Nintendo Life eShop Selects
Image: Nintendo Life

Welcome to Nintendo Life's eShop Selects!

Here we pick three of the best Switch eShop games we've reviewed in the last month and highlight them on a digital podium. Whether they take home the bronze, silver, or gold, you can be sure that the eShop games below — along with our round-up of runners-up — are worthy of your precious time and money.

Let's take a look at the games that made the grade this month.

Honourable Mentions:

While this one didn't quite make our top three this month, it's still certainly worth checking out.

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3. Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (Switch eShop)

It's clear that the team at Lizardcube are massive fans of the original Wonder Boy III, and that affection translates into what is without a shadow of a doubt the definitive version of a game. The updated visuals are sumptuous and the soundtrack, which uses traditional instrumentation rather than computer-generated audio, proves just how catchy the original tunes were.

Despite the passing of the years Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap remains a perfectly-pitched non-linear action adventure — a Metroidvania before the term coagulated into existence — which must surely rank as one of the best of the 8-bit era. It can be completed in the space of an evening, but that evening will be one of the most enjoyable you can possibly spend with your Switch.

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2. Kamiko (Switch eShop)

Stunningly stylish and with an irresistibly kinetic sense of motion, Kamiko is a true gem. It's a quick ride, to be sure, but gorgeous pixel-art visuals, a lush soundtrack and three very different characters with plenty of speedrunning potential make it well worth coming back to.

A uniquely appealing, action-packed package, this is an easy recommendation for any Switch owner.

1. Graceful Explosion Machine (Switch eShop)

Graceful Explosion Machine is a masterful example of how to do an arcade shooter right. Eye-catching visuals and extremely fine-tuned gameplay combine to make this a memorable and compelling experience for anybody looking to get into a faster-paced, action-focused game.

That being said, there is a minor element of repetitiveness which never goes away entirely; the selling point comes not from the amount of levels, but from how many times you'll be playing each one. Considering the amount of polish and replayability on offer, this is quite the bang for your buck, though, and Graceful Explosion Machine gets a strong recommendation.

How we decide our eShop Selects top three: To qualify for this list, these games must have been released as a digital-only release on the Nintendo Switch eShop in that particular month, and must have been reviewed on Nintendo Life; we select the qualifying games based on their review scores.

Here, the top three were decided first based on their NL review score, and then by their User Rating on the site.