13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim Switch

Price: $59.99 $14.99

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is a wonderful achievement for dynamic storytelling, as it puts forth a compelling and multifaceted narrative that’ll keep you guessing right up until the very end.

This excellent story, combined with enjoyable combat portions, a striking art style, and some top-notch voice acting make for an experience that you shouldn't miss. It’s the kind of game that’ll have you wishing that you could play it again for the first time, just so all its best elements could be new again.

Absolum Switch

Price: $24.99 / $18.74

Absolum is an on-par experience to Vanillaware's Dragon’s Crown, but a superior game in terms of its key metrics. Its combat, collectible augmentations, and planning are exceptionally well-formulated, ensuring no run is ever quite the same, and its strategic options and play-styles are ever-deepening. It’s incredibly impressive in its reconstitution of arcade, role-playing, and roguelike formats, evolving them into something fresh and exciting.

To that end, it’s one of the best of its kind, whatever that kind may be. If you don’t enjoy the idea of repetition and grind, you may not fall in love with its initial five hours, but the momentum for one-more-go becomes so compelling after a while that it’s impossible to relinquish the pad.

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown Deluxe Edition Switch

Price: $59.99 / $23.99

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is the absolute pinnacle of the series and despite coming to Switch over five years after other platforms, this 'impossible' Switch conversion does very little to degrade the experience. Long-time franchise players and military aviation enthusiasts will be overwhelmed by the fan service at every turn, from craters on the ground to airplanes, liveries, callsigns, and emblems shouting out to previous entries.

We understand the genre is uniquely niche, but if this is your first foray into the franchise, this conversion is a perfect gateway into this rich, revered series. You get tons of content and an epic single-player campaign wrapped up in triple-A presentation that delivers the most comprehensive portable experience ever from Project Aces.

Aegis Defenders Switch eShop

Price: $19.99 / $4.99

Aegis Defenders is a fantastic game, brilliantly blending the tower defence and platforming genres in a unique way to produce a memorable and enjoyable experience.

Lovable characters, interesting lore, plenty of secrets, engaging gameplay, and gorgeous presentation combine to make this a must-have for your Switch, a real gem on the eShop.

AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative Switch

Price: $39.99 / $9.99

AI: The Somnium Files – nirvanA Initiative is one of the most interesting visual novels we’ve played through in a while. The murder mystery at its heart is brought to life by some great writing and quirky characters alongside the satisfyingly integrated, beautifully balanced Psync puzzle elements.

Even with some minor control issues, there is a lot to love in this game, even if you never picked up the original. Highly recommended if you're even a little bit curious.

Alien: Isolation Switch eShop

Price: $19.99 / $14.99

Alien: Isolation is a survival horror masterpiece and straight-up one of the very best horror video games ever released.

It's a nerve-wracking affair — a slow, methodical game of cat and mouse against a brilliantly clever recreation of one of cinema's most infamous killers — but if you're up to the task you'll find one of the most satisfying gameplay experiences in the genre; a brilliant and beautiful homage to one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time.

Feral Interactive has done a stellar job with this Switch port and the excellent motion controls and inclusion of all previously-released DLC only go to sweeten the deal. This is essential stuff for survival horror fans.

Animal Well Switch eShop

Price: $24.99 / $17.49

Developer Shared Memory's stated goal was “to craft complete experiences that will be playable long after the world loses its internet connection,” and screen after screen, Animal Well excels in delighting your eyes and giving your brain something to stew on.

It’s a riposte against a culture of post-launch updates in favour of a meticulously crafted, singular vision with potentially years’ worth of discoveries baked in. By all indications, Animal Well delivers on that long-term promise and does so with a one-of-a-kind elegance.

Archvale Switch eShop

Price: $14.99 / $7.49

Archvale is a triumphant bullet-hell/RPG genre mashup. Although you could argue its similarity to one or two recent releases, it trumps the competition with incredibly slick combat, simple and satisfying progression, and varied environments and enemies.

The difficulty ramps up heavily as you progress to the later levels, so the inability to change difficulty on the fly may prove a bit of an issue for some players. Push through, however, and you’ll find Archvale to be one of the most satisfying twin-stick games available right now.

Bad North Switch eShop

Price: $14.99 / $2.99

A slice of Viking strategic combat right out of the heart of Scandinavia’s indie development scene, Bad North was at the vanguard of a wave of smart yet intrinsically accessible real-time strategy titles.

Swedish developer Plausible Concept calls it ‘micro-strategy’ and it's the perfect encapsulation of a minimalist approach that covers everything from unit management to the Monument Valley-style isometric art style.

With enough enemy variance to convince you you’re playing an interactive episode of the Vikings TV show, this endlessly entertaining sea of bitesize battles will teach you to fear — and love — the sound of the oncoming horde.

Blazing Chrome Switch eShop

Price: $16.99 / $4.24

For those longing for a time when side-scrolling shooters ruled the roost, Blazing Chrome is exactly what you're looking for. Perfect for short sessions, its slick gameplay and old-school art direction make for an astonishingly fun game full of explosions, epic set pieces and spectacular boss battles. Its brutal difficulty may not be for everyone, but if you're up for the challenge, then get ready for one of the most accomplished 2D action titles in years.

Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle Switch eShop

Price: $19.99 / $9.99

The Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle illustrates perfectly why the humble side-scrolling fighter was the toast of video gaming in the late '80s and early '90s. Addictive, enjoyable, and — perhaps most important of all — bloody good fun when played co-operatively with friends, all of the titles in this seven-strong compendium are worth your time, and by adding robust local and multiplayer support, Capcom has done its utmost to ensure they find favour with a whole new generation of gamers.

If you're not a fan of the genre, then you may well be wondering what all the fuss is about, but for everyone else, this is a must-have download.

Cast n Chill - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Switch 2

Price: $14.99 / $10.49

The title says it all for this sedate little catch-'em-all fishing game. Also available on Switch 1, Cast n Chill is easily one of the nicest-looking games on either console, and one of the most effective uses of this retro pixel art style we've yet encountered.

The devs have nailed little details such as the plop and pull of your float, the gentle rumble of your controller as you rake a spinner across a shoal of fish to attract them, and the weight and heft of everything, really. Oh, and you've got a dog with you to pet.

With only two buttons controlling everything you do (and even an idle mode, if that's your thing), there's even a local co-op mode for a friend to join you in the same boat, so you can cast and chill together. Blissful.

Catherine: Full Body Switch

Price: $49.99 / $9.99

Catherine: Full Body is a fantastic revamp of a bona fide cult classic. With an excellent new character and several new endings slickly inserted into an already highly entertaining narrative – not to mention a slew of fun new modes – this is the definitive version of an outstanding game.

If you've never played Catherine before, then you're in for an absolute treat, and if you have, we'd say there's enough new content here to make it worth diving in all over again.

Chicken Police - Paint it RED! Switch eShop

Price: $19.99 / $4.99

An extremely impressive first game from The Wild Gentlemen, Chicken Police - Paint it RED! is one of the best visual novel/adventure games we've played in a long, long time and one hell of an absorbing tale. It looks and runs great on the Switch, with only a couple of really minuscule interface issues which are easily ignored.

At roughly eight or nine hours, the story is surprisingly lengthy, but we were never bored and wanted to investigate every little thing just to wring out more precious droplets of banter and fascination. Chicken Police is a polished, captivating experience and we're very excited for whatever's coming next from this team.

Contra Anniversary Collection Switch eShop

Price: $19.99 /$7.99

While it’s a shame that there are fewer games here than in other Konami collections — we’d have loved to have seen NES title Contra Force or the now-extinct WiiWare title Contra ReBirth — the ones included in the Contra Anniversary Collection are universally brilliant. The 8-bit and 16-bit Contra games are among the finest examples of the run ‘n gun genre, and to have almost all of them included in a single release and emulated flawlessly is an absolute treat.

Whether you’re a fan of the series or a curious onlooker who’s always wanted to see what the fuss was all about, this is essential.

Crawl Switch eShop

Price: $14.99 / $4.49

We really like Crawl, and we’d bet our collected stash of gold and wrath you will, too. A dungeon-crawling hack-and-slash affair with roguelike elements, one player is the hero trying to get through a dungeon and the others play as monster-controlling ghosts attempting to kill said hero and take their place.

It's an everyone-for-themselves free-for-all, yet there are opportunities for frantic 3v1 co-operative play — a necessity when all the non-hero ghost characters must take joint control of bosses the hero faces. It’s great fun in single-player thanks to some aggressive AI, but that consistent danger takes on a new dimension when you and three of your friends are jostling for XP and that all-important killing blow.

Competitive couchplay doesn’t get much better than this on Switch.

Cuphead Switch eShop

Price: $19.99 / $13.99

Cuphead was an absolute masterpiece when it originally launched on Xbox One and nothing was sacrificed in its move to the Switch.

A run-and-gun boss battler dressed up like a 1930s Fleischer or Disney animated short, it’s the same visually jaw-dropping, aurally delightful, knuckle-whiteningly difficult game it was on Microsoft’s console and the Switch’s library is all the better for its presence. Its focus on intense boss battles won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but as long as you know what you’re getting yourself into, we can’t recommend it enough. Just look at it!

And the Delicious Last Course is the icing on the cake.

Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition Switch 2

Price: $69.99 / $29.39

Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition was a remarkable launch-day port for Switch 2. CD Projekt Red's deep, diverse, and tangible world is fully realised with impressive performance for such a low-powered device.

If you've not taken your first steps into Night City already, or you're a long-time player with a portable-play itch that needs scratching, you're in for a serious treat, choom.

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony Anniversary Edition Switch eShop

Price: $29.99 / $8.99

It's difficult to get across exactly why Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is so good without spoiling vast swathes of it, so we'll keep it simple. You'll come into the game baffled as to what the writers were thinking with some of these characters, and walk away loving each and every one of them.

There isn't a single moment of slack throughout the whole 40-hour playtime, it has the most extensive post-game of any title in the series, and one of the best endings to any game ever made. Go in blind and we promise you'll be in for the ride of your life.

Dave The Diver Switch eShop

Price: $19.99 / $10.99

In 2023, a year dominated by titanic, big-budget releases like Tears of the Kingdom and Mario Wonder, off-the-wall roguelike Dave The Diver stepped up to the plate and knocked the ball clear of the park with a heaving swing.

Its charming animations and writing supplement a mechanically dense experience that never stops dangling a new carrot to chase. You owe it to yourself to pick up this outstandingly funny, enthralling, and weird gem.

Death's Door Switch eShop

Price: $19.99 / $3.99

Death's Door is a modern classic, utilising old gameplay ideas in a new setting to make for a short and sweet experience you won’t want to miss. The snappy combat, rewarding exploration, and relaxing music will stick with you once you've finished, and while it may not have anything 'new' to offer, Death’s Door is so high quality that you’ll hardly have time to think about its lack of innovation.

Any fans of Zelda or Soulslike games will adore this - Acid Nerve has crafted an experience that’s absolutely worth your time and money.