Feature: The Most Exciting Indie Games Coming to Nintendo Switch In 2018

Too many to say which I'm excited for. A lot of good options there.

I will say that I'm most looking forward to Crypt of the necromancer and Wargroove when it comes out.

Hollow knight looks good too. Why no mention of Wargroove?

Oof that's alot of nice looking titles

SHOVEL KNIGHT <3

Hollow Knight all the way. I've played through about half of this game in PC, and it is my favorite Metroidvania!

@Kalmaro oh yeah, wargroove looks great

Night in The Woods is my #1, then Hollow Knight and Owlboy

Can we have a "Feature: The Most Exciting 3rd Party Games Coming to Nintendo Switch In 2018" up next please? It shouldn't take too long.

This is why I'm not worried about what Nintendo will offer this year. Even if they offer nothing--which of course won't be the case--these games guarantee that Switch will have a solid lineup in 2018.

Day 1 to most of those for me!

Why would Nintendo Life list Terraria for PSVita but not 3DS?

This is a Nintendo site, and that game is already portable on a Nintendo system, and the 3DS version plays as well as the Wii U version, in fact I am currently playing it.... Just strikes me as odd, does the writer not even know this basic detail? What gives?

@SLIGEACH_EIRE These are third-party games. All of them.

You forgot Morphies Law

Really?

No Wargroove?

WTH peeps?

@thesilverbrick You know what I mean. There's a reason these are called Indies.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE They’re called indies because they’re independent third-party developers. It seems you’re more interested in a game’s budget than anything else.

Nice variety. Not enough money and time to play everything, lol

Hollow Knight and King of Cards for me!

@SLIGEACH_EIRE What are your thoughts on the actual games featured in this article?

I can't wait for Super Dave! on Thursday. If it's half as addictive as Woah Dave! I will be wasting away many hours playing it.

Dandara, Hollow Knight & Bloodstained...just preordered Dandara in eShop & it's 20% off

Lol, I think the poll is broken. Every time I press vote I get an error message. Something about clicking 3. Anyone have any ideas?

Bunch of great indie games. I'll probably end up buying at least half of those. I'm most looking forward to Runner 3 which unfortunately wasn't an option in the poll.

Now if only we could convince Vlambeer to bring Nuclear Throne to Switch...

Hollow Knight, Owlboy and Monster Boy (for example)...yes please!

@UmbreonsPapa Terarria and Shovel Knight are good, but I've played them already. The same goes for Runbow. There have been some great Indies already released, Stardew Valley and SteamWorld Dig 2 being possibly the best examples. Inside is supposed to be great.

If I was given a choice between Indies or 3rd party developers, I'd choose 3rd party every time.

I wish harmonix would remake frequency and release that on the Switch.

It’s becoming all too apparent that the Switch’s lack of internal memory and reliance on MicroSD cards was a bit shortsighted. Many of these games will be large downloads and even people like me who spent good money on high-capacity MicroSD cards are running quickly out of space. Sure, larger cards are in the works but many of them will initially cost as much as the Switch itself.

@thesilverbrick I don't really see why it's so bad that @SLIGEACH_EIRE wants to know some big budget third-party games that are coming to Switch, because while you could classify Indies as AAA, You can't exactly have Night in the Woods and Wolfenstein II on the same list. (This is nothing against the quality of indie games, I'm just saying indie games tend to be very different from AAA games in terms of presentation and gameplay)

EDIT: Sorry, I meant third-party, not AAA.

@Scrummer There’s nothing wrong with wanting big budget AAA games on the Switch, but he’s insisted before that indie games aren’t third-party, which is simply untrue. I was just pointing out the error in the way he insists on phrasing his complaints.

Third party at its best

@Scrummer I think its two things

1) The article is about indies. Nintendo and its partners will announce their bigger budget games when they're ready

2) Based off his/her notorious posting history, the inquiry comes off as less than genuine.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE as you wish:
Wolfenstein II
Dark Souls
Payday II
Ys VIII
SNK Heroines
Fe
Celeste
Starlink
Street Fighter Collection
Megaman Collection I
Megaman Collection II
Megaman X Collection
Megaman 11
Megaman dating simulator (rumored) 😆

Or to sum up ultimate port year: cept Megaman 11.
I'm going to grab the Megaman stuff so I can play all that on the go, maybe Starlink if it reviews good, otherwise we really need some big reveals at or prior to E3.

I wish I never bought a Wii U. Loved runbow but could rarely find a match online. Dont feel like buying it again for this reason.

Where is RUNNER 3??????????????

Wargroove.

What ever happened to "Pocket Rumble"?

Where the hell is Wargroove? It's easily one of my most hyped games for the whole year so far. Of course Bloodstained is also something I'm very much looking forward to.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE
This articles WAS that article.

Having played Owlboy, Hollow Knight and Inside on Steam, I can highly recommend these three titles to everyone and I will definitely buy them again on Switch.

I was hoping for Divinity Original Sin to make an appearance

@Alikan You've said it yourself, the majority of them are ports. The Switch truly is a PORTable.

Cutting this down to the top three titles is so cruel. So many great titles I can‘t wait to first and double dip on Switch throughout the year.

Nintendo Life continues to have apostrophe problems

“It's procedurally-generated 2D world…”

I am really REALLY excited for Shakedown Hawaii, which is not on the list probably because of its TBD release date, but I am CERTAIN we will see that release before Bloodstained No. 9.

Great article, I'd like to play almost every game on that list! Not sure why it has to be split into four separate pages, but that's a very minor complaint.

I'll be honest, I clicked the article to remind myself of what IS coming. XD

...Which is a lot. It seems I'll be building a bit of a digital library on my Switch after all.

Awesome! I know its early 2018, but with few big games announced by the pro's, I'll take more indie titles. Steamworld Dig 2, Stardew Valley, Rocket League, and many more were great in 2017. Hope to see the same quality this year.

So is Bridge Constructor Portal the first (kind of) Valve game on a Nintendo platform?

HALF LIFE 3 CONFIRMED

@SLIGEACH_EIRE womp womp. 😜

I wanted to vote for more than 3. Layers Of Fear not getting any love is a shame. I didn't choose it because I've already played through it on PC, but fans of psychological horror should definitely pick it up. It's a very unique experience and doesn't necessarily rely on jump scares like the article suggests.

I might be most excited for Moonlighter, but I can't wait for AWAY or Hollow Knight either. Indies have had me excited ever since I bought the switch.

@QwertyQwerty I suppose I could delete/archive things but I really don’t want to have to do that. I buy physical when I can to save space, but when you’ve got a couple dozen indie games and many of them are over 5GB in size, you run out of space pretty fast. And re-downloading games of that size isn’t exactly quick or convenient.

Gonna be Bloodstained and King of Cards (for 3DS technically) for sure and could be more once I know more information (and pray that my backlog will give me a chance TO PLAY other games )

@thesilverbrick What other storage method could Nintendo possibly use for the Switch?You just can't stick a hard drive in the console.

@NandN3ds Limiting the internal memory to 32GB was a bit shortsighted.

Trade half that list for Battle Chasers.

Gave up waiting and got it on Steam for $11. It is great - will be a perfect fit to the Switch when it finally comes out.

Owlboy looks cool and Monster boy looks great too.

King of Cards and Runbow again for me! Not sure about anything else right now.

Moonlighter looks really good so far. On the flipside, I cannot for the life of me dig the look of Bloodstained. It just looks ... off to me, visually speaking.

Anyways, a bunch of these games I own already, though of them still sit unplayed in my steam/xbox/psn library as of now. I might double-dip on Owlboy.

There's also a number of games missing, like Wargroove which, I assume, is going to make it to the system in 2018. I'm also still hoping for some ports of games like Invisible Inc., FTL and Transistor. Those, I would definitely double dip on. Speaking of FTL, Into the Breach nees to come to the Switch

Night in the woods, Hollow Knight and Crypt of the Necrodancer are all must buys, and King of Cards and Inside are must plays, but I've already got Shovel Knight on my 3DS and Inside on my PS4, so I just need to get wait till the former is released and actually find the time to play the latter!

Indies are just getting better and better every year, so I can't wait!

That said, this list has tragic Runner 3 and Super Meat Boy Forever sized gaps

Rivals of Aether: I for one will welcome our new platform fighter overlord for Nintendo Switch.

@QwertyQwerty Only possessive nouns use an apostrophe. Possessive pronouns are considered inflections in form; just as "he" becomes "his", "it" becomes "its".

"If I was given a choice between Indies or 3rd party developers, I'd choose 3rd party every time." - @SLIGEACH_EIRE

Slig? My I introduce you to 2k Sports? Fill your boots lad, feel the third party polish.

On the subject of ports, do Xbox and PlayStation fans argue over which version of a game came first when they're released simultaneously?
"Yours is the port!"
"No, yours is!"

I just want good games, don't care if they are a few years old, were on other systems first or how big the budget of the developer is.

Owlboy and Bloodstained are interesting for me. I don’t care about the rest.

It's good to be back.

Hollow Knight, Bloodstained, and Moonlighter were the easy top three for me.

Celeste is another big one, which is out this Thursday!

Fe is the only one I have my eyes on yet I'm really cautious, EA association and all. I'm looking forward to the reviews.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE if King of Cards is anything like Specter of Torment, then it's basically a whole new game. The mechanics completely different, even the tower is different, the magic/curios, the characters, the challenges, even the story.

As for "third party", it doesn't look that amazing and will never look amazing, but at least we know the problem is probably just the power of the machine, not the sales. For someone who likes Wii U, I'd keep my mouth shut on 3rd parties for now. Wii U had its share of third parties then died horribly, and Switch right now has a great time too, a better run, which will probably last longer. Playing LA Noire and loving it. Doom, Skyrim,, Wolfenstein, Dark Souls, PayDay2, the situation is really pretty good, considering.

P.S: Third party are always "ports." That's why they're third parties. Unless they're exclusive like Bayonetta 3.

This is the first time in a while I've wanted more choices for a poll, the indie selection this year is already so good! Hollow Knight, King of Cards DLC, Fe, Bloodstained, and I'm curious about Terria..

Owlboy's sprite work looks great! Gives me slight Golden Sun vibes. Speaking of which, it's time for Golden Sun 4 for Switch, Nintendo!

I think I'm actually a little bit more excited by this line-up than I am of the so far announced retail releases for this year. I'm sure that'll change around E3 though.

Oh, and an obligatory mention of yet another article that could do with a proofread. I'm not listing the mistakes this time, because well... that's meant to be your job. I will say that 'Knight Knight' was particularly amusing though.

Edit: 11 hours later, still nothing fixed...

Sometimes an indie comes along that makes you rethink just how good indie games can be. For me, Hollow Knight is that game.
The only other one I'm excited for is the final campaign of Shovel Knight.

Where's Wizard of Legend, Re:Legend and even The Adventure Pals? This list is missing some notable entries and that is almost criminal.

I honestly want them all, also where is Dragon Mark for Death the next Inti Creates game?

@The_Pixel_King
Yeah, I'm super excited for Celeste as well.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE I understand your point, and I understand that you still carry some bitterness towards Nintendo since they turned the page on the Wii U so abruptly.

However, you write as if the Switch will never receive big AAA third party support, and you must see that you are mistaken. This is not the Wii U, this little console with its library full of ports is selling A LOT. Which means that more and more it will become an attractive platform for AAA developers.

So yeah, some developers started releasing ports, which is the fastest way to arrive at a new console, and maybe those ports haven't been selling as fast as you would expect, but that doesn't change the fact that the Nintendo Switch is offering huge market, a projected 17 million users just in its first year. They will try to tap that market, and only those who develop great games will triumph.

So yeah, right now there's not that big a list of AAA retail third party games, but those guys are working as fast as they can to develop for the Switch.

Pretty much just Hollow Knight and the Shovel Knight expansion (though I'll be getting that on 3DS since I originally got that version) for me.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE @SLIGEACH_EIRE as you wish:
Wolfenstein II
Dark Souls
Payday II
Ys VIII
SNK Heroines
Starlink
Street Fighter Collection
Megaman Collection I
Megaman Collection II
Megaman X Collection
Megaman 11
Attack on Titans 2
Gundam
DQ Builders
Project Octopath Traveler
Valkyria Chronicles 4
My Hero Academia
Scribblenauts
The World Ends With You
Adventure Time
Penny Pincher Princess
The Longest Five Minutes
Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory
Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists & the Mysterious Paintings

It can be better thats for sure but there are games coming.

Some really good looking games on the list and no doubt I'll buy many of them. Owl boy, Hollow Knight, Monster Boy and Fe look right up my street.The ones I'm most looking forward to however are Outlast 1&2,Layers of Fear and Detention. All due before the end of March. Surprised that 3 of those 4 weren't featured in this article but Terarria and Rumbow were.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE just a fun games you can play on the thing you have bought feature works for me but I get your point.

The lack of Wargroove, Outlast, and Detention on this list is weird. Anyway, of the games on the list, Hollow Knight is known to be fantastic, AWAY looks interesting, and I'm also cautiously optimistic about Bloodstained's prospects (even though I'm almost certain it's going to fail to live up to the unrealistic expectations of the people who kickstarted it). I'm also thinking about nabbing Owlboy when it comes out.

@thesilverbrick that's the most infuriating part for me, giving it the same amount of internal storage as the Wii U was a really cheap move. At least make it 64GB dang it!

@SLIGEACH_EIRE why does that matter? A good game is a good game.

@thesilverbrick @gortsi The Switch is using flash memory, which isn't cheap. That's the price you pay for this system being fully portable.

@QwertyQwerty English is completely annoying and weird. The noun “it” is not treated the same as other nouns. “The game’s world“ is correct, but if using the word “it,” the same meaning is conveyed with NO apostrophe: “Its world.” If you use an apostrophe, you are saying “it is”: “It’s a great game.”

Hollow Knight, Moonlighter and Owlboy for me. I might consider Shovel Knight, but I own it on 3DS already.

Moonlighter, been following that for a while, it’ll be a day one purchase. Other than that - Hollow Knight, perhaps and I’ll potentially quad-dip into Terraria depending on the price.

Went for Bloodstained, Inside and Shovel Knight.

Is Night in the Woods any good? I've heard mixed responses.

This is a great article... I didn’t know some of these were confirmed (like Terraria and Inside for example.)

I’m really excited for OwlBoy and I’ll fibally get to play Inside, the latter I’m now glad I waited since I most likely wouldn’t have double-dipped on. Terraria I might just quadruple dip on IF IT’S the console version (like PS4; not the smartphone version like 3DS.)

Anyway that’s that. There’s a lot to be excited about here!!

@SLIGEACH_EIRE lol you’ve been pretty quiet man that’s why no one has been retorting! 😂😂 and i agree with you that the AAA 3rd party lineup, though way better than Wii U, is still a bit light. But Nintendo gamers have never seen entries like Skyrim, LA Noire, etc and Dark Souls was another recent surprise announcement so that’s a step forward. For me, the indie and classic games fill a nice gap on Switch especially at the pace of 10-15 titles a week! Remember how quiet the Wii U eshop was in between retail releases?? I can still hear the crickets in my head! Total torture!

@SLIGEACH_EIRE
Arent most of your posts ports of posts you already released under other articles ?

@StormtheFrontier From what I've read about it,and I've read quite a lot, it's definitely not a game for everyone. I'll be buying it but I'm not even sure I'll like it myself. I've never played a game like this though so I'm willing to give it a go. If the world, story and characters click then it seems like it will be a special experience. If not, then you're left scratching your head wondering what all the fuss is about and probably regretting your purchase. That's what I understand of it anyway

Ahh, nothing like a little Irish negativity. Must be lots of fun at parties...

@bluesdance "It" isn't a noun, it's a pronoun, and it inflects without the apostrophe just like other pronouns:

I, me, my, mine
He, him, his
She, her, hers
It, its
etc...

You are correct that English is weird, but studying a bit of linguistics is all that it takes to realize that all languages are weird. That's what makes them so fun.

Ok, after selecting Night In The Woods, Dandara, Owlboy, Fe, Moonlighter, AWAY: Journey To The Unexpected, Hollow Knight, Flipping Death, 2064: Read Only Memories Integral, Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night, and Layers Of Fear: Legacy I realised that I could only select three XDXDXD
Owlboy is coming out the same day of the Collector’s Edition of the game I preordered and been HUGELY hyped for: Kingdom Come: Deliverance... I think I’m going to spend some little more for it, I think it’s perfect to pass some time of relaxing pixel art between the sessions of harsh medieval life XD
Jeez, it’s a great time to be alive XD

Eh....
None of the games above i will buy.
I'm waiting for Portal Knights & Overcooked Physical release during February 2018.

Where’s Runner 3?

I'd sure love to see some of the turn based steam games make their way to the Switch....like Panzer Korps

@Ralizah so did the Wii U. 32GB in 2017 is inexcusable, no other way around it. Every console launch always includes more storage than the previous gen, and for a good reason

No mention of Wargroove?!

@SLIGEACH_EIRE I wouldn’t, look at all the loot box crazes, loot boxes RUINED so many bit AAA 3rd party titles last year.

Indies don’t do that crap.

Why play LOTR when it’s main gimmick of Orc battling is P2W, or Gamblefront 2 where it’s online is P2W, or UFC where you can literally buy a stronger punch etc...

Keep that trash off Switch for as LOOOOONG as possible.

My two most anticipated indies weren't listed here, but they are Battle Chasers and WarGroove!

Mulaka for me.

Terraria needs to be the full pc version of the game {finally!!!} or at the very least, needs to add alot more of the pc content. I mean for the love of god PLEEEEEEEEEEEASE

@NewAdvent I actually forgot about it as well until I read this article. Back to remembering it again!

Also waiting for Hollow Knight.

When is freaking battlechasers release date (

Lot of good stuff here, probably wind up getting most of these eventually. My top 3:

Owlboy
Shovel Knight: KoC
Bloodstained

@SLIGEACH_EIRE
It's been a full decade since I would have picked the old crop of AAA 3rd party publishers over the developers that have sprouted forth from the indie movement.

Bridge Constructor Portal? Yes please!

+1 on Runner 3 mentions in this thread. Already preordered the physical version (so hyped!) and if its release schedule holds it’s due out Q1. It is easily my most anticipated title of 2018.

Who knows, perhaps it will eclipse my End is Nigh geek out level achieved last year : ).

Why does the article say 2018, when it's only about games arriving during a month in 2018?

@Expa0 FWIW, ResetEra will have a Q&A with Chucklefish soon. I guess the release date/month of Wargroove will be discussed there, if not sooner.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE

Then get a PS4 or Xbox One and stop boring everyone here.

I just want HUNTDOWN.....

Can. Not. Wait for Night in the Woods. Was hoping for a Switch port, so didn't get it on PS4/XB1.

Will also most definitely get Owlboy. I've been looking forward to playing that for years by now.

Hmm maybe 2-3 games

February is looking great

Night in the Woods, Owlboy and Fe all look like games suited for me, next month looks really good, my birthday is february 12th, timing couldn't be much better!

definitely hollow knight, otherwise, no other indie game

There's certainly a few titles here that I missed for the PS4 and will keep an eye out for when they release for Switch. Unfortunately they'll probably be priced at double what they were for the PS4 so I'll still not bother.

Kentucky Route Zero and Wargroove

Rather large omissions on this list!

Almost all of them. Inside is a huge recommandation!!!!!!!

Fantastic line-up.

100% sold on Hollow Knight, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Inside and Owlboy. Likely to pick up Dandara, Night in The Woods, Kentucky Route Zero and Fe, but honestly, there's a bunch on here that I didn't even know yet and look great too.
Plus the indie backlog from 2017.

At this point, I'm not even bothered by the lack of major third parties support. Screw 'em.

Very excited for Dandara, Hollow Knight and Celeste. Although Celeste being at 20 euro, I'll probably wait for a sale.

Is Nidhogg ever coming to Switch? Perfect system for it...

I want a retail copy for Hollow Knight and Shovel Knight SO BADLY

@jariw Probably because you didn't see there was more than 1 page?

Hello all I'm new to Nintendolife and just got a Switch for Christmas. I haven't really played a Nintendo system since Gamecube... I owned a Wii but it felt like a gamcube with motion controllers and didn't impress me. I'm primarily a Sony gamer but got a switch to fill the void of the Vita and plus Zelda. Anyway... can you guys make notes on which Indies are exclusive to the Switch? I own a lot of the Indies on my PS4 and don't normally rebuy games I already own and strictly use the Switch for Nintendo games and exclusives. Thanks.

Really hope Gal Metal gets English-language support! Otherwise really looking forward to Owlboy, Night in the Woods and 2064: Read Only Memories.

Away
looks super interesting and different.

Also, where is the fantastic Dead Cells ??

what was the sci-fi version of Terraria? I'd like to see that come to Switch — never got a chance to play that as a console gamer.

I'm looking forward to Bridge Constructor Portal, Gal Metal, Fe and Runbow (doubledip)!

Bloodstained, Hollow Knight and Night in the Woods could also be interesting.

I think I won't doubledip with Inside, already finished it on PC.

Night in the Woods and Away for me. Opposite ends of the spectrum that look like they both offer something a little different than anything else out there.

Wow, lots of choice.

My favourites are Fe, Monster Boy and The Cursed Kingdom, Hollow Knight, Inside and most of all Owlboy. Really loving Owlboy right now.

@holygeez03 Think I have Nidhogg on Vita but haven't got around to playing it yet. Any good?

Looking forward to layers of fear

@wazlon I never played the first Nidhogg, but it always looked very fun... I played Nidhogg 2 on a friend's PS4 and it was very fun.

I feel it is definitely most enjoyable as a local multiplayer game... which is why it is perfect for Switch.

@mister_magnus You might be thinking of Starbound. IIRC, one of the artists who worked on Terraria is the lead designer of Starbound. Years ago, there was talk of Starbound coming to consoles, but I don’t think it has (yet).

I’d like to “a hat in time” on Switch.

Can somebody please explain to me what has happened to Hawaii Shakedown 2????

Moonlighter and Bloodstained sound good.

@sfb That's the one! I played Terraria on Xbox but never Starbound (for obvious reasons). Would love to see that come to Switch in place of Terraria simply for the freshness — understanding that these are different games from different publishers, natch — but maybe "T" is the superior game to "S"? Anyone got any hot takes on that?

@mister_magnus

I don’t have any first-hand feedback on Starbound, but you might want to read some user/curator reviews on Steam, and/or reviews on Metacritic. IIRC, Starbound has various features that Terraria does not, but technically might not be in a completed state. Been a while since I looked into it, though, so my recollection might be no longer accurate.

FYI, Starbound is in my Steam library, but I haven’t played it, aside from booting it up once or twice. That’s not a reflection on the game itself: my gaming PC is a handheld GPD WIN, not ideal for that type of game, so I usually gravitate towards simpler games when playing on PC.

@sfb haha now I'm daydreaming about Starbound but looking forward to exploring Terraria again. 2016 reviews have me wishing it was the other way around. Gimme dat sci-fi!

@AWeirdGlacier yep...

Fe looks interesting, definitely gonna check out Owlboy and Hollow Knight, and next week I'm pretty hyped for the Steamworld Dig port. Never played it before, and after sinking many hours into the sublime Steamworld Dig 2 and Heist I think that needs to change.

Getting King of Cards as a free update when it comes out'll be nice too.

It’ll be interesting to see the cost of some of these games.

Even without Nintendo’s first party titles, the Switch is a continual drain on my wallet. This article is pretty full of games that I’m definitely gonna buy, haha.