109 Switch Games You Should Pick Up In Nintendo's Summer Sale (Europe) (2024)

Huntdown (Switch eShop)

£3.59 (-80%)

Huntdown is a delightfully detailed and expertly crafted throwback to old-school run 'n' gun arcade shooters. The 16-bit graphical style is immaculately recreated whilst adding lots of modern bells and whistles to proceedings, including a fantastic soundtrack and audio design, optional CRT filter, and an arsenal of heavy-duty weapons that chew scenery and enemies to pieces as your bounty hunter makes their way from boss fight to excellent boss fight. The flow of levels may be quite repetitive but the moment-to-moment gameplay, overall sense of fun that comes from the level of carnage you can dish out, surprising amount of hammy spoken dialogue, and constant pop-culture references all combine to make this one an easy recommendation, and another excellent addition to the Switch's action catalogue.

Pentiment (Switch eShop)

£8.99 (-40%)

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 that experience 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.

Chicory: A Colorful Tale (Switch eShop)

£8.54 (-50%)

As an adventure game, Chicory: A Colorful Tale is quite sincerely up there with the very best of the genre. There’s plenty to see and do and a full completion run will probably take you 25-30 hours. The characters and their travails are rich and likeable, the game’s sense of humour is generally inspired, and it’s all very sweet without being sugary-twee and talking down to the player. It’s also an affecting little tearjerker that will definitely strike a chord if you make art, and almost certainly will even if you don’t – so long as you’re capable of pretty basic empathy. Chicory is simple to play but impressively long and complex, with perfect controls, performance and visuals. Throw yourself into painting the world and you’ll be left with a game that’s very much your own and speaks to you directly – a beautiful marriage of mechanics, themes and visuals.

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury (Switch)

£33.29 (-33%)

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury takes everything that made the cat-filled Wii U original special and throws in various small gameplay tweaks to make it even more enjoyable. The first four-player 3D Mario game fuses the freedom of the third dimension with the spirit of the tighter, more constrained (yet no less imaginative) courses from his 2D games to wonderful effect. The cooperative multiplayer element brought Princess Peach, Luigi, and Toad back into the fold of playable characters, mirroring the lineup of Super Mario Bros. 2., and both Cat Mario and Captain Toad were also introduced here.

This game serves as an unintimidating introduction to a larger three-dimensional Super Mario world, and a joy for veterans of the Z-axis to boot. The additional open-world-y Bowser's Fury mode makes the Switch version an essential purchase even if you 100%-ed the sublime original game on Wii U. The only real mark against the awkwardly acronym-ed SM3DW+BF is patchy online multiplayer implementation, but this Switch release is otherwise up there with the very best of the plumber's portfolio. Dog lovers should probably steer clear; everyone else, jump to it.

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Grim Fandango Remastered (Switch eShop)

£2.87 (-75%)

The fact you’ve been able to play Grim Fandango Remastered on your TV and in handheld form elsewhere for years doesn’t matter one bit, because this gem of a game is still as enchanting and evocative as it was the first time you popped open that oversized cardboard box back in PC in 1998. Here and now on Nintendo Switch, this port looks and runs noticeably smoother thanks to Double Fine’s deft adjustments, so if whether you’ve already joined Manny on his afterlife odyssey or this is your first time among the dead, Switch's library is 100 percent better for its inclusion. DRL

Lunistice (Switch eShop)

£4.24 (-15%)

Presenting itself modestly as “a simple and short experience”, Lunistice has masses to offer. A first run is maybe a handful of hours, but the thirst to retry is so strong it’s almost hard to move on to each new stage. Add the challenge of finding all the cranes and hidden items, avoiding resets, and setting faster times, plus unlockable characters with different moves, and it's a full and generous package. Launching at $4.99 or your regional equivalent, weighing in at a lean 600MB, and having a demo on the eShop, Lunistice is simply a must-try game.

BlazBlue CentralFiction Special Edition (Switch)

£8.74 (-75%)

BlazBlue CentralFiction Special Edition may have arrived a few years late on Switch, but that delay didn't dull the sharpness of its 2D fighting package. Not only does it give the Ragna saga a proper send-off with a story mode that's so rich in character development it could be a full anime season in its own right, but it offers a staggering number of modes to keep you playing long after the credits roll. It runs silky-smooth docked or in handheld modes and runs like a dream online. The lack of an English dub still rankles, and new adopters are going to have to do a lot of research to understand what's going on, but it's well worth the effort.

Alternatively, you can pick up BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle in this sale for £4.49 (-75%).

Raiden IV x Mikado Remix (Switch)

£4.49 (-85%)

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.

Horace (Switch eShop)

£4.39 (-60%)

Horace is something very special — the only vaguely negative thing we can say about it is the fact that there are so many spectacularly brilliant indie games on Switch already vying for your attention that we fear Horace may fall somewhat by the wayside. If you have any interest in superb level design, excellent storytelling, terrific art, evocative music, great characters, hilarious situations and emotional gut punches, Horace is a no-brainer. It's moving without being manipulative, clever without being smug, and nostalgic without being a lazy rehash. It's a platformer, but it's so much more than that.

So yes, Horace is another indie masterpiece, and every gamer who enjoys quality experiences should play it; a masterpiece that owes so much to its medium, but has the strength, creativity and identity to stand alone as something very, very special. Buy this.

Castlevania Advance Collection (Switch eShop)

£7.99 (-50%)

It’s mostly the sublime Aria of Sorrow that’s doing the heavy lifting with Castlevania Advance Collection; it really is one of the best entries in the entire Castlevania series. Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance are alright but on a lower tier, while Dracula X is middling even on its own standards. These are still very much worth playing, though, and this collection makes for an essential purchase for both longtime Castlevania fans and newbies.

Sayonara Wild Hearts (Switch eShop)

£6.49 (-41%)

Sayonara Wild Hearts is the video game equivalent of Prince: it’s extremely short and its journey maybe ends a little sooner than you’d hoped, but it packs so many varied and beautiful ideas into its brief life and masters so many different styles that even though there’s a real disappointment it’s over so quickly, what it did give you will remain with you for an extremely long time. A true creative masterpiece.

Signalis (Switch eShop)

£11.19 (-30%)

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.

Cuphead (Switch eShop)

£11.79 (-31%)

Cuphead was an absolute masterpiece when it originally launched on Xbox One and nothing has been 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, too.

Lost in Play (Switch eShop)

£3.59 (-80%)

Lost in Play has many of the hallmarks of golden-age point-and-click adventures: a cartoon style, humorously animated protagonists, item-based puzzles, and curiosity-piquing 2D scenes serving as both play space and reward for clearing the previous area. However, it also shakes off many of the classic bugbears: pixel hunting is impossible because you’re moving a character, not a cursor; using no words in the game leaves the hint system to be helpful but not too transparent; there’s very little backtracking because environments are kept small and the time in them is brief; and wacky dream logic is completely excused because you’re playing in children’s imaginations. Over its five-or-so hours, Lost in Play barely puts a foot wrong, delivering cerebral gaming and effervescent entertainment. In doing so, it makes many of the genre’s design challenges look easy.

What The Golf? (Switch eShop)

£8.99 (-50%)

What the Golf? is a sterling effort for Switch that has clearly had enormous amounts of love poured into it. Its aesthetic is a little bit indie-by-numbers but there's so much to see and do here that'll have you (and a friend) laughing out loud. It may not be the most difficult game in the world, but it's damn good fun, even if you don't like golf. Especially if you don't like golf, in fact.

Subnautica (Switch eShop)

£8.24 (-67%)

When Unknown Worlds announced they were bringing Subnautica to Switch we were hugely excited, this is one of our all-time favourite games after all, but it was excitement tempered with a degree of scepticism as to how on earth they'd manage to cram the entire experience onto Switch in a properly playable manner. As it turns out, we needn't have worried as this is a super solid port that — besides a few loading stutters here and there and some scenery pop-in that's present in every other version of the game — successfully delivers one of the very best open-world survival experiences on any platform to Nintendo's hybrid console.

Wargroove (Switch eShop)

£6.39 (-60%)

As far as strategy games are concerned on the Switch, Wargroove is one of the best titles you can find on the eShop. Extremely deep and diverse strategy gameplay, ridiculous amounts of replayability, and charming presentation all combine to make this one an easy recommendation to anybody looking for a deep and cerebral experience for their Switch. Advance Wars did finally return, but Chucklefish's Wargroove and its sequel (also in this sale for £13.40) stand as worthy successors to that franchise.

Alien: Isolation (Switch eShop)

£9.99 (-33%)

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.

AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative (Switch)

£21.59 (-60%)

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.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 (Switch)

£15.99 (-60%)

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 on Nintendo Switch is a rock-solid port of a pair of genuinely fantastic remakes. These really are two of the very best arcade sports titles of all time, revamped, reworked and re-imagined for modern audiences with all the graphical bells and whistles, collectibles and game modes we've come to expect in this day and age. With flawless performance in both docked and handheld modes and visuals that still look the part after a few necessary concessions here and there, this is one collection we highly recommend you kickflip right into.