We're sorry, when did it become October? Well, we suppose it's time to look back at September for our monthly dose of eShop Selects!
It's autumn (or fall depending on what term you like to use for the crispy leaves season). The nights are drawing in. The temperature is dropping. And the holiday season is fast approaching — we know, we're sorry. But that does mean there are lots of video games coming our way, and you need to know which ones are the best that you can grab from the eShop.
Which games will put a smile on your face and keep you all nice and cosy as the chill comes in? Read on...
Honourable Mentions:
Unless you've been living under your blankets for the past month, then you know September has been packed — this is one of our biggest lineups ever for eShop Selects! So if you don't jive with our top three, then there's a healthy dose of excellent eShop titles here for you:
- ANNO: Mutationem | Review: 8/10
- City Wars: Tokyo Reign | Review: 8/10
- Disney Dreamlight Valley | Review: 7/10
- Easy Come Easy Golf | Review: 8/10
- Jack Move | Review: 9/10
- OneShot: World Machine Edition | Review: 9/10
- Ooblets | Review: 7/10
- Penko Park | Review: 7/10
- Shovel Knight Dig | Review: 9/10
- Tinykin | Review: 8/10
- Voice of Cards: The Beasts of Burden | Review: 9/10
- Voodoo Detective | Review: 7/10
3. Radiant Silvergun (Switch eShop)
Well... that was a lot of 9/10s, wasn't it? How about another one? Treasure's classic Sega Saturn shmup Radiant Silvergun surprised us during a Nintendo Direct by dropping the same day it was announced! We sort of knew it was coming thanks to a Tokyo Game Show presentation schedule, but it's actually here — after a little bit of an eShop snafu in North America.
And thank goodness, because this game still holds up nearly 25 years later. It's brash, beautiful, brilliant, bold, blessed, and maybe one of the best shmups ever. And while it's often brutally difficult, Story Mode offers a more welcoming introduction to a genre-defying classic.
We're smitten, basically. Find out exactly everything we love about Radiant Silvergun in our review.
2. Tunic (Switch eShop)
We knew this had to be coming to Switch eventually — it's a cute little Legend of Zelda fox-like game!? And Tunic does not disappoint. After receiving critical acclaim on Xbox and PC earlier in the year, Tunic truly feels at home on a Nintendo console.
Don't let the cuteness fool you though, as there's a meaty amount of Dark Souls-eqsue combat to sink your teeth into. On top of that, the game is also a love letter to old video game manuals. The in-game manual, which we've covered previously, invites you to tap into your childhood where you sat in front of the NES and SNES and scribbled down solutions. It's gloriously charming.
Check out our 8/10 review of Tunic for more fantastic fox fun.
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1. Return to Monkey Island (Switch eShop)
Guybrush Ulysses Threepwood came back to us on Talk Like A Pirate Day, and we've never been happier. Return to Monkey Island is just that — a return to one of the best point-and-click series' ever made, with both Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman back to show us how it's done, and then some.
It's a fresh-feeling nostalgia trip, a celebration and a poke at everything that's come before it, finely crafted with all of the wit that we've come to know and love. It's also completely intuitive on Switch. There's hardly a grain of sand out of place, and it sparkles like a piece of treasure we've kept close to us for all of these. There's no need to walk the plank with this one.
Haven't checked out Guybrush's rapturous return yet? Our 9/10 review should convince you to set sail.
< Nintendo Life eShop Selects - August 2022
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.
Comments 32
A lot of good stuff that I'm interested in and I haven't played any of them yet. I need to stop playing Splatoon 3 so I can start working through my other games.
Will be very interesting to see what Nintendo do with Switch 2.
If they don’t make it backward compatible with the current state with the other two, it will seem extremely anti consumer.
Through I am used to a new generation meaning a new generation, new games for the new system taking advantage of the new system straight away.
I guess I don’t need a third company shoving all their old games down me throat with the odd little tweak, rather than giving me new games for a new system or making them cross generation.
Only time will tell, but I think it would be nice for Nintendo to do it the old way, new console new games.
Downloaded Easy Come, Easy Golf yesterday and first impressions are great. Already seems like a better golf game than Mario Golf
Many high quality games this month. I guess if we don't count Radiant Silvergun, I can place Tinykin on number 3 as I loved this game on Game Pass.
And haven't played Shovel Knight Dig, Jack Move and ANNO.
I'm so glad Return to Monkey Island is as good as it is. I've yet to play it myself since I'd want to play the first two beforehand (which are strangely not on Switch yet for whatever reason) but I can tell it'll be a great time whenever I do get around to it.
As for my eShop pick of September then? Well it's....y-yeah, its Splatoon 3. It does technically count for me since I got it through the eShop but yeah: kind of put all my eggs in one basket for last month XD
Dorfromantik is a great game, perfect for playing while watching TV
Enjoying Easy Come Easy Golf but haven't played much of it due to Splatoon 3.
A bit disappointed with Shovel Knight Dig. I guess I was hoping it would be more like Steamworld dig
Not on the list: Railgrade.
An1 tried? It’s on my wishlist.
DEFINITELY Splatoon 3.
That's a lot of honourable mentions! The only one I've bought so far is Tunic but it's a very good game, although it makes you feel like you are about to get lost or lose constantly but you never quite do which I'm pretty sure is purposeful; the game likes to keep you on the edge without being frustratingly hard which is a slightly surreal but well done balance.
I played the demos of Tinykin and ANNO: Mutaionem and they were enjoyable but not amazing so they're on my wishlist. I'll also be waiting on a sale for shovel knight dig because I want to try it but I'm in no real hurry.
Radiant Silvergun
Easy come Easy golf
Shovel Knight Dig
Tinykin for sure! Some of the most fun I've had in a game (especially a platformer) in a very long time.
The spirit and the mouse is a super cute and charming platformer that I highly recommend you play/review
As much as I like Ron Gilbert’s other games, Monkey Island has never synced up with my taste as much for some reason. Tunic is technically the best of the options (as I’d rate it an 8/10), I suppose, but I voted for Shovel Knight Dig because it was actually a new game in September that was next best of the options, though Haiku the Robot was my favorite eshop game of the month... and I’d score it a 7/10. 🤷♂️ Sort of a weak month for me on the eshop personally, but that’s ok because Splatoon 3 completely surprised me.
Monkey Island lived up to my personal hopes as a long time fan of the series - for me 9/10. Tunic had great level design but meh story and characters - agree with 8/10 from NL. Two great indie games in one month means it was one of the best months for the Switch this year imo.
Nobody is going to remember those games in 2 years, maybe less
Monkey Island came out great and curries a special weight for a lot of us. Shovel Knight has become synonym of quality for every game they make. Tunic is fantastic and exactly the kind of game that belongs to a Nintendo platform.
Tunic & monkey island are beautiful. A+
You KNOW I'm gonna say Return to Monkey Island. It has a stellar presentation, well designed puzzles, and it does an interesting job of picking up the baggage left by Monkey Island 2 and it’s frankly a rather fascinating study for the series as a whole.
It's a shame that I have to pass on OneShot. I was spoiled for the ending when I watched a Twitch stream featuring it years ago.
Monkey Island is one of those franchises I missed out on when I was younger. I'm sure this new entry is a really good game, but I just don't have that nostalgia pulling me in. (And I wouldn't want to play it without first playing previous entries in the franchise.)
I like the idea of shmups, but shmups don't like me. I'm just not good enough at them to justify a Radiant Silvergun purchase. I use my FlipGrip more for Pinball FX 3 than for shmups.
The original Shovel Knight really rubbed me the wrong way with a frustrating difficulty spike toward the end of the game that pushed me to just give up on the entire thing, so I can't bring myself to give Shovel Knight Dig a shot. It looks good, but I don't think it's for me.
The game I'm the most intrigued about is Voice of Cards: The Beasts of Burden. But I'd like to play the other entries first, so I probably won't be checking it out for a while.
Hoping for a physical for Tunic and Shovel Knight Dig
Can anyone here tell me if the new Monkey Island game is worth getting even if I haven't played the old ones?
@Fizza
Return to Monkey Island takes Reference to all Games, you have to play them all
@Azuris Time to get a PC then I guess.
way too much going on this fall.
Tunic (although due to its performance i might wait)
Monkey Island
Nier Automata
No Man's Sky
Mario + Rabbits 2
they all would be amazing for me and I haven't even time to play Metroid Dread.
I remember the Gamecube era, when we were dreaming of a time, when Nintendo would finally get "there". I wasn't so much about beating all the competition, just making some console that is actually relevant beyond casuals, really being an option for the mainstream. Now after 5 1/2 years with the Switch, playing mostly ports of games like XCom 2, Disco Elysium, Subnautica, Skyrim, the Witcher 3 and so on, the Switch really got em there and won't go anywhere soon. So appreciating this development, especially knowing that above all, it has been 5 years since the last mainline Mario game came out and nobody is talking about this. I do expect them to drop a sequel xmas next year even if they don't even need to.
@GrowingWings as someone who only knows the old games so far, I do understand how they work and who they are for.
Basically Monkey Island is a series for fans of ... exactly this, Monkey Island. I would assume, that if someone likes stuff like Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Terry Pratchett or Monty Pythons, then Monkey Island could be a nice franchise for him/her.
Back in the days this was a pretty big game, today, point and click adventures have become quite a niche. Not the smallest one, but still. In any case, the remakes of the old games can be purchased fairly cheap and could just be solved with a walkthrough, they aren't that long but that would be an ok way to catch up. A lets play might be a bit boring.
@Fizza
Gratefully, it mustn't be a powerfull Beast
Also, you can play 1-4 with Scumm VM on nearly every Device nowadays
Came out right at the end of the month but Dorfromantik should be up there - can’t even see it amongst the honourable mentions.
NL - get a review out stat!
Ready for this….. Airoheart! If you want a knock-off Legend of Zelda A Link To The Past with terrible fighting gameplay and no hand-holding or direction and cryptic-ass items and messages from NPC’s…. Look no further! Just beat the first dungeon about 7 hours into it and gotta score the game 8 out of 10 so far!
@somnambulance Haiku was great; definitely could have been better but I absolutely had to 100% it, so that means a good game to me!
@Nintenbot I liked Haiku, but it felt obligatory to play through it by the end of it for me. It’s a good game, but it never felt like “it’s own game” to me, if you know what I mean. It felt like parts of other, better games were cobbled together to make it, but that’s just my opinion. But like I said, I did prefer it over anything else I played last month, as far as indies go. That said, Beacon Pines is still on my play list, so it’s still possible it may be usurped, just after the fact.
Also, technically, Tunic and OneShot are above it, for me, but they’re old hats at this point, and I always choose to praise the games that came to the party fresh rather than late.
@somnambulance I agree completely with your assessment of Haiku; completely. I will check out Beacon Pines!
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