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Great and cheap games on Nintendo Switch that are hard to find
I have recently bought a Nintendo Switch and have been happily playing on and off for a bit.
While it is general knowledge that its eShop is sub-optimally organised, instead of lamenting about it, let us together list and discuss which cheap and well-hidden games we found by chance (or heavy digging) that are surprisingly enjoyable.
To start of, here is the one I found recently:
- SkyPeace (0,99 €) is a typical side-scrolling arcade game – you fly on your rocket-powered surf board and collect coins, while avoiding enemies. The game is quite fast-paced and getting a high score is not that easy. Especially for this amount of money, I think it is a great game to play a level or two during breaks at work.
To clarify, this thread is not about indies in general – there is a very good thread on must-have indies already. Here I am trying to list (and discuss) obscure and hard to find titles, that are still enjoyable.
Hollow Knight is side-scrolling metroidvania on the switch and costs $15.00(Not sure if you count that as cheap enough). I only just got it for PC and have liked it so far. I've also heard a lot of good praise for it, though have intentionally avoided any in-depth reviews.
I second this and highly, highly recommend Hollow Knight. It's extremely well made, and the company went above and beyond expectation with content and design. It will easily remain one of my favorites for a loooooong time. You'll continually think to yourself "There's no way this game is only $15?? How??" Some people easily dump 100+ hrs into the game, and you'll never want it to end x-x
It is on my to buy list as well, along with Shantae. I already got Wonder Boy 3 and can warmly recommend it if you are into such gaming classics.
(neither of the three in this subthread are obscure, as they are prominently placed in eShop and critically acclaimed; great finds nonetheless!)
I just got into this, and I managed to sink about 16 hours into it last weekend. So far the gameplay has been very consistent and smooth, and it looks amazing. It can be difficult at times, and I've run into a couple boss fights that are giving me trouble, but I feel it's not unfair, and with some practice I can get better at playing and continue.
The game doesn't really hold your hand or tell you what to do next, and you can lost a lot of geo (money) if you're not careful. You die once, and if you don't go back to where you died and reclaim your soul, whatever geo you had is gone forever.
Overall, though, I am having a great time, and I look forward to continuing and finishing the game, both from an enjoyable gameplay perspective, and to find out more about the interesting world in which it takes place.
I'm not sure if this counts as hard to find or cheap (being $14.99), but Golf Story is a fantastic RPG type game that happens to revolve around playing golf. You get new clubs, go to different courses and unlock additional things by completing challenges. It's a nice and relaxed game.
Most aggregators would only have games with a sufficient amount of reviews. Some of those games OP is looking for might not have much if any I’m guessing.
Depends on what you’re looking for. In SkyPeace’s case, there is only one review caught by OpenCritic and one review caught by MetaCritic.
My idea of this thread was not to find only the critically most acclaimed games, which happen to not be easy to find on eStore, but primarily the ones that are hard to find in general. Real underdogs, so to speak.
Celeste may not fit the bill, depending on your definition of cheap. At $20, it's the most worthwhile investment I've made on the entire switch platform - and there are close to 100 games in my library. Celeste is by far the best, most touching, most involved platformer I've ever played. Do yourself a favor and buy it.
It looks very much like (Super) Meat Boy, which I did not enjoy when it was still a Flash game. I have seen several people compare it to that game.
In that field I was looking more in the direction of Dandara (15€, currently 9€).
Would you say the Meat Boy comparison is a bit too much? It looks like an endless grind of dying and re-trying to catch the perfect timing for each level.
I don't think the comparison does Celeste justice. Celeste is very story-driven where Meat Boy is only platforming-driven. Don't get me wrong, you'll die a lot in Celeste, but the reward is meaningful story progression, where in Meat Boy the reward is a harder level. Otherwise the comparison is sane, they're both tough platformers with somewhat similar controls - but that's where the similarities end.
Word of warning: I'm a big fan of platformers in general, and I have a panic disorder - Celeste approaches this theme in a way that was very touching to me (brought me to tears a few times).
The story part is the one that might tip the scale for me. I wish there was a demo …
I’m a big sucker for good stories (adventure and RPG die-hard here!) and I never shied away from a platformer (also a big Metroid fan, hehe), but Meat Boy just didn’t give me any satisfaction.
From what you say, I might just try Celeste. Thanks :)
You bet!
Earth Wars is $5 and feels way underpriced for a Switch game. It's a sidescrolling beat-em-up action game with a few RPG elements like equipment and sci-fi story. I played for a while, admittedly never beat it, but got several hours of fun out of it.
Nice, this does indeed look like a cheap gem :)
Hopefully someone will create an alternative interface for browsing the eShop now that homebrew is possible.
Someone did something similar on 3DS, and while it was primarily meant for piracy, it was worth using simply for browsing the eShop, the interface was streets ahead of the actual eShop.
Well, there is the SX OS …
Stardew Valley is really the only option
Just chiming in to remind everyone that not all the people enjoy spending time in a game in which you have to carefully plan ahead which thing to do, without any information on how to choose properly if not going for external sources.
On top of that, the rest of the activities is either raising a friendship meet by giving gift to NPC and go exploring a dungeon with a very barebone construction combat system.
Honestly I still try to figure out what's so appealing to lots people.
farming simulators do nothing for me
It's relaxing for me. I don't take it too seriously and just have fun with it. There's the whole fishing thing, the farming aspect with the animals and all, cooking, the weather, there's lots more to do than search google for what to do next and mine in a very "barebone construction combat system".
I was finding that many online games were becoming way too competitive for my tastes and, as I'm getting older, I've been drawn to a lot more of the farming/grinding type games. I've been playing a lot of No Man's Sky lately on PS4 and am enjoying that a lot.
There is no particular reason why it's appealing to me, it just is. Typically when I have difficulty understanding why thousands and thousands of people like something and it is taking up space in my brain, I think about changing the way I am thinking about it and maybe learning a little more about it before making my decision.
Hardly hard to find, but my brother plays it on his Windows box together with his girlfriend and seems to enjoy it quite a lot.
For sure, you can get it on every console + PC! I was being a bit facetious, but it really is a fun, addicting, grinding game that is pretty mindless/relaxing for me and I think it's like 15 bucks or somewhere around there
I actually bought SkyPeace on the 3DS a couple years ago when I found out that there's really not much to do with like a dollar of eShop credit. I was pleasantly surprised to find a simple as can be side-scrolling shooter with cute graphics. Definitely worth the buck.
I got Midnight Deluxe for like $2 when it was on sale and it's a fun little puzzle game that actually uses the touch screen
I just tried the demo and it’s not my thing. But I can see how this could be very enjoyable for some. Thanks for the great find :)
No problem! One last recommendation since you seemed interested when I mentioned Enter the Gungeon, Death Road to Canada is currently on sale and a great game you can also sink a lot of hours into.
In the same genre, while not for Switch (yet?), Nuclear Throne is very fun as well :)
Would you lads and lasses find it useful if I collect all the titles discussed here and list them in the original post above?
Looks a bit like Gorogoa (15€), but in a less crazy, more noir comic strip way. Cool :)
I suppose it depends on what your threshold is for a "cheap" game, but Gorogoa is an absolutely gorgeous point-and-click puzzle game for $15.
It has some really beautiful artwork and some very clever puzzle designs, though it is a bit on the short side (I finished it in two sittings).
What's your budget like? It all depends on your definition of "cheap".
Oh, it’s not about and specific budget. Just trying to find some cool underdogs, that’s all.
The cheap part is there mostly because I assume people are more willing to risk trying a game out they’ve never heard of before if it’s cheap, than if they have to pay serious money for it.
Have you tried Enter the Gungeon or Binding of Isaac? If you don't have a budget both of those are great ganes that you can sink hundreds of hours into
Binding of Isaac I played back when it was a Flash game and wasn’t taken by it that much. But that is just my personal opinion of it. I know several people who take great pleasure in playing it and critically it is very well received.
Enter the Gungeon is also nice find though, thanks. Reminds me a bit of Cyberdogs and C-Dogs, which were (and are) a great fun to play :)