The Nintendo Switch has an absurd number of games choices available, both in the physical copies you can purchase in stores to the crazy quantity of content on the Switch store. Whilst Nintendo have produced plenty of games on their own dime, they’re also great at supporting smaller developers and making sure they get a foothold in the market too.
The biggest problem with independents is that they can be a real gamble, and you can end up spending money on games that just aren’t worth your time. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some wonderful independent Nintendo Switch games on the market that are just as enjoyable as the big titles, costing half as much for the same amount of enjoyment; you just need some help picking the best ones. Here’s 3 really enjoyable independents to get your obsession with these smaller titles started.
I usually pride myself on never giving in to advertising but, after seeing one YouTube video of Elli, I bought it straightaway off the Switch store. Elli won’t be winning any awards for its plot, characters or dialogue writing but, when it comes to gameplay, graphic design and soundtrack, it’s more than worth its modest price tag. Aesthetically, Elli uses cartoonish design greatly reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, with big-headed characters and over-emphasised physical changes (think big, purple explosions whenever a bomb gets thrown.) Continuing on the Zelda theme, Elli’s puzzle-solving gameplay is similar to that of a Breath of the Wild shrine quest, forcing you to think laterally and logically work through each section of the game. As with many of the independent Nintendo Switch games, there’s plenty to despair at in Elli but, for the price-enjoyment ratio and the twinkly, well-designed soundtrack that accompanies it, it’s certainly a fun one.
Hollow Knight is one of the most successful independent Nintendo Switch games on the market. It regularly makes its way onto the ‘popular’ section of the Nintendo store, and for good reason too. As a hand-drawn, 2-D platformer, Hollow Knight is both impressive and aesthetically pleasing, as well as having fun and intuitive combat controls. Plot-wise, it exceeds the other two games on this list, feeling a little more fulsome, and gameplay is equal parts enjoyable and challenging. It also feels somewhat darker than the others in content; the absorbing of other creatures souls for lives as a mechanic is pretty dark as it is, but the following of the portals at the opening that give exposition to the story whilst explaining these mechanics also has a macabre feeling to it. This is helped greatly by the subtle but highly effective musical scoring underneath, providing grit and fear through very simple techniques. The possibility of multiple endings also makes this a replayable game, making that price tag feel even smaller.
A sort of cross between a Gameboy Zelda game and an old Mario Bros side-scroller, Shovel Knight is an enormously enjoyable 2-D platformer that undoubtedly owes plenty to Link’ sword-swinging and Mario’s jumping ways. Offering you the choice to play different storylines with different characters, Shovel Knight has a retro, 8-bit-style design, making use of an old-school hearts system that will fill your heart with a wonderful nostalgia. Much like Elli, Shovel Knight’s plot will probably not be winning any awards, but the combination of sword (shovel) fighting with the jumping element is innovative, there are some decent puzzles to solve and the and the CPU boss fights actually provide a challenge. It’s another bargain at such a low price.
Yes, sometimes you’ll buy a game that you’ll feel was a waste of money but, if you spend £40 on one bad game and one you absolutely love instead of £50 on one big title, isn’t that a risk worth taking?
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