever experienced. The game is built on a single, deceivingly simple mechanicâyour characterâs ability to string together multiple jumps before your stamina drops and forces you to touch solid ground againâthat youâll have to master with precision if you hope to make it to the summit. Best of all, if you ever get stuck, the game allows you to access a deep menu of accessibility options that can help you across a rough patch. (Though I found finally clearing a screen after dozens of deaths or moreâmy total death count for the entire game was in the thousandsâso satisfying, I never turned them on.)
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($19.99) | Buy a physical copy ($34.99)
Hades
IGN review: 9
This is tops on every list of the best indie games of the past decade, and with good reason. You play as Zagreus, a child of Hades (yes, that one), on a hopeless quest to fight off the endless hordes of hell, escape the underworld, and reunite with your mother on Earth. And when I say hopeless, I mean it: By design, youâre going to die a lot playing this game (repeated failure being a hallmark of the ârogue liteâ genre; each time you die, youâll carry over some of your strength, loot, and experience to the next run). While a game designed to kill you over and over and over and over might sound like a slog, Hades makes it fun as, each time you set out to be slaughtered, youâll suck a little less, and progress a little farther. And thatâs not even taking into account the fantastic story, which develops slowly over time as you talk with (and occasionally slaughter) your fellow citizens of hell; the narrative is unparalleled for the genre, presented with pitch-perfect voice acting and memorable character designs.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($24.99) | Buy a physical copy ($29.99)
Cuphead
IGN review: 8.8
If Hades didnât turn you into a glutton for punishment, Cuphead will finish the job. Itâs a ârun and gunâ shooter in which you play as a guy with a cup for a head. (Just go with itâthe gameâs old time-y cartoon visuals and humor are half of the fun, and even spawned an animated Netflix series). Youâve accidentally sold your soul to the devil, and you have to work for him as a bounty hunter if you want to get it back. This entails taking on 16 bosses (90% of the game is boss fights), each more frenetic than the last. As you progress, you can upgrade your weapons and gain more health, and youâll probably need it: Claiming each bossâs soul requires quick reflexes, a good memory for patterns, and a lot of determinationâbefore I hit a wall after a dozen or so victories, Iâd died something like 300 times. Itâs the hardest game Iâve ever played.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($19.99/$26.99 with the Delicious Last Course) | Buy a physical copy ($29.99 with The Delicious Last Course)
A Little to the Left
If you prefer a puzzle game that will put you in a Zen state (or maybe activate your OCD), this recent release is a winner. Each of its many puzzles presents you with a scene of objects in disarrayâa messy toolbox, or an overcrowded bookshelf. Itâs up to you to decide how to put them back in order. How you go about it will depend on how your brain works, and what says âorganizedâ to you; every puzzle has multiple solutions, and finding one that works is like scratching an itchâentirely satisfying, until it triggers another itch a little to the left.
Check it out on IGN.
Buy it digitally ($14.99)
Neon White
IGN rating: 8
I donât know how to describe this game, and watching the video above is probably only marginally helpful. But basically, you are an undead demon assassin guy and you have to make your way through hundreds of precariously designed levels as quickly as possible by using the powers granted to you by a mountain of weapons, which you activate by burning through a deck of playing cards, in the hopes of winning a place in heaven. Sacrificing a particular gun/card will grant you a special move, from an extra jump to a burst of smashing speed, to help you traverse the hazardous terrain. The point is to finish as fast as you can. No, I donât understand it either, and Iâve already played it. But once youâve oriented yourself, itâs a good timeâand the story is fun too.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($24.99) | Buy a physical copy ($39.99)
Golf Story
IGN rating: 7.5
A chill RPG built around golf was not exactly on my list of must-haves when I got my Switch, and yet here we are. You play a determined golfer who has one last shot at living out their dreams of glory on the greensâbut doing so will mean exploring, traversing, and conquering eight unique courses that mimic the sort of lands youâd venture through on a traditional fantasy adventure. Itâs just that this time, instead of battle monsters and summoning demons to fight battles for you, youâre teeing off and perfecting your puttâin between side quests you can take on to help out the weird characters you meet along the way. Because while you might not expect much in the way of plot from an ostensible sports game, this one isnât kidding about the word âStoryâ in the title. This one is packed with funky humor and otherworldly vibes that will appeal to Earthbound fans. Stardew who?
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($14.99)
Stardew Valley
IGN rating: 9.5
OK, fine. Iâll mention this one too; Stardew Valley is ostensibly a farming sim, but itâs so much deeper than that. Itâs a game you can basically play forever. As Brendan Hesse put it on this site:
Developed by just one guy, who goes by the moniker ConcernedApe, this game has made its creator something like $30 million, and he deserves every penny of it.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($14.99) | Buy a physical copy ($36.80)
Cave Story
IGN rating: 8.5
Donât let Cave Storyâs super simple graphics fool youâthis game is no relic of the 8-bit era, but a loving tribute to (and arguable improvement upon) old school adventure platformers like Metroid and Castlevaniaâand, like Stardew Valley and Iconoclasts, it was developed and programmed over five years by a single game designer, Daisuke Amaya. You play as a robot that has lost his memory, and you must travel through an underground landscape seeking an escape, and to solve the mystery of your origins along the way. Controls that seem stiff at first eventually reveal themselves to be perfectly calibrated as you upgrade your weapons and obtain new equipment that will soon have you zipping your way back through areas that kicked your ass the first time through.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($29.99)
Overboard
A âchoose your own pathâ interactive narrative in which you play as a 1930s actress whose star is fadingâa passenger on a cruise ship a few hours out of port in New York City whose husband has gone missing...because you pushed him overboard during the night. Itâs up to you to navigate the ship, and your conversations with your fellow passengers, such that your crime remains undetected until you disembark. With an arch sense of humor and a branching narrative that allows multiple paths to victory, itâs the cozy interactive mystery you didnât know you were missing.
Check it out on IGN.
Buy it digitally ($14.99) | Buy a physical copy ($26.99, also includes 80 Days)
Untitled Goose Game
IGN rating: 8
In this game, you play as a curious goose with a penchant for creating havoc in and around a formerly idyllic village community. As you waddle around from place to place, you are given checklists of random tasks to complete, from collecting an entire place setting from an outdoor restaurant to locking a hapless gardener out of his yard. Figuring out how to complete them requires creativity and a grasp of cause-and-effect logic bordering on the absurd. And when that gets too frustrating, you can take a breather and run around honking at children and stealing a shopkeeperâs wares. Itâs pure chaos with feathers.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($19.99) | Buy a physical copy ($22.49)
What Remains of Edith Finch
IGN rating: 8.8
A somber, rewarding psychological journey, What Remains of Edith Finch is a interactive narrative in which you explore the broken history of a family across generations, the story unfolding in episodic chapters as you explore the family home. It might be a stretch to call it a game, as you mostly progress through it in a straightforward manner, without getting caught up on any obstacles along the way, but meandering around the estate under your own steam gives the haunted storyâpossibly involving a family curse that has claimed one generation after anotherâa truly immersive quality.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($19.99)
Return of the Obra Dinn
IGN rating: 9.2
A decidedly lo-fi puzzler that wears its grainy aesthetic like a badge of honor, The Return of the Obra Dinn is an atmospheric first-person detective game that takes you aboard the titular vessel, which has returned from a journey minus all of its passengers. Itâs up to you to explore the ship and find out everything you can about who was aboard it and what happened to them. In defiance of video game cliche, there are no light up arrows or glowing objects to guide your investigation, meaning youâll have to be both creative and thorough in your search to solve the mystery of what befell the ship.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($19.99)
Tunic
IGN rating: 9
This game was a lifesaver after I finished Deathâs Door and was desperate for another, similar experience. Like that earlier game of the year contender, Tunic is a Zelda-esque adventure starring a small, adorable animal who sets off on a magical quest thatâs pure vibes (when it isnât maddeningly tough combat and complex puzzle-solving). The quirky twist here is that all of the in-game signs and speech are printed in an incomprehensible non-language, which means you have to work extra hard to figure out how to navigate the land and clear the many roadblocks standing in your way. It can be frustrating at first, but once you get the hang of it, the game cracks open and becomes a truly satisfying action-adventure experienceâfamiliar, but wholly different.
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($29.99) | Buy a physical copy ($44.99)
Hollow Knight
IGN review: 9.4
Left off of the original version of this list and its absence pointed out in the comments (as expected), Hollow Knight is one of the most successful and fanatically worshipped indie games of recent years, and deservedly so. Itâs a sprawling Metroidvania adventure in which you play a cute little bone knight exploring a post-apocalyptic world in search of his past, facing impossibly complex environmental puzzles and fiendishly difficult combat. With an artful aesthetic that seems like a cross between Tim Burton and classic Disney animation, itâs truly worth getting lost in (which is good, because finishing it will take you dozens of hours).
Read the IGN review.
Buy it digitally ($14.99) | Buy a physical copy ($34.99)
This article was originally published in December 2022 and updated in May 2024 to add new context, additional titles, as well as score ratings and links to IGN reviews.
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