eShop Selects July 2023
Image: Nintendo Life

It's the beginning of a new month — well, we're almost a week in at this point — and you know what that means? It's Nintendo Life's eShop Selects.

We're already comfortably into August, which means summer is drawing to a close in the northern hemisphere. Hopefully, it's cooled down a bit where you are because August's eShop line-up is looking like a scorcher.

But enough about August; we're here to look back at the very best the eShop has offered us in July. And we should tell you that July served up a feast of goods on the digital storefront. Let's not waste any time, shall we? We don't want the ice in our drinks to melt.

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Honourable Mentions

The Switch is becoming the home of the rerelease and port — particularly of the retro variety. And most of our lovely honourable mentions fit into that category. Nobunaga's Ambition is a brand-new entry in a historic series getting a rare English release, and even if the Switch version isn't the best one, it's still a worthwhile way to experience a strategy gem.

3. Gimmick! Special Edition (Switch eShop)

Sunsoft is back, and the rerelease of its Famicom platformer Gimmick! (Mr. Gimmick to Scandanavians) this July was a blast from the past. Gimmick! Special Edition is a fantastic rerelease — a simple remaster it may be, but it stands strong as one of the best-looking and best-sounding NES games of its time. And yes, while it does have a physical version in some regions, it's currently either extremely rare or is only available through Limited Run Games.

While it's punishingly difficult at times, Gimmick! Special Edition is something no retro enthusiast should be without, and BitWave games have even included art galleries, rewind, and save states to make the experience more palatable and more approachable. We gave this classic an 8/10 when we revisited it.

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Gimmick Special Edition
Gimmick Special Edition

2. OXENFREE II: Lost Signals (Switch eShop)

Multiple delays haven't affected the quality of Night School Studios' Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, which finally launched on Switch at the start of July. This fantastic sequel takes everything that made the first game great and sharpens its focus, giving us a smaller cast of characters and better pacing than it did the first go around.

Basically, Oxenfree II is a much more polished experience — the writing is great, the voice acting is great, and everything looks and feels cleaner. You'll fall in love with the characters and want to solve the mystery even more than you did in the first game. We scored Oxenfree II a sublime 9/10 at NL Towers.

1. Venba (Switch eShop)

As much as we love a good mystery and we love walkie-talkies and old tech, you can't beat a good bit of food. Venba follows a family who has emigrated from India to Canada and must adjust to their new lives. The lead character, Venba, wants her son to grow up knowing his roots but understands the pressures of trying to fit in. And this family is followed through the years all through Venba's mother's cookbook.

It's a beautiful tale with some incredible dishes to go with it. Regardless of your heritage, there's a story at the heart of the game that everyone will resonate with, and it'll give you some food for thought, too. Venba earned an 8/10 from us, and it sits as the star meal on this delicious eShop spread for July.

< Nintendo eShop Selects - June 2023

What was your favourite eShop game last month?

How we decide our eShop Selects top three: 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.

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 3 points, second choice gets 2 points, and third choice gets 1 point. These votes are then tallied to create a top-three list, with the overall winner taking that month's top prize.