Felix the Reaper (Switch eShop)
The creator of Felix The Reaper took to reddit last year in a disarmingly honest AMA discussing the game's development and its performance. Here's what NL user Ian had to say about it:
You play a reaper; a funky, dancing reaper. On each level you must perform a series of basic tasks that come together, Rube Goldberg style, to cause your target's timely death. It's a puzzle game, the challenge being that you must stick to the shadows, manipulating your environment (and the sun) to make your way in the world. Sadly there are occasional progression bugs which can be very confusing when you're convinced your solution to a problem is right. It's a beautiful game though, clearly made with a lot of love, and it's voiced by Patrick Stewart!
Embracelet (Switch eShop)
Fiskern found Machineboy's Embracelet to be an affecting experience on Switch:
A beautiful and emotional adventure with characters you get invested in. The setting of a remote Norwegian island sets the tone of a calm game where you solve puzzles, and interact with characters, digging deep into their backstories.
Embracelet is for those who want an engaging story about a small community on the decline, and how it affects the people, and especially kids, living there.
Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl Fleet (Switch eShop)
The last line of doddlewhizz's recommendation had us heading to the Switch eShop to download Nelly Cootalot immediately:
Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl Fleet is a pirate based point and click adventure with a distinctly British sense of humour as well as copious amounts of puns. The world is colourful, the characters are charming and the overall journey is very enjoyable. It follows the traditional 'click thing on thing' style of adventure game puzzle solving but thankfully there isn't too much moon logic about. Also stars Tom Baker as a parrot.
FUZE Player (Switch eShop)
Having played around with Fuze4 (which we reviewed), reader vinicity recommended we check out some of the games it produced in Fuze Player:
It's a collection of games written in Fuze4 for Nintendo Switch, and the games are written by the lovely Fuze community. Fuze Player is cheap as chips, and currently contains about 35 games, with more being added every now and then.
We have got rhythm games, flying games, memory games, shooting games, psychedelic snake games, puzzle games, multiplayer games, shmups, and more. You'll play as a whale, as a submarine captain, as a fish or as an entire army... There is even an exclusive Dizzy game from the Oliver Twins!
Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Heavy Burger (Switch eShop)
Alex kept things short and sweet with this Heavy Burger recommendation:
I’ll make this quick — I’m a big fan of twin-stick shooters and I have all the greats. One of the most unique, quirky and fun of these is Heavy Burger. It seems no one knows about it, though. Check it out; I think you’ll agree.
Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark (Switch eShop)
And finally, XiaoShao is an SRPG fan and wanted to bring your attention to Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark, one of Switch's strategy games which slipped under our radar:
SRPG fans don't need to wait for the next Fire Emblem or Project Triangle, they should check out Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark. Fell Seal offers a plethora of classes and skills to craft unique characters, and a lot of the fun is experimenting to create overpowered characters that will steamroll enemies! The game also offers interesting enemies, challenging maps, and a compelling story, and it should be any strategy fan's next epic!
Our thanks to everyone who responded — we'll have more for you soon once we've finished rifling through our mail box. Let us know below if you've sampled any of the games above and if you agree with the recommendations. We're off to scour the Switch eShop and catch up with some of these.
If you've got a recommendation for us, you can send them to us by following the guidelines and instructions below:
Submission guidelines
- 100-word limit - Keep it brief! A history of the genre and deep-dive into every mechanic is unnecessary. Concentrate on what the game is about, what sets it apart from other games and why you enjoyed it.
- One entry per game - Feel free to send your thoughts on multiple games, but there's no need to duplicate.
- Choose only games that we haven't reviewed on the site - To check if a Nintendo Life review exists, simply type the name of the game into the search box at the very top of the page (look for the magnifying glass icon in the top left corner) and click on the game page that appears. If there's no review, you're good to go!
How to send a recommendation
- Head to Nintendo Life's Contact page and select the subject "Switch eShop Hidden Gems" from the drop down menu (it's already done for you in the link above). Type your name, email and beautifully-crafted message into the appropriate box, hit send and Bob's your uncle!
Comments 45
This is my favourite feature you do. It's easy to keep track of the big and the hyped, but if a little-known game gets a 5-7 on review sites I'm likely to forget about it.
I’ve played Felix the Reaper but I didn’t think much of it tbh. Which was a shame because the trailer and art style are quite interesting and I like puzzle games. Something just didn’t click for me.
Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk is criminally underrated IMO. It got a 7/10 - really?
I know there are at least a few people on this site who love the Etrian Odyssey series and so it surprises me that this game has gone so largely unnoticed in terms of conversation on NL.
Like, so far as I know - unless I've somehow missed it - Labyrinth has never been included on any of NL's various lists of best Switch RPGs - ever. (This despite there being games on it that aren't technically even RPGs 😆).
What's cool about the title is that you can tell right away that this game draws a lot of inspiration from the amazing EO series.
Granted, Labyrinth is nowhere near as challenging as Etrian's often soul-crushing degree of difficulty (which I would say is probably the title's only really disappointing aspect), but I think it's still a very fun, charming, and well-written little game.
Plus, it kinda sorta demonstrates what an Etrian Odyssey game might be like if or when Altus should ever decide to bring the series over to Nintendo's one-screened wonder.
Bought Jenny LeClue in a sale a while back, but haven't really touched it as of yet.
I'm very intrigued by Stone Fly but at £17.99 it could do with a demo... 😕 Heavy Burger and Puddle Knights possibly too... The latter does have a demo.
I know you already reviewed this game and gave it a whopping 9/10, but I feel like Night in the Woods never gets enough love for just how incredible that game is. Very few games have characters that feel that alive and personable. It's a masterpiece of storytelling.
Ghost of a Tale looks quite amazing visually
Just want to say that Dezatopia is an awesome shoot em up with great graphics, music, and gameplay. I love that your ship can water plants and make them bloom with a neat sound effect every time you do so.
@brunojenso The animation is well done, with loads of attention to detail and little touches throughout the game. The design of Tilo (the protagonist) is similar to Mario (with his short legs) so you don't get that clunkyness (like turning circles) in most 'serious' rpgs. It's beautiful on the Switch and a delight to play. (I'm no writer so I can't do it justice I'm afraid. But you can see so much effort went into it.)
Some interesting games, including some I hadn't heard of, but I'm not sure any of them other than Ghost of a Tale are going to ever see the insides of my micro SD card.
@Clyde_Radcliffe
I should’ve described Heavy Burger’s premise, which is one of the coolest things about it: There are two rows of arcade cabinets facing each other. Both rows lead to one arcade cabinet, which is your goal. You play within the games themselves, obviously, and have to carry a money bag all the way to the “goal cabinet.” So, basically, each arcade cabinet is like a level in which a game is playing but you’re there against the cpu (and possibly a human player) twin-stick shooting each other trying to carry the money bag to the next cabinet while crazy action from the game you’re in causes mayhem. Once you get to the final cabinet, take the money bag to the bank and you win. If your opponent grabs the bag before you can make it to the bank, he’s gotta go through all the cabinets and take it to his bank. It’s intense back and forth, trying to get the bag to the bank. The game controls perfectly and has a great style to it and is only eight bucks.
I really want to play Stonefly. I loved Creature in the well (some absolutely magnificent use of complimentary colours in that game.)
HOW DID I MISS GHOST OF A TALE ON SWITCH?
I played an earlier version on my PC and absolutely loved it. It is a really cool exploration game based on stealth...as the little mouse, you can't hope to fight the big rats.
It also had some great background lore in game. Overall it is a fantastic title. I would highly recommend it if you like 3D open-world (-ish) exploration and stealth gameplay.
I've been sitting on ghost of a tale for a while now. Saw the missus play last year on PS4 and couldn't help myself when I saw the switch version.
I just picked up Fuze Player recently. I love when builder tools release a separate player for those interested in just playing the games. You can reach a much broader audience.
I’ve been waiting for a sale on Ghost of a Tale, but haven’t seen a significant dip yet. Not that I need a sale, just that I already have so many games I don’t have time for.
Stonefly is definitely on my list, something about that style speaks to me. Liked Creature in the Well for that same reason.
And just like CitW, I suspect a physical soon enough.
+1 for Ghost of a Tale. It's very Redwall-like and looks amazing for an indie title.
I'm buying Stonefly soon. Never knew Flight School made a second game! Here's hoping they make a sequel to CitW!
Everyone who likes puzzles should play "Chained", it's not very expensive and offers a simple but enjoyable experience.
Heeeey, Jenny LeClue! That was one I recommended last time, but it didn't make the cut. I'm glad it did this time!
Thoroughly second the recommendation for Ghost of a Tale. A very well-told story that doesn't have to sacrifice gameplay to tell it.
I haven't played any of these, but Stonefly, Ghost of a Tale, and Felix the Reaper have definitely piqued my interest
Wow I should really get round to Fell Seal then. Have it on Steam as well.
Darkwood. Holy crap, unless you don’t like creepy atmosphere, play Darkwood.
There’s a reason all of these were missed.
Really happy to see Jenny LeClue being included here, I feel like that game went under a lot of people's radar. It definitely feels more aimed at kids for the first half or so given how the story goes and the simple nature of the gameplay, but it's SUCH a good story and the dialogue and voice work is incredible
Really like this feature.
I actually downloaded Puddle Knights and Fuze Player in previous sales whilst searching through the vast Switch eShop library. Looked at the footage abd descriptions before purchasing (cheap enough for me not to necessarily look at reviews). They're "interesting" and "not bad" at best, I'd say.
I'll investigate a couple more on here further that have piqued my interest!
This is an outrage! My surname has been redacted from my Felix The Reaper review. The Beales are a proud people; lawyer up NL.
@Andy_Witmyer All I can say is I tried the demo for this game and wasn't a big fan, and I adore the Etrian Odyssey series
Absolutely love these features - other publications please take note. More of these please!
Puddle Knights looks (and sounds) wonderful. Who says chivalry is dead? 💛
Usually I have only heard of one of these hidden gems, but this time I knew at least three. Felix the Reaper caught my eye on the eShop, while Ghost of a Tale and Fell Seal were already on my radar Stonefly, though, I had missed entirely. Looks great.
Is it me, or are the hidden gems becoming better quality and bigger budget? Far fewer mobile ports and quirky timewasters. Shows how flooded the eShop is now when even titles of this quality are sinking with little trace.
Anarcute is cool game ^^
Stonefly sounds like something I was daydreaming about as a kid, I.e. imagine shrinking to the size of an ant, getting into a vehicle (a combat car in my head) and go on an adventure in the giant backyard. I will check it out for sure! Fell Seal sounds like my jam as well.
@Clyde_Radcliffe you're not willing to pay that much for a game? Kind of messed up so many people constantly advertise a desperate refusal to pay a fair price to support developers. And then people wonder why we are inundated by so much p2w, gacha and shovelware while some of the best games never get proper follow-ups. A bargain should be taken advantage of but why encourage people to sandbag the artists we love?
Bought Jenny LeClue a while back for £3 in a sale after it was recommended in the comments of an article here about the best point n clicks.
Really enjoyed the narrative and art style.
Hoping the devs will make a sequel.
Ghost Of A Tale was hugely tedious to me. I really don't understand how other people enjoy this, but of course i'm happy for them! Just wanted to say that your mileage can still vary. Also the trailer isn't Switch gameplay :/. It's severely downgraded and lost some of its magic for me on Switch.
The Fuze Player is a mega deal, so many games for next to nothing and Fuze itself is less than half the price of Game Builder Garage and you can do so much more with it! a real bargain
@Andy_Witmyer Being a big Etrian Odyssey fan, I tried the demo and found the gameplay quite fun. The writing, on the other hand, was utter garbage IMHO. Painfully unfunny nonsense (I'm assuming they were trying to be funny, though I may be wrong) flowing from the mouth of obnoxious characters that just kept gabbing endlessly. It was such a chore to sit through the stupid cutscenes that I have yet to go back to what otherwise seems like a fine enough etrianlike.
If you own Fuze4, let me recommend that join in on our Weekly High Score challenges. This week we are playing this amazing puzzle game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4U733ZWVW0
Here is the challenge:
https://fuzearena.com/forum/topic/1704/weekly-high-score-challenge-40
I have to buy Fuze player,looks great.
I'm really enjoying these articles (hanging out for my suggestion to appear in the next one!) but there's one thing that I don't understand:
So we can only suggest games which don't have an NL review... But if it gets picked up for one of articles, it still doesn't have an NL review. Which makes it hard to know which games are truly worth suggesting (since they're not going to be featured a second time).
I wonder if there's any plan for NL to take some of these suggestions and write a full review...
The only one of these I've played before is Jenny LeClue. I thought it was fantastic! I really dug the character development. What I'm really excited to check out is Ghost of a Tale. That one slipped by me, so I'm gonna have to find out more about it.
If this is part 3, then where is part 1 and 2?
A link would be nice, since the search function on this site is horrendous.
Jenny LeClue is a very cool game, full of personality and with really great writing, but be warned that it ends in a cliffhanger. I was mildly upset at that, but my playthrough was definitely worth it.
Tap here to load 45 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...