September was another cracking month for new releases on the Switch eShop, with plenty of new offerings that are worthy of your time.
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 September 2021!
Honourable Mentions:
While these titles didn't quite make our top three this month, they're still certainly worth checking out:
- DELTARUNE Chapter 2 | Review: 8/10
- Lost In Random | Review: 8/10
- Steel Assault | Review: 8/10
- Actraiser Renaissance | Review: 8/10
- Metallic Child | Review: 8/10
- Espgaluda II | Review: 8/10
- Residual | Review: 8/10
- Ultra Age | Review: 7/10
- BloodRayne Betrayal: Fresh Bites | Review: 7/10
3. The Forgotten City - Cloud Version (Switch eShop)
Taking third spot this month is The Forgotten City, which has arrived on Switch as a 'Cloud Version'. This mystery adventure is a brilliant piece of narrative work with excellent writing and voice acting and a truly gripping story. A well-presented and brilliant timeloop game, this would be a super-easy recommendation on other platforms, but cloud gaming naturally comes with its own risks.
If you have a strong and stable internet connection and don't feel like you'd be put off by occasional cloud-related technical hiccups (and are also content that one day, your game will simply disappear), then the gameplay itself is absolutely worth your time.
2. Eastward (Switch eShop)
Jumping up to second place we have Eastward, a memorable Zelda-like featuring dungeons full of treasure, enemies, and puzzles to master. In our review, we praised the game for its creative gameplay sequences, its heartwarming and emotional story, and its excellent art direction, all combining together to make for a great experience.
The only word of warning we have is that it can sometimes be a pretty slow-paced affair, but if that doesn't put you off, we'd certainly recommend it. And hey, so many members of the NL team have enjoyed their time with it that it's earned second spot in this list!
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1. Castlevania Advance Collection (Switch eShop)
In first spot, however, and taking top prize in this month's eShop Selects awards is Castlevania Advance Collection, which is unsurprisingly a collection of Castlevania games that appeared on the good old Game Boy Advance.
You'll find Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance, Aria of Sorrow, and Vampire's Kiss all included in the bundle, and if we're honest, we'd probably have voted this game into our top three just for Aria of Sorrow alone. While the games do share certain similarities, we found them to be different enough to be worth checking out (or replaying if you've tried them before).
Also, being able to legitimately pick up four older Castlevania games these days for less than $20 is a steal, so get it downloaded and jump in!
< Nintendo Life eShop Selects - August 2021
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 19
Eastward for me. It was really great. I know some people complain about the pacing but for me (as someone who predominantly plays VNs and JRPGs) it was the perfect mix of story and gameplay that kept my full attention all the way through. Often with similar games that are all just about gameplay I start to lose interest a couple of hours in but that didn't happen at all with Eastward.
While the castlevania collection is indeed a massive steal (seriously, I picked up the games physically for 250 euro’s total I think), I think Eastward should have been placed number one instead of a collection.
Since it’s a new game and a new ip. Way more effort imo.
Eastward 👍😊 A breath of fresh air 😊
Kemco"s Ruinverse is a great turn based Rpg as well as Asdivine Hearts. Finished AD. Grabbed Ruinverse on sale last week. Really good.
I didn't really give Eastward a second look, until I seen the name Chucklefish. I'm playing Wargroove at the moment. I Will go back and read the Eastward reviews
$19.99 is cheap for the CastleVania Advance Collection. I remember my mother spent $19.99 on a new copy of Circle of the Moon a few months after launch for me which seemed cheap at the time.
Unmetal.
I wanted to like Eastward, it looks amazing, but just wasn't for me.
Not purchased Castlevania Advance collection yet, thought I would hold out and get that as a little Christmas pressie to myself.
I’m surprised Actraiser Renaissance wasn’t on this list. That game came from out of nowhere and hit all the right nostalgic notes. The music is still brilliant, the graphics are better, and there’s more to do than before. It’s got my vote this month.
Diablo 2 Resurrected for moi but plan to get a couple from this list at some point so thank you for the round up
I've fully 100%ed all three Castlevania GBA games this past week. I've always loved these games, and having them again on Switch is super cool.
The Forgotten City was robbed. Definitely should’ve been above Eastward. I like them both, but seriously…
It will likely be Eastward, but I patiently await my imported physical copy before I play. Although the Castlevania Advance collection is a solid pick.
Death's Gambit Afterlife. Released Sep 30th, the original has been on my Steam wishlist for ages but I finally splurged.
And it's basically what you get if you take Blasphemous and make it more of a Souls-like. A parry-and-dodge oriented combat system? Lore delivered through item descriptions? A flexible class-but-not-class oriented leveling system?
All married to a clever plot with a ton of layers which (again Souls-like) depend on you doing obtuse things with semi-random inventory items at specific times. And great pixel art and orchestral soundtrack and decent voice acting on top.
Tails of Iron wins for me by far
Why isn't it listed?! 🤔
Not only is the gameplay excellent but the artwork is genuinely some of the best I've ever seen in a game.
Mystik Belle Enchanted Edition was my favorite.
I don’t get why this game gets no love.
@sketchturner Exactly what I was thinking about Mystik Belle Enchanted Edition.
@sketchturner Finally someone else who found this awesome game! NL have dropped the ball in not reviewing this one. Tales of iron would also get my vote. It's basically Dark souls with Rats bugs and frogs bit more forgiving to make it more accessible. It's just as rewarding though. Great art, great sound design and meaty combat. If you like games everyone you should absolutely play it.
Give me a physical release of castlevania and i will take it Other than that pfffff. Cleared all of those games either way.
Castlevania without a doubt.
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