Yet another month has flown by (a month and a week, in fact) and the Switch eShop is as busy, confusing, and fun as ever. You know what that means: it's time for this month's Nintendo Life eShop Selects!
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 August 2019!
Honourable Mentions:
While these titles didn't quite make our top three this month, they're still certainly worth checking out.
- Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition | Review: 9/10
- Bulletstorm: Duke of Switch Edition | Review: 8/10
- AER: Memories of Old | Review: 8/10
- Invisigun Reloaded | Review: 8/10
- Superhot | Review: 8/10
- Gravity Duck | Review: 8/10
- VASARA Collection | Review: 8/10
- Ittle Dew | Review: 7/10
- DC Universe Online | Review: 7/10
- Exception | Review: 7/10
- Never Give Up | Review: 7/10
- Subdivision Infinity DX | Review: 7/10
3. FAR: Lone Sails (Switch eShop)
Taking third spot this month is the excellent FAR: Lone Sails, which managed to snag a coveted 9/10 from us in our review. Part exploration, part platformer, puzzler, and resource management sim, FAR: Lone Sails is a pretty hard game to describe, but easily one of our favourite experiences over the past few weeks. We said, "FAR: Lone Sails conveys a poignant tale of hope and perseverance, masterfully balancing style with substance for an experience that feels every bit as sublime as it looks... We highly recommend that you give this a spin".
2. Heave Ho (Switch eShop)
In second place we have Heave Ho, which managed to win over the team with its wonderfully barmy multiplayer chaos. This is one of those games that'll have you and your friends laughing and shouting at each other in equal measure, and is definitely up there amongst the higher tier of couch co-op experiences on Switch. We gave this one a very solid 8/10 in our review.
1. Hotline Miami Collection (Switch eShop)
Taking the gold this month, though, is Hotline Miami Collection. This collection gathers together the brilliant original Hotline Miami and its inferior but still enjoyable sequel, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number. Each offers a slightly different experience, but the puzzle/shooter/brawler mix available throughout is well worth a playthrough in our eyes. We gave the bundle an 8/10, saying that "while time has somewhat diminished the freshness of Hotline Miami’s creative violence, both games still offer some of the most addictive and rewarding experiences you can play".
< Nintendo Life eShop Selects - July 2019
What was your favourite eShop game last month? (131 votes)
- Hotline Miami Collection
- Heave Ho
- FAR: Lone Sails
- Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition
- Bulletstorm: Duke of Switch Edition
- AER: Memories of Old
- Invisigun Reloaded 0%
- Superhot
- Gravity Duck 0%
- VASARA Collection
- Ittle Dew
- DC Universe Online
- Exception 0%
- Never Give Up
- Subdivision Infinity DX 0%
- Something else (comment below)
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.
Comments 19
The only one I played from last month was Superhot and I didn't like it due to the poorly implemented gyro controls so no favourite for me. I do really want to play Hotline Miami but I'm holding out for a sale. eShop releases have been a bit quiet lately but that's changing this month. Already a few good ones that have come out in September with quite a few to come.
I have been playing and loving Rad and risk of rain 2 this month, although the second one is tough!! A lot of other stuff I wanted on the eshop but a few were quite highly priced so will have to wait!! Also Astral chain has its hooks in me so eshop games are on the backburner at the mo, but that might change when blasphemous comes out...
Heave Ho is great fun... even with people who don't play alot of video games... great fun with friends, family, etc...
September = Creature in the Well for sure...
I did enjoy the Dragon Quest XI demo. It took 10 hours so I'm picking that.
At any other time, I would have definitely picked up Hotline Miami. One of my favorite indie games. There is just too much coming up to dive back into that.
But if you haven’t played it, then you are in for a ride.
RAD. I'm super addicted to this game. It's a real shame y'all reviewed it so poorly.
I haven’t picked up any newly released eshop games as of yet but I plan on picking up Hotline Miami, AER, and possibly Lone Sails at some point.
I’ve been having fun playing Oninaki and the Dragon Quest XI demo.
Definitely the Dragon Quest XI demo for me. Stopped playing after 2hrs as I have heard you can carry your save across to the full game, so will savour the rest when it gets released.
Picked up Heave Ho last night and can’t wait to get into it with The Spouse. Also been enjoying Vasara collection in short bursts.
@Mycroft
Keep in mind I'm not a huge fan of roguelikes in general. They need to do something unique to keep me interested. In the case of RAD, Double Fine has built a creepy, wild, funny, and dark world to play in (which is on par for them). The sheer veriety of mutations and how they interact with each other in different ways depending on your run is interesting, and keeps me going back for more. That being said there is still the "roguelike" thing of having a bad roll, and basically getting a bunch of useless mutations. That sucks. But you'll get that with any roguelike.
As far as graphics and performance goes, at launch there was some major slow down and blur as the dynamic resolution wasn't optimized for Switch. They patched that with a recent update and it plays MUCH smoother now. Load times are still a bit too long.
If you're finding yourself just waiting for Zelda to come out on the 20th, you could do worse than RAD. the backstory of the world, the art style, and the impossibly deep combination of mutations are why I recommend it. expect a steep learning curve for the first hour or so.
September is going to be a tough one
Risk of rain 2 for me, insta buy (it's in a rough shape but the core mechanics are just too awesome, also I picked up for $8 in Argentina, probably the $30 price tag will scare people off)
Still planning on picking up eventually Hotline Miami, Superhot and Invisigun (Invisigun deserves more attention btw)
I bought several games last month, I think there are several mentions:
1. Transistor, I love the game, but sometimes it gets frustratingly hard
2. Bastion, I guess this is similar to Transistor, but I haven't had the time to play it properly
3. Legend of Kay Anniversary, there was a huge discount last month, and I decide to get it
4. VASARA Collection, being a fan of vertical shumps, I just had to add VASARA Collection to my Collection.... But I didn't vote for VASARA Collection, because it is just a nice to have....
Heave Ho is really good! I had a blast with friends! A bit off topic: do you guys plan on reviewing Super Kirby Clash?
This is a great article. Is there equivalents for other months? How do you find them?
@gwyntendo Glad you liked it! Yep, you can find them all here. 🙂
@ryancraddock AWESOME! Thank you so much!
RAD gets my vote for last month's offerings. Shame hardly anyone else is playing it.
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