Nintendo Life eShop Selects October 2018

The spooky month of October has now been and gone, once again providing us with a healthy dose of frighteningly good games to play on Switch. As is now tradition, Team Nintendo Life has banded together to discuss our favourite eShop games of the month, all in an effort to bring you a definitive list of the best games on offer.

These awards aim to celebrate the best of Nintendo's digital store, giving some love and attention to the games that could so easily be missed in the Switch's ever-growing library.

So, let's get started! Here are the best Switch eShop games of October 2018!

Honourable Mentions:

While these titles didn't quite make our top three this month, they're still certainly worth checking out.

3. Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition (Switch eShop)

Taking our third place spot this month is Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition. Scoring a 'great' 8/10 in our review, this part Metroidvania platformer, part brawler had already won us over when it originally released on Wii U. We said that the game is "still a ‘rasslin riot that’s well worth a play" four years on, and while there’s very little reason to double dip if you already own it, we'd urge anyone who hasn't yet tried it to give it a spin.

2. Valkyria Chronicles (Switch eShop)

Second place this month goes to Valkyria Chronicles. Despite having some minor balancing and performance issues, Valkyria Chronicles offers up an emotionally-gripping, beautiful and fun strategy experience that offers a considerable amount of value. We gave the game an 8/10 in our review, saying that "we’d give this one a high recommendation to anybody looking for a quality strategy RPG for their Switch" even if the recently released Valkyria Chronicles 4 is a slightly smoother experience.

1. Child of Light: Ultimate Edition (Switch eShop)

But, after much squabbling and finger-pointing, we've decided that our first place eShop Selects award for October is going to Ubisoft's magical platform/RPG Child of Light: Ultimate Edition. Originally releasing back in 2014, this one sees you playing as a young princess inside a truly fairytale-like world with a beautiful art style, all wrapped up inside a surprisingly impressive RPG package.

We were disappointed to see the odd performance issue on Switch - just stopping the game from reaching the heights it deserves to hit - but the satisfying game mechanics still make this "an easy recommendation for those who didn’t catch it the first time round". We awarded this one an 8/10 in our review.

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What was your favourite eShop game last month? (172 votes)

  1. Child of Light: Ultimate Edition13%
  2. Valkyria Chronicles24%
  3. Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition13%
  4. Mark of the Ninja: Remastered11%
  5. Save me Mr Tako: Tasukete Tako-San5%
  6. Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle  0%
  7. Pinstripe  0%
  8. Windjammers4%
  9. Tricky Towers2%
  10. SEGA AGES Thunder Force IV4%
  11. SEGA AGES Sonic The Hedgehog5%
  12. Black Bird1%
  13. The Room1%
  14. Something else (comment below)16%

Please login to vote in this poll.


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 primarily as a digital 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.