Octopath Traveler (Switch)

£19.99 (-60%) - ENDS 31st DEC

Octopath Traveler was developed by the Square Enix studio behind Bravely Default, and boy does it live up to those high expectations. From its dazzling art style to its mechanics, it's the kind of game that keeps an eye on the past while walking bravely into the future. All elements link together perfectly to make for a harmonious and immersive experience that you’ll find difficult to put down.

We’d recommend Octopath Traveler to both fans and newcomers to RPGs; it does a fantastic job of straddling that line of accessibility and depth, satisfying both camps with its dizzying amount of content. Classic-inspired gameplay, an orchestrated soundtrack, and a unique approach to storytelling make this a game that you won’t want to miss.

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Octopath Traveler II (Switch)

£19.99 (-60%) - ENDS 31st DEC

Octopath Traveler II is a triumphant and confident follow-up to its predecessor, building on the established foundation with welcome new ideas and tweaks that make for an overall excellent experience.

A strategic combat system, open-ended character progression, well-written stories, gorgeous visuals, and an incredible soundtrack all coalesce into one of the finest RPGs available on Switch to date. Though it may be more of the same, Team Asano demonstrates mastery of its craft at every turn here.

Okami HD (Switch eShop)

£7.99 (-50%) - ENDS 31st DEC

Okami HD is an utterly fantastic piece of software, and we feel you’d be doing yourself a disservice to pass on it. It's a 40-hour adventure that emulates Zelda wonderfully, adds in plenty of memorable mechanics, features one of the most beautiful art styles in gaming, and is completely playable on the go, to boot. It may be showing its age a bit visually and its combat is sometimes a little on the easy side, but Okami is an important, fun, and notable landmark in gaming history — and one of the easiest recommendations we can make for your Switch library.

OneShot: World Machine Edition (Switch eShop)

£8.76 (-35%)

A short, compelling point-and-click adventure originally developed in 2014, OneShot: World Machine Edition has an endearing, sombre story in which developer Future Cat makes you — the player — a character. The quest of Nico, a cat-like child, is framed as a game installed on a PC that functions as both a menu and narrative device and Niko will frequently break the fourth wall to address you by your Switch profile name as you guide her through a dying world.

Unlike the adventure games of two or three decades ago, none of the puzzles stumped us, yet the dopamine rush hit us all the same when things slid into place. Before we knew it, the credits rolled, and we sat back, pensive from its bittersweet ending. A Very Good Game™.

Ori And The Blind Forest: Definitive Edition (Switch eShop)

£3.74 (-75%)

What we have here is a flawless port of a game which absolutely deserves all of the praise it has received. From start to finish, Ori and the Blind Forest is a real joy to play. Challenging yet never feeling unfair or discouraging, and almost relaxing to control. The mesmerising art style and musical score are the icing on the cake that makes the player actually care about the protagonist and want to keep playing to the game’s conclusion. It was a bit of a surprise to see this game make its way to the Nintendo Switch, but we’re glad that it did. An unmissable experience.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Switch eShop)

£6.24 (-75%)

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is not just a great sequel; in many ways, it outdoes Ori and the Blind Forest.

The addition of more customisation options, a greater focus on combat and a better-developed story (all in an incredibly beautiful game that's running at 60 frames per second) means it comprehensively outshines the original. Will of the Wisps pushes technical boundaries so far beyond the previous game that performance was shaky even on Xbox One X at launch; that it runs on Nintendo's console at all is, well, utterly remarkable.

That's not to say it was flawless when it launched on Switch, but following a patch from Moon Studios, the game is in even better shape than ever and we really can't recommend it enough. A supremely enjoyable platform adventure which everyone should experience.

PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo (Switch eShop)

£7.99 (-50%) - ENDS 31st DEC

Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is one of the most surprising games we've experienced in a good while. Its overarching narrative, while initially quite heavy on exposition, is wonderfully told, interweaving the lives of multiple protagonists and tasking the player with progressing their stories in meaningful ways. The puzzles are fantastic, the characters well realised, and the visuals top-notch, making those brief moments of horror and terror exceedingly effective.

It's an experience we fully recommend going into with as little information as possible, as this will prove to be an incredibly memorable experience; one that can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Switch's best visual novels.

Pentiment (Switch eShop)

£7.49 (-50%) - ENDS 31st DEC

Pentiment is a fantastic adventure RPG that revels in a studious approach to history and immaculate recreations of the styles and traditions of 16th-century Bavaria. There's a super smart, funny, and engaging murder mystery to investigate here, but it's how that mystery is so fully rooted in the world that's been lovingly crafted around it that really elevates this experience.

It's one of the best games of the past decade, hands down, and to have it running and performing perfectly on Switch is a joyous thing — it feels like it was made for Nintendo's console. This is about as essential as games get.

Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo (Switch eShop)

£12.59 (-30%)

Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo is a masterclass in retro Zelda-like game design, expertly fusing classic mechanics with creative new ideas to make for a thoroughly memorable and worthwhile experience.

Occasional difficulty spikes aside, we’d highly recommend you pick up Pipistrello at the next available opportunity, especially if you're a Zelda fan who prefers the top-down design of games such as The Minish Cap. Much like its title character, this one has a lot of cool tricks up its sleeve.

Pizza Tower (Switch eShop)

£8.99 (-50%)

Pizza Tower is the rare sort of game that improves on its inspiration in nearly every way, building upon many of Nintendo’s Wario Land ideas with impressive results. This is an incredibly satisfying, creative, and addictive platformer that’ll keep you busy for a long time if you want to 100% it.

Anyone who loved the old Wario Land games will adore this, as will anyone who’s looking for something new with a high skill ceiling and lots of technical depth. Pizza Tower has definitely got it where it counts - platformers don’t get much better than this.

Portal: Companion Collection (Switch eShop)

£3.37 (-75%) - ENDS 31st DEC

It's hard to overstate our satisfaction with Portal: Companion Collection. Portal and Portal 2 felt incredibly fresh when they first released, and the years have not diminished their immense impact. To have two of the most unique and mind-bending puzzle games on a Nintendo console, and on-the-go if you choose, is a pure joy.

If it weren't for the frequent load screens punctuating the experience, we'd have absolutely nothing to complain about here. The motion controls work like a dream, the games run at a near-rock-solid 60fps, you've got local co-op play available at the drop of a hat, and the writing remains as funny now as it did all those years ago.

If you haven't played the Portal games before, this should be a no-brainer. If you have... well, just play them again.

Quake (Switch eShop)

£3.19 (-60%) - ENDS 31st DEC

Quake returns in a feature-rich remaster that delicately updates the classic FPS, adding lots of optional bells and whistles, packing in a ton of content, and delivering the definitive way to play this masterpiece in the process.

There's a wealth of online and co-op options here, a glorious new expansion to blast through from MachineGames, super slick performance in both docked and handheld modes, and it's all available at a cracking price point.

This really is a stellar port of one gaming's true greats and an absolutely essential addition to your Switch library.

Quake II (Switch eShop)

£3.19 (-60%) - ENDS 31st DEC

Quake II arrives on Switch in the form of one of the very best remasters we've ever had the pleasure of digging into.

With enhanced graphics and audio, refined AI, all-new animations, the iD Vault, a brand new episode, and all previously released DLC in the mix — plus the N64 version — this is an exhaustive package that Quake fans are absolutely gonna eat up.

Add in crossplay support, gyro controls, and lots of co-op and competitive ways to play locally and online, and you've got an outstanding release.

Raiden IV x Mikado Remix (Switch)

£7.49 (-75%) - ENDS 31st DEC

Raiden IV is not a typical shmup by contemporary standards, and won’t be for everyone. Equally, all of these modes have been available in some form elsewhere. But as a single package, Raiden IV x Mikado Remix offers the Switch one of its best shooting game releases yet – and that is saying something on a console that has emerged as an unexpected star vehicle for the genre.

Return to Monkey Island (Switch eShop)

£8.99 (-60%) - ENDS 31st DEC

Return to Monkey Island reaches into your heart, rips out your desire to know THE SECRET, and clenches it in front of your face. As hard as it would be to concede that The Secret of Monkey Island™ might always have been a MacGuffin, it’s agonising to contemplate that your 30-year longing for the Monkey Island 3 might be just the same.

Return presents to your transfixed gaze a phenomenal point-and-click adventure, bubbling with passion and fun. All the way through, you will hope, achingly, that the big reveal is coming – and then…

Roadwarden (Switch eShop)

£6.62 (-33%)

Roadwarden is a fascinating text-based RPG that delivers top-notch writing, meaningful and impactful choices, and way more interactivity than you may be expecting from a game of this type. Managing your time, health, armour, and more as you explore and map out a dangerous peninsula gives you plenty to consider as you pick and choose the narrative threads and situations that concern you most.

Almost impossible to put down, and definitely something I'll play more than once, this is a genre highlight on Switch that's only slightly let down by a bit of clunkiness on the UI front.

Rogue Legacy 2 (Switch eShop)

£8.99 (-60%)

While not the first 'roguelike' by any means, 2013’s Rogue Legacy — alongside classics like Spelunky and The Binding of Isaac — helped make the genre the huge deal it has become. Nearly a decade after the original (not counting two years of early access), Cellar Door Games finally followed up on its breakout hit.

Rogue Legacy 2 builds upon its predecessor and re-establishes what made it such an enduring hit. While it’s not a game-changing revelation, it takes everything that made the original great and goes bigger and better.

Sea of Stars (Switch eShop)

£19.17 (-35%)

Sea of Stars is a sensational achievement for Sabotage. Following on from The Messenger, the studio is two for two in providing impressively designed and genuinely innovative takes on classic genres.

Some pacing issues aside, the complex narrative, deep and strategic combat, thoughtful level design, and fantastic visuals and music all combine to make this one of the easiest recommendations we can make. If you consider yourself a fan of old-school RPGs, you must play Sea of Stars.

And if not? The execution and polish here are so good that we’d suggest you give it a try anyway - few games would be a better introduction and representation of what makes JRPGs great. Sea of Stars is an instant classic and a new high-water mark for modern retro-styled indies.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance (Switch)

£21.99 (-60%) - ENDS 31st DEC

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is a stellar example of an enhanced re-release done right - which is fortunate, as the original version was delisted when this launched.

Vengeance's comprehensive approach to improving the story and various gameplay systems of the original release makes for an experience that’s even more engrossing. Though we were disappointed by the lack of any performance gains here, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is still an extremely easy recommendation for any RPG fans.

Some may consider SMT to be “Persona without the heart,” but SMT V: Vengeance cleanly demonstrates that this old Atlus stalwart still has an abundance of fantastic gameplay and unique appeal. A wonderful game.

Shotgun Cop Man (Switch eShop)

£5.32 (-41%) - ENDS 31st DEC

Shotgun Cop Man can easily stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Super Meat Boy and Celeste in terms of raw, precise gameplay. Using your guns for both traversal and combat with a simple but effective twin-stick setup is a stroke of genius, and it makes for an effortlessly rewarding experience that you'll want to play again and again.

While not overly difficult in itself, nailing the optional objectives is key to achieving 100% completion, and it's here that you'll find challenge and satisfaction in equal measure. It's funny, it's violent, and it's polished – and we suspect it will go down as a cult classic.

Signalis (Switch eShop)

£11.19 (-30%) - ENDS 31st DEC

Signalis came out of nowhere to provide survival horror fans a near-perfect love letter to the long-running genre.

It is at its best when you're darting between enemies, using stealth and patience rather than brute force. While some of the combat encounters felt a little forced, the puzzles are just the right mix of challenging and approachable. The surreal imagery and unique storytelling structure add to the overall polish of a game that is the perfect length for what it is.

There have been an awful lot of homages to classic survival horror, but Signalis stands as one of the best.

Slay the Spire (Switch eShop)

£6.79 (-66%) - ENDS 31st DEC

Slay the Spire is an endlessly addictive roguelike card-battler that’s a perfect fit for Switch; a beautifully balanced game that arrived on Nintendo's system with all the benefits of an extended period of Early Access on PC. Its combination of ferocious battles, entertaining chance encounters, and selection of three impressively different player characters make every run to the top a nerve-wracking and totally absorbing affair.

Massively inventive sets of cards combine majestically into hugely destructive combos and attack and defence options fuse perfectly together, enabling you to use the information provided by the brilliantly transparent Intent system to strategise endlessly against hordes of foul monstrosities.

Sure, you’ll eventually see every enemy and chance encounter, and yes, there are a few frame rate niggles here and there, but overall this is one dungeon crawler that will live long in our system memories.

Sonic Mania (Switch eShop)

£6.39 (-60%) - ENDS 31st DEC

Sonic Mania was a true return for the mascot's 2D 'Classic' guise. It celebrates the glory days of the original games while also enhancing their qualities and taking on new ideas. From new areas, imaginative second acts, and some delightful boss encounters, the development team poured a lot of passion and talent into this retro-styled project.

With new characters and modes added in the 'Plus' retail version (also available as DLC), some neat tweaks iron out some of the kinks present in the original release. Regardless of the version you pick up, Mania is one of the best 2D platformers in recent memory.

Sonic X Shadow Generations (Switch)

£22.49 (-50%) - ENDS 31st DEC

In what can only be described as a monumental return to form for both hedgehogs, Sonic X Shadow Generations combines two excellent campaigns to create what just might be the very best 3D Sonic game so far.

The remastered Generations content remains a delight, taking you through some of the series' most iconic stages, but Shadow's new chapter represents the franchise's 3D gameplay at its very best. It introduces a bunch of awesome new abilities while showcasing some of the most creative stages we've ever seen.

Alas, there's still no Chao Garden, but we'll keep hoping and praying for its inclusion in the future. Based on this, though, the future of 3D Sonic looks bright.

Star Ocean: The Second Story R (Switch)

£22.49 (-50%) - ENDS 31st DEC

This revival of a PlayStation classic does a thorough job of mixing modern game design and artistic elements with old-school sensibilities to make for one of the most impressive RPG releases of 2023. A lengthy, player-driven story, thrilling combat system, gorgeous new visual style, and remixed soundtrack all come together to make this one of the easiest recommendations we can make to any RPG fan.

If you’re even vaguely interested in picking this up, we’d encourage you to do so as soon as you can; Star Ocean: The Second Story R is comfortably the best entry in this series.