The Nintendo Switch is one of the most popular video game systems ever made. Owing its success to the ingenuity of its portability amongst other features, kids and adults alike are still enjoying the boundless console over six years after release. Nintendo has a plethora of iconic brands that have appeared on the Switch through the last half-decade. Still, the variety of independently developed titles genuinely makes the console shine. Indie developers bring different ideas to the table that AAA companies overlook or don’t have the creative liberties to manifest into a tangible result. To honor the special ability of indie titles to mesmerize and captivate like no other, we present the 25 best indie games on the Switch!
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1 – Cuphead
There is nothing in Gaming like Studio MDHR’s sidescrolling boss extravaganza. Combining gameplay elements of Mega Man with a rubber hose animation style, Cuphead instantly transports you back to when you were seven years old, watching cartoons on a Saturday morning. The difficulty curve is famously overbearing for some, but I highly encourage a healthy dose of patience. You don’t want to miss out on one of the only video games that truly deserves to be called a piece of art!
2 – Hades
An award-winning dungeon-crawling roguelike with gorgeous visuals and allusions to mythology, Hades is Diablo for the new-age gamer. A perfect combination of weapon upgrades and randomized level design makes the journey to Mount Olympus in the bowels of hell an experience that even non-fans of hack-and-slash games will never want to put down. The sequel should come out sometime in 2023 or 2024.
3 – Celeste
There are a lot of sharp platformers in every gamer’s indie library, but no collection would be complete without Celeste. The controllable protagonist is a transgender woman (this is undoubtedly revolutionary in the current climate of representation in gaming) who platforms to the top of a mountain. The game serves as an allegory for mental health problems and the courage humans have to overcome them, and the game mechanics seamlessly serve this purpose. This game has the best controls and tight platforming of anything on the Switch.
4 – Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove
This collection of four campaigns of the legendary Shovel Knight saga is bursting at the seams with sharp NES-style adventuring. With a more focused move set and plenty of spoofing of medieval-era enemies, Shovel Knight is the type of retro experience that fans will never get sick of. The game is a true sign of what indie gaming could and would turn into after the first game was released in 2014.
5 – Dead Cells
Two of the most popular genres in indie gaming are the rogue-lite and Metroidvania. Dead Cells combines these categorizations into an addicting, sharp sidescrolling experience that will nearly force you to keep playing through an ingenious mix of level design and weapon power-ups that change each time you die. Several expansion packs and DLC have allowed fans to keep pushing through the game’s prison one more time, sometimes even with homages to classics like Castlevania.
6 – Wargroove
Before Advance Wars returned to the Switch, Chucklefish’s strategy title was the only thing fans of that franchise could get their hands on that resembled the classic strategy series. You control several different armies throughout Wargroove, each with units of different strengths and weaknesses. Each general has specific abilities that make missions more accessible, and the chess match that ensues on each board is a strategy fan’s nirvana. The colorful and cartoonish graphics add to the experience quite a bit.
7 – Stardew Valley
In real life, farming is considered hard but vital work that not many people desire to do anymore. In video games, farming is considered fun, exciting, comforting, and addicting. Thank games like Stardew Valley for this, a Harvest Moon-inspired indie phenomenon that is as charming as it is comforting. Players have made their farms uniquely personal and into their own cathartic utopias since its release in 2016.
8 – Hollow Knight
A beautiful, foreboding Metriodvania that places you into a world titled Hallownest. Filled with good and evil insect characters, your job as the nameless protagonist is to explore and defeat the diseased monsters of the kingdom. Using the mechanics of iconic side scrollers from the past like Super Metroid and more modern games like Dark Souls, Hollow Knight is an immersive experience proving this genre is still alive and well.
9 – Inside
Warning: don’t play Inside if you’re easily frightened. This incredible horror experience puts you in the shoes of an unnamed child lost in a derelict atmosphere's machinations. The weight of the protagonist’s steps as he’s strolling away from a vicious dog or the breadth of the character’s oxygen levels as he’s crossing a body of water make for a video game that will send shivers up your spine. This puzzle platformer title is what living vicariously through a fictional character is all about.
10 – Guacamelee!
Activision.
Video games should make you feel like you’re a kid again because gamers are childlike and imaginative at heart. Guacamelee! transports you to that time period in your life by allowing you to control a Mexican wrestler who has access to a growing library of abilities throughout the platforming game. The character growth resembles classics like Super Metroid or Banjo-Kazooie.
11 – Gris
Sometimes artistic indie games can lend to the reputation that non-AAA titles are pretentious and trying too hard to be different. Still, Gris manages just to defeat that categorization by a hair. Control a girl who gains new abilities and, in turn, changes the environment around her. The game's color palette is beautiful to look at, even in still shots or as a viewer watching another person playing the game.
12 – Nobody Saves the World
Dungeon crawling has been elegantly updated for the modern gaming experience due to the ingenuity of games like Nobody Saves the World. As you traverse various dungeon environments in an innocent and inviting graphical style, you’ll discover there are more character forms and weapons than you’d ever imagined!
13 – Spelunky 2
The original Spelunky is one of the O.G.s of game design. This sequel ups the stakes, the gameplay, and the creativity by incorporating even more enemies, collectibles, and weapons into the gameplay as you spelunk your way to the bottom of the caverns looking for infinite gold and treasures.
14 – Golf Story
We don’t often think about sports being a platform for RPG gaming, but an athlete's career is very much in the vein of a role-playing hero. Golf Story places you in the shoes of an aspiring golfer, and through various match play and mini-games, you gain abilities and power-ups to become the competitor you’ve always wished to be. Side quests and funny characters you can interact with truly make this one feel like a classic JRPG with a sports aesthetic.
15 – Spiritfarer
There probably isn’t a game that addresses the frightening prospect of death with more grace and solace than Spiritfarer. This simulation game sees you interact and live with beings between death and the afterlife. Gamers can learn a lot about their own thoughts and feelings toward mortality while looking at the subject through the eyes of the spirits on board the ship.
16 – Untitled Goose Game
Only indie gaming allows you to put yourself in the position of the most random animals on the planet, navigating situations that would seem menial but become something extravagant due to incredible game design. Untitled Goose Game became a viral sensation on social media when fans found out they could run amok as a goose, irritating locals and generating general chaos. The stealth gameplay and cheeky graphics make the experience much more than just a quirky idea.
17 – Flipping Death
The ideal game for fans of spooky titles with a humorous twinge, Flipping Death asks the player to switch back and forth between the realms of the dead and the living. Movies like Pixar’s Coco or Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas would give you a good idea of the vibes and aesthetics of the game. Puzzle-solving and platforming would be the main catalysts for exploration.
18 – Steamworld Dig 2
The sequel to the original digging platform game on the Nintendo 3DS takes everything that made the first title tremendous and then expands on it to perfection! Steamworld Dig 2 jams so many enemies, collectibles, and weapons underground that you would think it would be confusing, but it’s always contained enough to feel intimate.
19 – Gunman Clive HD Collection
JP: Flyhigh Works.
There are a lot of platform games on this list, but allow us to indulge in one more. Gunman Clive is indie game royalty, and this collection has both titles in one convenient location in HD. Made by the same developer as Super Punch Patrol, you go through a midwestern desert setting as an outlaw who has to traverse typical sidescrolling opposition. The simplicity of the game only makes it even more fun.
20 – The Messenger
Action gaming is another genre that is well-worn in the world of indies. Still, The Messenger can spice up your usual gaming time by switching between two different graphical styles depending on what part of the timeline you’re in. The protagonist is similar to the characters you would play in Ninja Gaiden, as you traverse typical ninja quests with an enjoyable and fluid move set.
21 – Unpacking
Sometimes video games have the power to turn events into playable situations that won’t ever appear in any other form of media. No TV show or movie would show you cleaning up your living space and moving objects from one room to the next. In Unpacking, the narrative power and structure of the gameplay allow you to experience this mundane chore in a new way. Moving the protagonist’s belongings around in completely different years of her life will enable you to understand her story better than you could have ever imagined.
22 – Super Punch Patrol
A sidescrolling beat-em-up, Super Punch Patrol is hand-drawn and ripped straight from your memories of scribbled drawings when you were bored in math class in the sixth grade. Control three different police characters as they fight their way through crime-ridden streets with exotic criminals of all ages, genders, and backgrounds. The action is a mashup of creative elements from developer Bertil Hörberg, one of the best indie developers in the industry today!
23 – Eastward
There are many Legend of Zelda copycats in the indie scene. Still, Eastward can walk that tightrope where you know it was inspired by the classic Nintendo series without trying to emulate it directly. Play as John and Sam, a duo that acts like a father/daughter team, as they learn about the dystopian future that has grounded humanity under the surface. Unique JRPG gameplay elements like controlling both characters in unison, reminiscent of the Mario and Luigi series, makes for a fun ride.
24 – Elechead
Control a bulb of electricity named Elec, whose job is to ignite the light in the various factory environments he comes across in this short adventure. The puzzles that require ingenious uses of the player’s avatar will never cease to amaze, and the NES-era graphics will make it feel like a Mega Man-esque experience minus the shooting!
25 – Carrion
Video games are great at changing a player’s perspective on life. When we enter a horror game experience, it’s not easy to get into the mindset of the monsters attacking us. Carrion asks the gamer what it’s like to become evil, forcing you into the skin of a monster that eats everything in its path. Scientists, researchers, and doctors are just some of the innocents researching the beast, and your job is to escape the testing facility while devouring your captors. It’s not quite as violent as it sounds, but it’s definitely one of the premiere horror games on the Switch!
