The Nintendo Switch has plenty of great AAA games, but it has slowly become a powerhouse platform for indies. Here are the best indie games currently available.
While the Nintendo Switch launched alongside one of the greatest AAA games of all time in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the system has become known as an indie machine to many. After all, the portability of the Switch and Switch Lite makes them ideal for indie games. Plenty of previously released indie games, such as Hollow Knight, have received increased attention and acclaim after landing on the Switch. It’s become a win-win for developers and Switch owners. If you’re a new Switch owner or are simply looking for something new to play during your morning commute, we’ve put together a running list of the best indie games on the Nintendo Switch.
Pinball and hack-and-slash action usually don’t go together, but no one told that to developer Flight School Studio when it was creating Creature in the Well. The mysterious adventure features a “BOT-C” venturing into a mountain and defeating challenges and enemies set by the titular Creature. The gorgeous art style and zoomed-out perspective make you feel like a tiny speck in a very large world, and the industrial designs give it a gritty aesthetic.
What really sets Creature in the Well apart is its mix of pinball mechanics and traditional action gameplay. To complete challenges, you’ll need to strike an orb that moves between several bouncers, all while trying to avoid turrets and other traps attacking you. It’s unlike anything we’ve played before and a perfect fit for the Switch.
Motion Twin calls its breakout indie hit a RogueVania, a mashup of games with classic Castlevania and Metroid gameplay. Throw in the fact that Dead Cells has permadeath and brutally difficult enemies and you have a recipe for the perfect “one more try” type of game.
Dead Cells truly shines for its addictive gameplay and wide array of secrets. With a bevy of weapons to uncover and a bounty of secret areas to discover, each time you play Dead Cells, you feel like you learn and find something new.
Although it features permadeath, you do have the chance to get permanent upgrades at the end of each area. If you stick with it, you will eventually see the credits. It’s all about the journey, though, as this dark and enthralling world is hard to leave and even harder to forget.
The franchise that really put Devolver Digital on the map as a publisher of astounding indies, the Hotline Miami Collection compiles the original and its sequel, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, in one hectic and challenging package. The top-down, ultraviolent affairs creatively combine twitchy action gameplay with stealth. And tying the whole experience together is one of the best game soundtracks in years.
While you can kill enemies in one hit with a variety of guns and melee weapons across both games’ expertly designed levels, the protagonist is just as susceptible to one-hit deaths. This creates a tension that permeates throughout both games. Memorization and fast movements are key to success. It’s chaotic, trying, and utterly over the top. These games aren’t just a riot to play; they ooze with style.
StudioMDHR’s astonishing Cuphead has made the jump from Xbox One/PC to Switch. The port runs wonderfully both in console and handheld mode, retaining all the glory of the 1930s cartoon art style and animations.
Cuphead is a challenging game, but it never comes across as unfair. Minimalistic mechanics let you focus on the task at hand — the multi-phase bosses — while enjoying all of the excellent animations and sounds.
It’s worth playing for the art style alone, which is as impressive now as it was upon its original launch in 2017. The engaging boss fights and crisp mechanics make it a pleasure to work through, even when the going gets exceedingly tough.
My Friend Pedro is the ultimate bullet time game. You play as a nameless protagonist guided by a talking banana named Pedro (because why not?). The story is nonsense, but the action is extremely gratifying. Through a series of sidescrolling levels, you jump, dodge, and slow down time while shooting enemies with a variety of high-powered weapons.
My Friend Pedro is all about style points earned from stringing together kills in quick succession. The style-factor goes through the roof in levels where you get to ride a skateboard or use objects such as frying pans to deflect bullets. My Friend Pedro looks ridiculously cool in motion and feels even better to play.
Developed by Askiisoft and published by the venerable Devolver Digital, Katana Zero can be aptly described as a sidescrolling version of Hotline Miami. You play as a samurai in this neo-noir infused thriller with plenty of twists and turns. Each level is broken into rooms filled with gun-toting and sword-wielding baddies.
Like Hotline Miami, one hit and you’re dead. Armed with a sharp blade and a dash ability, the rooms play out like puzzles. It has a Superhot-esque flow, as you have the ability to slow down time, which helps in deflecting bullets back to their origin.
Fast, stylish, and challenging, Katana Zero is a fantastic experience from start to finish. The gameplay will hook you instantly, but the story and writing arguably steals the show.
Enter the Gungeon combines dungeon crawling and twin-stick shooting mechanics with a rewarding and addictive rogue-like loop. Think The Binding of Isaac but more arcade-like and chaotic. As you plunge deeper into the dungeon, you’ll be rewarded with a bevy of loot, neat lore, and plenty of secrets.
What’s especially cool about Enter the Gungeon is that you learn something new each time you play. This is partially done by its approach to rogue-like progression. While all of the rooms remain the same, the enemies, treasure, and even locations of the rooms change.
It’s all a matter of learning each room and tweaking your strategy as things change. Definitely challenging but always a good time, Enter the Gungeon is ideal for short spurts in handheld mode.
Ape Out mixes jazz music with over-the-top violence to stunning results. From a top-down perspective, you play as an ape attempting to escape captivity. Minimalistic visuals and simplistic mechanics allow the core loop to take center stage.
You have two mechanics at your disposal: grab and throw. Throwing lets you turn guards into a bloody mush, while grabbing uses them as human shields and sometimes leads to guards shooting other guards. It’s a tough but fair game thanks to randomized levels.
The jazzy soundtrack pounds along in the background, becoming a separate mechanic itself. Snare drums beat consistently and boom faster as you approach danger. Cymbal crashes mark the deaths of enemies. The result is an absorbing experience that compels you to try again and again until you’ve led the ape to freedom.
Hyper Light Drifter is an ode to 8-bit and 16-bit adventure games, set in a distinct world reduced to shambles. This top-down adventure features extremely challenging gameplay with a neat gimmick.
Your main weapon, an energy sword, has to strike enemies in order to charge your supplementary, ranged weapons. This means you have to master melee combat to have a chance against the onslaught of enemies.
Rounded out by a beautiful soundtrack and fantastic animations, Hyper Light Drifter is a moving experience with an understated, but powerful story.
Broforce is an awesome and hilarious run-and-gun. Your job as an action hero parody is to save your bros from terrorist captivity. Your commanding officer is none other than Nelson Brodela, and all of the playable characters riff on action heroes.
For instance, you can use a whip in combat while playing as fake Indiana Jones, or you can light enemies up with immense firepower as a pseudo-Rambo. Broforce shines for its great controls, excellent design, and challenging levels.
This side-scrolling action game has just enough of a mix between action and platforming to make for a consistently varied experience.
Downwell, a game about a man falling down a well in a park, has been available since 2015 on mobile devices. Rendered in black and white, the premise is simple: Make it to the bottom. Since you’re falling at a rapid pace, you would think you’re already ahead of the game, right? Not so fast. Avoiding obstacles, enemies, and projectiles is an arduous endeavor that forces you to think and move on the fly.
As a rogue-like, each time you make your descent, the layout of the well changes. With guns attached to your boots that only recharge when you touch the ground safely, it’s a constant battle between the offensive and defensive. Power-ups are rewarded at the bottom of each stage, but each level ups the challenge. Basically, no matter what you have in your arsenal, you’re always facing an uphill battle (ironic, huh?).
A round of Downwell can last anywhere from seconds to a handful of minutes, depending on your skill level. On Switch, it’s a perfect game for quick bursts in handheld mode. The $3 price makes Downwell a steal, but you should splurge for the Flip Grip to play Downwell comfortably with a vertical orientation.
It took long enough, but our favorite crime-fighting crew makes a triumphant return after 16 years of unpaid leave. Featuring 12 levels, unlockable characters, and multiple difficulties, the game is a nostalgic masterpiece for fans and newcomers alike.
Streets of Rage 4 somehow manages to be both an homage to games of the past while taking bold steps in a new direction. The art style alone sets it apart from previous installments, but new combat mechanics and reimagined enemies keep the action fun all the way to the final boss. Plus, the game is chock-full of replayable content and lends itself to multiple playthroughs — either solo or with a few friends.
An adventure game years in the making that saw its first release in 2013, Kentucky Route Zero finally came to Nintendo Switch as the “TV Edition” in early 2020. The game focuses almost entirely on the story and dialogue rather than traditional challenges, but the bizarre journey through underground caves is filled with memorable characters.
All five acts of the game are available together on the Switch version, and the game’s minimalist art and simple controls make it an ideal fit for playing on the go. Make no mistake, however – its storytelling is far beyond what most AAA games can offer, and it’s worth going in as fresh as possible to avoid learning too much.
From visionary indie developer Lucas Pope, Return of the Obra Dinn is one of the most visually unique and stunning games we’ve ever seen, both on Nintendo Switch and any other platform. Created to look like it was drawn using thousands of tiny dots, Return of the Obra Dinn can be jarring, but in a way that evokes a sense of vagueness and mystery perfect for the game’s subject matter. It’s set in the early 19th century, and the titular ship’s bizarre appearance years after going missing is the beginning of an intriguing adventure.
Lucas Pope tackles some depressing and dark material in his games, and there is no other developer doing exactly what he’s doing. If first-person games combined with this art style don’t give you a headache, then Return of the Obra Dinn is a necessity and one you’ll be thinking about for a long time after the credits roll.
Oxenfree is very much in the vein of Telltale adventures. It’s story-driven, low on action, and well written. Alex and her friends are on an island together when strange, supernatural occurrences begin popping up around them. The ensuing hours are filled with plenty of surprises, consequential dialogue choices, and wonderfully realized animated cutscenes.
Oxenfree is also simply a joy to look at. It uses a stellar 2.5D art style that complements the tone of the adventure. Considering that your actions dictate the ending, Oxenfree is the sort of game you’ll end up playing more than once.
While some may scoff at Oxenfree because it’s a walking simulator, it has one of the better stories we’ve experienced in an independent game on Switch.
Night in the Woods is like if BoJack Horseman was a video game. Starring a recent college dropout — who also happens to be a cat — Night in the Woods tells the story of what it’s like to go home after being away. Mae, the down on her luck protagonist, slowly begins to see that Possum Springs isn’t all that it seemed. This dark comedy has a wide cast of hilarious and revealing townsfolk and the writing is top-notch.
Played as a sidescroller, Night in the Woods has a simple, clean visual style that doesn’t get in the way of what the game wants to do narratively.
