In the first three years of its life, the Nintendo Switch has proven to be quite the success, building up a library of great games and convincing folks that a console/handheld hybrid is something they need in their gaming lives. But 2020 will be the system’s biggest challenge yet as rivals Sony and Microsoft are both launching their next-gen consoles, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, at the end of this year. While you can’t take those consoles on the go, the difference in sheer power will be hard to ignore, even if the rumored Switch Pro ever does to fruition.
Still, hardware only exists as a portal to quality software, which the Switch definitely still has going into 2020. While you wait for the big hitters (Animal Crossing!) here are some nifty smaller Nintendo Switch games to play right now.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore
As much as I’ve championed Wii U games coming to Switch, just so that more people have a chance to actually play them, these ports have offered little to me personally as a fan of that doomed system. However, Tokyo Mirage Sessions is one of the few Wii U games I originally skipped. Probably because the intensely anime flavor of the Fire Emblem/Shin Megami Tensei crossover seemed too much to bear.
But you know what, for a game literally about Japanese pop stars fighting demons in Shibuya through the power of performance, this game is more stylish than annoying. Like a catchy song, the battle system is simple yet quick and addictive, encouraging you to chain together complementary attacks for combos that can wipe out all foes in one move. Powering through the main storyline is similarly streamlined compared to a typical bloated JRPG. You can tackle a dungeon in a single session or two and there are only a handful of them. The limited amount of Fire Emblem content does feel like a Kingdom Hearts-esque grift, but there’s a similar strategy in deploying your different party members and their different weapons. At least the new Joker costume can make this feel like Persona 5 on Switch.
Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD
For whatever reason, the original Oddworld: Strangers Wrath was the game that almost got me to buy an original Xbox. Just something about this grizzled sasquatch cowboy and his critter ammunition really spoke to me as a kid. Playing the game now, it’s definitely a game from 2005. But it’s a good game from that era! Even if there’s not that much difference between shooting bees and skunks versus shooting bullets and smoke bombs, wouldn’t you rather shoot bees? The different strengths of each weapon make bounty hunting feel like actual hunting. And the themes of nature versus industry Oddworld has always embraced feel especially appropriate in a Western setting.
Super K.O. Crush
The team behind the excellent early Switch game Graceful Explosion Machine takes that same immaculate approach to arcade action and applies it to the beat ‘em up genre. Switching between your various attacks, from high-flying uppercuts to twisting ground kicks, feels like playing Bayonetta or Devil May Cry but in 2D. You even have a gun for extending combos, something I’ve never gotten a handle on in action games until now. Don’t let the soft pastel colors fool you. Besting the enemy hordes is a tall order. And yet the fluid, juggling nature of the combat, which really asks you to consider the whole playfield, makes perfect runs feel tantalizingly possible.
Stories Untold
Stories Untold is an anthology of short story-based horror games revolving around manipulating spooky old tech. And like most anthologies some are better than others. The standout for me is the first game, which is really just a text adventure with added production value. Like expensive podcasts, it makes an ancient storytelling form feel fresh again. Unfortunately, as the analog interfaces get more complex, I found myself more removed from the subtle terror and just annoyed at the fiddling knobs.
It came from space and ate our brains!
How about that title? This is a pretty straightforward top-down shooter. But I appreciated little touches like surprisingly moody lighting for the otherwise simple voxel look or how much it commits to the vague survival horror elements. Playing alone, you’re quickly overwhelmed and upgrades like gun mods or land mines are a must. Levels do tend to drag, however, perhaps because they’re more tuned to co-op play.
Skellboy
Skellboy sounds like what I would call Sans when trying to annoy Undertale fans. But he’s actually the star of this little action-RPG. As a skeleton, you can swap various parts of your body with limbs harvested from foes. This leads to some Kirby-esque on-the-fly power-swapping as well as some light puzzle-solving as you change your look to reach new areas. It’s all a very cool idea, as is the game’s indie Octopath Travler art style which projects chunky sprites onto the 3D world and its cleverly connected zones. But for whatever reason, maybe technical performance, the act of actually playing Skellboy just never felt as smooth as I would’ve hoped.
Speedrunners
More arcade racing games where you are running on foot please. Speedrunners doesn’t have the nifty color-swapping gimmick of Runbow, but it has similar local competitive thrills and vaguely the same visual style. Between the complexity of the looping sidescrolling maps and your variety of tools, it feels like there’s never just one sure way to make it through a stretch the fastest. Swing across the ceiling with your grapple hook? Slide under boxes? Unleash a power-up? Wall jumps? And the way the field of view shrinks to take out stragglers is a great, almost battle royale way of forcing matches to a conclusion.
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