Topic: Ranking the Switch's greatest Indies.

For a start, here's my top 5 best Indies on Switch:

1. Celeste
2. Hollow Knight
3. Golf Story
4. Dead Cells
5. Super One More Jump - this one doesn't have the fanfare of the other four titles, but it got a great review on this site and like Hollow Knight and Golf Story, It's another Indie developed by an Aussie team.

Stardew Valley is great, but I played that to death on the PS4, so couldn't get into that on Switch. Highly rated games such as Owlboy and Night in the Woods are in my backlog.

If you could make a top 5, or a top 10 even, what would it look like?

1. Hollow Knight
2. Steamworld Dig 2
3. Dead Cells
4. Enter the Gungeon
5. Hyper Light Drifter

I haven't played a ton of them, but my top five would be:

1. Stardew Valley

2. Darkest Dungeon

3. Dead Cells

4. Floor Kids

5. Crypt of the Necrodancer

I went from not really caring about indies to really enjoying them, mostly due to Nintendo Switch. I’ve had my eyes opened to some brilliant experiences.

My top picks

Tiny metal
Stardew valley
Horizon chase turbo
Into the breach

Top 3 Switch Indies in my opinion :
1. Portal Knights
2. Yonder the Cloud Catcher Chronicles
3. Overcooked 2

Minecraft
Axiom Verge
Stardew Valley
Steamworld Dig 2
Darkest Dungeon

1. Stardew Valley
2. Night in the Woods
3. both OPUS games (Rocket of Whispers and The Day We Found Earth)
4. Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (does that count as indie?)
5. Iconoclasts

Honorable mentions: Celeste, Hollow Knight, Golf Story, both Steam World Dig 1 and 2.

Only have two myself, Bloodstained curse of the Moon and Hollow Knight. Both great games.

1. CELESTE
2. Steamworld Dig 2 + The Messenger
3. Guacamelee 2

Bomb Chicken
Hollow Knight
A robot named Fight

You may notice I don't play many metroidvanias lol

• Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon
• Mighty Gunvolt Burst
• Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero
• Sky Gamblers: Storm Raiders

Not sure if all these count as indie, but these have been my favorite downloadable titles so far (outside of a couple arcade remasters/re-releases), and I don't buy that many in general.

My policy of (generally) resisting eshop games until they're below £10 means the likes of Dead Cells, Celeste and The Messenger are yet to make my acquaintance, so I'm picking from a smaller hat than some, and there's only one game that I've put serious time into so far, so all the others are based partially on my first impressions, as well as their reputations.

So, my easy #1 is Rocket League.

After that I'm inclined to say:

#2 - Hollow Knight
#3 - Owlboy
#4 - Runner 3
#5 - Cave Story

... but take those 2-5 rankings with a pinch of salt - need to play all of them, and Into the Breach, lots more.

Battle Chef Brigade Deluxe
Stardew Valley
The Messenger
Floor Kids
Tiny Metal

I'll just list the games I have personally in no particular order aside from my top 3.

Hollow Knight is my #1 without a doubt. A fantastic mix of Zelda II and Dark Souls, this is one game that will absolutely give you your money's worth in spades. DLCs are just like in Dark Souls/Bloodborne, the best part of the game. And it's free add-ons!

Cave Story is my #2, I've replayed this game like 50 times across the DSi, 3DS, PC (both freeware and Steam), and now Switch. This is the definitive version of Cave Story, with a few streamlining to make the worst part of the game (Sand Zone) much quicker to do, and the addition of two-player co-op that is simply a blast and reinjected new life into the game for me. With the Switch version, there is no reason to buy any other version. Get this game if you can, although it is fairly pricey compared to those other versions, it's still worth every penny. It's short, but extremely replayable.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is my #3. Super good Classicvania that takes the best of Castlevania I and III and melts it into a great throwback to those types of games. It's extremely easy compared to Castlevania and also has difficulty options that remove stuff like lives and knockback from damage, but still very worth your time. Extremely looking forward to Ritual of the Night.

Unfortunately I cannot get into Rocket League personally. The gameplay and controls doesn't exactly click with me, and I don't like soccer anyway. It's not bad, but my tastes don't line up with it.

Blaster Master Zero is good, but has extremes in difficulty. The base game is far too easy and doesn't exactly have the most interesting bosses to make up for it, but Destroyer Mode (Hard Mode basically) is not fun by simply DRASTICALLY reducing you to crappy weapons that don't make the game fun, just tedious. NG+ with all the upgrades is fun for a power trip though.

Golf Story is ok and the writing is good, but I still do not like golf so this didn't do all that much for me unfortunately.

Kamiko is extremely shallow with only four levels and can be beaten in like 30 minutes, but with three playable characters and a very cheap asking price of like $3 (or cheaper, I forget), it's good for what it is. You could do much worse with $3.

...Not a single mention of West of Loathing. T.T

West of Loathing is great. The writing is some of the funniest I've come across in a game.

My top 5 in terms of time played:
Celeste
Golf Story
Horizon Chase Turbo
Stardew Valley
Hollow Knight

In terms of my personal enjoyment, my Top 5 would be:
Celeste
Old Man's Journey
Golf Story
Horizon Chase Turbo
The Final Station

The one that surprised me the most:
Oceanhorn
I bought it on sale and expected it to be a trashy mobile port of a Zelda clone, but it was actually pretty good and I stuck with it to completion.

1.Hollow Knight
2.Yoku's Island
3.Golf Story
4.Fe
5.Owlboy

Still waiting on my physicals for Celeste, West of Loathing and Yooka Laylee so can't judge

I'm another one of those who hasn't played Celeste yet (it has to go on sale some day, right?), while the likes of The Messenger, Into the Breach and Mark of the Ninja are still sitting on my want list. So, of the ones I've played:

1 - Hollow Knight. Absolutely my favourite indie, and in the conversation as my second favourite game overall on Switch, after Zelda BotW.
2 - Shovel Knight Treasure Trove. It's not just an excellent 2D platformer, up there with the all-time greats - it's three, nearly four, excellent 2D platformers, up there with the all-time greats.
3 - SteamWorld Heist. I thought about putting SteamWorld Dig 2 here, as that is a wonderful Metroidvania, but Heist edges it for me. A marvellous side-on SRPG blending the best of Xcom with Worms - plus it has great music and a funky art style.
4 - Axiom Verge. Only just started this, really, but it flicks all my switches as an action-oriented Metroidvania.
5 - Toki Tori 2+. Just to prove that I don't just play 2D platformers, here is a, er, 2D platformer with no jumping. Very challenging and extremely satisfying puzzle game.

Honourable mentions: Golf Story, Human Resource Machine, SteamWorld Dig 2, Blaster Master Zero (which I like a lot more than some people seem to).

Only bought it yesterday, but Flat Heroes is quickly working its way up my list, into the top 10 already I reckon.

1) Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
2) Hollow Knight
3) Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon
4) Blaster Master Zero
5) Detention

There's a big enjoyment gap between the top three and the other two, however, even though I enjoyed all of them and thought they were worthy games.