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

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3. Arcade Archives Donkey Kong (Switch eShop)

Available on console for the first time since being tucked away as a bonus in Donkey Kong 64, this is the original game from which this whole beautiful mess spawned — the Mario series, the DK series, and Nintendo's enormous empire of evergreen gaming.

Mario (or rather Jumpman) may seem quite limited in his abilities (and death by such short falls is very old-school), but Donkey Kong is still a fun game. Tougher than the NES port, high-score chasing can get addictive.

For fans of the game and the OG arcade cabinet's vertical orientation, Hamster's TATE mode-compatible Arcade Archives release is something of an 'ultimate edition'. Three versions of it with a few display options and the usual array of modes and online leaderboards make this a great choice and the best way to revisit this arcade classic.

The movement might feel stiff and the animation rudimentary, but give it time and DK's iconic charm is sure to win you over.

2. Lumines Remastered (Switch eShop)

Lumines Remastered is a luminary of the puzzle genre and feels perfectly at home on the Switch. Intense and immersive puzzle action, psychedelic visuals, a killer soundtrack, and a bevvy of content and modes make for a premier puzzle experience that should not be missed.

Lumines is an addictive experience that is positively a delight to play, and we would highly recommend it to both veterans and newcomers to the puzzle genre. There’s something here for everyone, and considering the relatively low price tag, Lumines Remastered is very much required playing for any Switch owner.

1. The Last Blade 2 (Neo Geo)

Like most fighters in the ACA Neo Geo range, the Hi Score and Caravan modes have limited appeal, but that doesn't really matter when the regular game is so enjoyable.

Like its predecessor, The Last Blade 2's seemingly simple combat system has a lot of depth allowing for plenty of options in fights with a good selection of characters and modes, and this sequel adds a third mode and some extra fighters.

Where that first game has the edge, however, is in the fighter balancing. If you'd only like one Last Blade title on your Switch, it's a choice between fair fights or more fighting options. But really both Last Blade titles offer varied, enjoyable, engrossing combat with superb audio-visual presentation.


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.