Flinthook (Switch eShop)
From the insane intro that's worthy of having its own spin-off animation series to the swashbuckling sea shanty soundtrack that's more catchy than scurvy, Flinthook's presentation is splendid, filled with wacky characters and bosses, smooth, fast animations, witty banter and a wealth of particle effects more accomplished than most other pixel art games.
For a tough trek across the galaxy, this is about as charming as you can get, and the lovely pixel art really just enhances the experience.
Narita Boy (Switch eShop)
Narita Boy is a great game. It’s an action-oriented Metroidvania that absolutely leans into a heavy ‘80s, Tron-like aesthetic, but never lets it overshadow the world or its characters.
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The pixelated visuals feel retro and yet distinctly modern at the same time, with beautiful animations, bold environment design, and an optional CRT filter that enhances the overall tone of the game (though can occasionally feel a bit too much). If you’re a fan of Metroidvanias or, god help you, the ongoing ‘80s fad, then you owe it to yourself to play this game.
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Iconoclasts (Switch eShop)
Iconoclasts is the result of one man’s dream project for an action platformer, borne out over a lengthy eight-year period of development. Fortunately, the final product reflects the time invested into it, as it expertly mixes an engaging and surprisingly heavy story with Metroidvania elements and a peerlessly gorgeous 16-bit visual style that favours immaculate detail and eye-popping colour palettes.
This is pixel art at its absolute best; it’s immediately clear that Sandberg devoted a significant amount of development time to getting the looks of the game just right. Each environment you enter has a vibrant and bright veneer to it, and the atmosphere is perfectly captured in the little details, all adding up to make for quite a visual treat.
UNSIGHTED (Switch eShop)
One title that really springs to mind playing UNSIGHTED is Square’s 1993 SNES classic Secret of Mana. It’s partly because of the chosen-one JRPG story trope and partly because of the beautiful top-down pixel graphics, which occasionally mix side-on elements into the scenery for dramatic vistas.
Its time-is-ticking, post-apocalyptic scenario is brought to life by the enchanting palettes of its pixel art, making a world you want to explore, full of characters you want to know.
Half Past Fate (Switch eShop)
Following the lives of six characters as they chase their very own ‘quest for love’, Half Past Fate is an endearing look into how it might actually feel to be face-to-face with the potential love of your life. It may feel a bit overly idyllic at times, but it often nails the dialogue and quite frankly looks absolutely gorgeous to boot.
It’s a perfect blend of 2D sprites and 3D environments, and everything from the character models to the tiny cups of coffee burst with personality - it’s one of the most beautiful pixel art games we’ve seen in a good while. Similarly, the music is wonderfully upbeat, and the combination of this along with the colourful visuals make for an incredibly pleasant gaming experience.
Pocky & Rocky Reshrined (Switch)
Pocky & Rocky, a Super Nintendo top-down run-and-gun, was developer Natsume’s gold standard, fondly remembered for its taut arcade action, adventurous stage design, and beautiful visuals.
Pocky & Rocky Reshrined is a re-envisioning so markedly different from the original that it’s essentially an entirely new game. Completely redrawn from the ground up, it’s nothing short of magical from the flute note ditty that dials-in the opening title screen to the first stretch of road and beyond. Fallen leaves are displaced as you skid across them, floating back down to settle on the cobbles; weather effects desaturate the world with sepia flashes; the special effects, particularly surrounding boss entrances, are dazzling.
A Space for the Unbound (Switch eShop)
We began our time with Mojiken Studio’s A Space For The Unbound curled up on our sofa, cup of steaming tea close by, with winter rain softly rapping against the window. Much like reading a good book, it felt right to play this slice-of-life adventure game this way; this game taxes neither reaction time or critical thinking skills to solve its dozens of puzzles and situations.
Instead, it pulls you in with its gorgeous pixel art depicting 1990s Indonesia (that looks remarkably vivid on a Switch OLED) and entrances you with its narrative of anxiety, depression, and a hefty dose of magic realism.
Jamestown+ (Switch eShop)
Jamestown+ is a beautiful, hand-crafted tribute to Cave classics that welcomes newcomers to the genre with a pleasingly gentle learning curve whilst at the same time providing the absolutely fiendish levels of difficulty and replayability aficionados of the genre demand.
It also happens to feature gloriously evocative and detailed pixel art alongside a fully orchestrated – and award-winning – soundtrack. This is a hidden gem on Switch that, if you're a shmup fan, you should certainly check out.
Until Then (Switch eShop)
Beautiful pixel art is at the heart of Until Then, a gorgeous visual novel set in a fictional city in Philippines. And goodness, what a story, and what visuals. Similar to HD-2D, the characters are all rendered in lovely, fluid 2D pixel art, while all the backdrops are in 3D.
Character animations are a marvel with every movement and facial expression telling a story all on its own, and juxtaposed with the backdrops, there are some truly memorable moments. A beautiful story deserves a beautiful art style, and Until Then delivers.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound (Switch eShop)
The Game Kitchen is already on this list with Blasphemous, and in our eyes, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is equally as gorgeous. The colour casting is exceptional, the detail incredible, and the animations fluid and sharp. Your demon adversaries, punched through in bursts of blood and an occasional decapitation, lie dispatched on the ground while severed limbs of the opposing clan spin through the air. While most sprites are relatively small, they come imbued with bags of visual personality and an undying coolness.
The aesthetic is cartoonier than Sega’s forthcoming Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, but well suits the series canon. Fire rages, waterfalls cascade, rain patters, and sunsets set. The entire thing, from end to end, is a feast for the eyes, roaming across glades, through pitfall-filled caverns, ominous bio-factories, and decorated corporate headquarters.
Pixels! Yeah!! Did we miss one of your favourites? Tell us in the comments.
Best Pixel Art Games On Switch FAQs
Not sure how to tell your pixels apart from your rotoscope or your hand-drawn? Let's answer some of the more popular questions around pixel art.
Isn't pixel art only for old games?
Nope! There are so many modern pixel art games on Switch (and Switch 2) that are absolutely excellent. Some may be inspired by the NES, SNES, Game Boy, and even GBA eras, but many feature modern mechanics and are wonderful titles well worth checking out.
Heck, this list is a great starting point, but if you do want a bit of nostalgia, our retro throwbacks — some of which are pixel art — list is another great place to start: