If you’ve spent any amount of time shopping for indie games on the Nintendo Switch, you’ve probably noticed how hard it can be to pick out a winner from the well over 2000 games.
I’ve spent more than $1000 on Nintendo Switch games just this past year, and can tell you that some stand out way above the rest.
Here’s our top 10 as of March 2020 (in no particular order):
In this article:
- Stardew Valley
- One Strike
- Nine Parchments
- Cuphead
- Katana Zero
- Wizard of Legend
- Miles & Kilo
- Mana Spark
- Moonlighter
- Akane
Stardew Valley
When I originally saw this game, I didn’t think much of it. But after the first hour learning the mechanics and exploring the peaceful town, I fell in love.
Leave your stress behind as you move into your grandpa’s old farm in the peaceful and pixelated Pelican Town.
Not only is the artwork and music perfectly executed and intertwined, this small town farming simulator has an insane amount of tasks and adventure for the player.
Between running your farm, getting to know your romantic interests, exploring the scenery and upgrading your equipment there is more than enough to do for over 100 hours.
For the amount of time I played this game, it is definitely the best bang for my buck I’ve gotten out of any Indie game so far.
Price: $14.99 with free updates,
Genres: Farming Sim, Business Sim, Adventure, Romance Sim, Multiplayer
One Strike
If you haven’t seen it before, One Strike may not look like much at first. If you like 2D fighting games with friends, though, it is an amazing title to have for a couple of reasons:
- It is really easy to learn (most characters only have 3 moves),
- Matches can last for one single strike or be a relentless stream of attacks and counters — which makes for exciting gameplay
- It works really well with the split up switch controller halves — which cannot be said for many current games
Price: $4.99 but sometimes on sale for $0.99
Genres: Arcade, Fighting, Multiplayer
Nine Parchments
Fans of top down shooters will love this. It’s a multiplayer, top-down shooter reminiscent of Gauntlet and Diablo.
Personally, I actually like it better than both of those games because the elemental nature of the attack spells you can choose from are color based — meaning that you can tell an enemies affinities and resistances just by their color.
Not only does this make the game visually appealing, it also cuts down on some of the cluster so common in Diablo, (which makes Diablo virtually unplayable on switch without the dock since the handheld screen is too small to make out the details).
The game is fairly short, but has a high replayability as you can only exceed the character level cap of 40 by restarting on a much harder mode which includes permadeath.
On top of that, there is also an entertaining “arena” mode where you can get right down the the fighting and compete for top scores online.
Price: $19.99 but you can find this gem on sale for $5.99 every couple of weeks
Genres: Top-Down Shooter, Action, Co-op
Cuphead
Notorious for being too difficult to complete, Cuphead is an amazing take on arcade boss fights for anybody that thinks they’ve got the skills to beat it (or at least the patience to not throw your Switch against the wall)
Entirely hand drawn, this game captures the feel of a 1920’s Disney film while providing the seamless programming of modern gaming.
Most of the game is played in the style of boss fights, with a few side scroller levels thrown in to earn extra coins for power ups.
Definitely not for everybody, but if you like a challenge or enjoyed anything on the Sega Genesis this is definitely worth the $20
Price: $19.99
Genres: Boss Fight, Shoot ‘Em Up, Platform, Action, Co-op
Katana Zero
Katana Zero is the perfect evolution from side scroller fighting puzzles from SNES and Arcade classics.
The story in this game is pretty heavy for a pixel game, something that we saw a lot of in 2019 Indie games, but regardless of how you feel about that the actual gameplay is fantastic.
Just be sure that you’re alright with dark content, as this game’s story is definitely just for adults.
Once you get the hang of your ability to slow time and counter projectiles with your sword swing, you’ll be dying to beat your speedrun records in this game.
It’s sometimes easy to die 10 times on a single level, but it’s insanely rewarding when you finally plan out every detail to win fights that are sometimes 1 versus 20
Price: $14.99
Genre: Action, Platformer
Wizard of Legend
This fast-paced, pixel art action game has dozens, maybe hundreds of spells to choose from. Play co-op or solo and battle through procedurally generated dungeons, unlocking power-ups and relics to help you on your way to the boss fights.
The art and level generation are to be admired by themselves for any fan of pixel art or arcade games, but the true praise should be directed at the gameplay. It’s fun for solo, co-op and versus, but especially solo and co-op.
I’ve played plenty of games with a similar feel and this one stands out for being the perfect level of difficulty, along with a great system for obtaining new spells and cloaks that’s rewarding but not overly time consuming.
Price: $15.99
Genres: Action, Arcade
Miles & Kilo
This game is pretty straight forward. It’s a side scrolling platformer that reminds me of Mario 3 but with permanent fireball powers.
You play as a young boy and his dog, and fight various animals by throwing fruit at them as you jump, swing, and race your way to the finish.
What’s wonderful about this game is how fast paced it is. The game was designed so that you can play at your own pace, but if you want to get all of the medals, you’ll have to hold run the entire time on each level.
The game doesn’t last too long,though. It took maybe 2 hours to beat, then an additional 2 hours to get a perfect score on each level in all categories.
Overall, this was an amazing game to play for 20 minutes at a time or sit down and beat in one evening, especially for fans of SNES platformer classics.
Price: $7.99
Genres: Platformer, Action, Arcade
Mana Spark
Oh man, where to start here. Mana Spark is one of the rogue-like games that made a big appearance in indie games in late 2018-2019. What that basically boils down to is procedurally generated levels and permanent death for your character, forcing you to start the whole journey again no matter what level you’re on when you die.
Now, while the permadeath mechanic may seem frustrating to some, Mana Spark was one of the few games where I welcomed it. It made each play through feel pretty different with various upgrades, weapons, and a certain degree of luck.
By time I had mastered how to beat the first boss, I was hooked. I mean, if this game had come out on stand up arcade machines back in the day I would have gone broke spending my quarters every chance I had to try and beat it.
This game is more than worth it for anyone who’s skilled or patient enough to stomach the permadeath feature and deep combat.
Price: $9.99, sometimes on sale for $1.99
Genres: Arcade, Rogue-like, Dungeon Crawler
Moonlighter
Moonlighter is a great game for a single player, and particularly fun for anyone who likes the two genres mashed up to make it: dungeon crawler + business sim.
The game is effectively a leveled dungeon crawler where you are all but required to get money and upgrade your items to continue. It’s not technically demanded of you, but if you try to proceed without it you’ll eventually hit a wall no matter how good you are. Prove me wrong.
You can only aim melee weapons either vertically or horizontally, which actually makes for some really interesting gameplay (I thought it was going to be horrible at first).
The game does a really good job at staying interesting even when you have to replay the same level a couple of times because the levels are procedurally generated, giving it some variety. Also, the part where you actually sell items is set up like a business simulator, which makes the whole item mining process 100x more fun than simply having a single trade in value.
As long as you like those two genres and appreciate the top-down pixel art style, you really can’t go wrong with this game
Price: $24.99 occasionally on sale for around $15
Genres: Action, Adventure, Business Sim
Animus
Note: There’s multiple versions now on the estore, but the one I’m referring to is simply titled “Animus” with no other text in the title.
Fans of games that get right down to the meat of the fighting will love this, though it probably isn’t for everyone.
This game is kind of like a mix of Dark Souls (I’ve been told) and that old Infinity Blade game that was on the app stores 5 or so years ago. It gets straight down to the fighting in every level, and plays somewhat like a boss level from older games — where you still had to take out some grunts before the boss, but not many.
It seems pretty difficult for the average player, and relies on some very subtle moves to be able to compete. This is the part I’m told is like Dark Souls, where it seems impossible to win at first, but if you take a patient approach you’ll find their openings.
This game is a steal for anyone that wants to enter a bossfight style arena without listening to more than 2 seconds of background story or cut scenes.
If you do get the game, try out the different weapon types. They all play vastly differently, and can make or break how fun this game is.
Price: $7.99
Genres: Action, Fighting, Arcade
Akane
For anyone who enjoys breaking records or passing the sticks when you die, this game’s for you.
Play as a cyberpunk samurai with no hope for a peaceful ending, taking as many guys down with you as possible.
The game is simple in that the controls take just a few moments to learn, and there’s really only one level. You’ll play repeatedly in the name of new weapons and such, but the game is effectively the same no matter what you do.
You can change guns and swords, but I personally only found one or two of each to be useful.
If you don’t mind having just one never -ending level, the gameplay is actually really fun; it reminds me of Hyper Light Drifter but without the exploration.
If you don’t like the idea of replaying the same mini-game to get high scores and collect the different weapons and items, though, this game is 100% not for you.
Price: $4.99 (not sure if they do sales)
Genres: Action, Arcade, Fighting
Thanks for reading, everyone! If you have a great indie game for switch that we didn’t mention, put it in the comments and we’ll take a look!
