Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley is by no means one of the newcomer indies to hit the Nintendo Switch this year, but it still remains one of the most compelling experiences, and a great fit for the portable nature of the system. Players assume control of a character whose father has left them a run-down farm. It’s up to you to return it to its former glory with crops, animals, minerals and other odds and ends you find in the cave systems, and plenty more. How you go about that, however, is up to you.
Are you going to be a lone ranger who doesn’t care about the community feel and is all about making a profit? Then you’ll probably buy all your equipment and seeds from the chain store in the town, not talk to anyone, and make it rain on the daily. Or you can be the good guy, buying your seeds and equipment from the local business, talk with the neighbors and help them out with their problems and errands, and help the community thrive. Heck, you can even get married.
Stardew Valley may not have you battling fearsome creatures that fill your Switch’s screen, but it’s one of the more serene, chilled out indie games on the system that once we start playing, we just can’t put down.
Banner Saga Trilogy
Okay okay we’re kind of cheating here as, yes, this is essentially three different games you’ll need to pick up, but hear us out. The Banner Saga is a trilogy of three games whose narrative links them all together. It’s not just that, though, along the way, the games will have you make decisions that can not only impact the state of your party, but the storyline as a whole as you progress through the story. These carry over to the sequels, too, so it’s well worth starting from the beginning and playing the series the entire way through to get the full experience.
With a ton of playable characters, multiple different classes, and engaging, strategic combat, The Banner Saga trilogy is well worth checking out if you need an engaging narrative and to put your military tactics to the test.
Hollow Knight
This one’s for all you Metroidvania fans out there. Hollow Knight may have released on other platforms a while back, but its release on the Nintendo Switch has already introduced a swathe of new players to the title, and with good reason.
Players are taken on an adventure through ruins, complex cave systems, ancient temples, and plenty more as they fend off all manner of formidable enemies, and make friends with peculiar creatures. The further you go on your adventure, the more skills and abilities you’ll have at your disposal, which in turn opens up more routes and areas for you to explore.
Once Hollow Knight has got its hooks in you, it’s difficult to pull yourself out of its labyrinth of paths and atmospheric world. Plus, the Switch version comes with all of the additional content packs from the get-go, so there’s plenty to work your way through here.
Graceful Explosion Machine
The summer season brings with it hot weather, vacations, and a myriad of other reasons that you’re forced to leave the comfortable confines of your gaming space. We’re not overly thrilled about any of them either, but at least you can take your Switch with you wherever you go. Even if it’s just for a quick 10-minute blast on Graceful Explosion Machine.
This is a 2D shooter that sees you commandeering a ship and blasting your way through vibrant neon-colored levels, filled with intelligent AI, all the while trying to juggle the various different weapons at your disposal. We’re not joking here, each weapon is suited to specific scenarios, but comes with a caveat that makes it less than perfect, and will have you contemplating when to use each one and how to combine them together to clear the barrage of enemies hurtling towards you.
Graceful Explosion Machine is simple, shm’up fun, and perfect for passing the time on that vacation flight or for hours at a time when top spot on the leaderboard beckons. It’s perfectly natural, don’t worry.
Celeste
Let’s get one thing clear immediately: Celeste is not a walk in the park. If anything, it’s quite the contrary. A daunting scramble through retro-styled levels in an attempt to reach the top of the mountain all so you can prove some bitter old woman that protagonist Madeline met at the bottom wrong. Sensible stuff!
As you may have guessed then, the old woman may have been speaking some truth. Climbing the mountain gets progressively difficult in Celeste, with each new level introducing more wrinkles to the simple platforming action that really puts your skills to the test. And then there are elusive golden strawberries for those of you out there who want to risk launching your Switch out the window.
Celeste’s beauty comes in the sense that with every time the red-headed protagonist slips off the bottom of your screen, you’ll learn a new lesson in how to tackle the obstacles that lay in wait. Death isn’t a thing to be ashamed of in Celeste, but something to learn from… and something you’ll do a heck of a lot, too.
INSIDE
Back in 2010, Playdead released a little puzzle platformer known as Limbo. While that is, in fact, on the Nintendo Switch too (and well worth playing if you haven’t already), its Playdead’s 2016 follow-up, INSIDE that gets the tip of our hat here.
INSIDE sees players assume control of a young boy, who’s being hunted for reasons unknown to the player at the beginning of the game. As you progress further through its complex levels, each one requiring a well-thought-out solution to overcome, you’ll find yourself diving deeper and deeper into the center of a dark project. We won’t say much more, as INSIDE’s narrative is certainly… something. It makes the experience all that more memorable, and will have you looking up ending explanations for quite some time. Here’s ours, just in case, y’know?
Though this may not fill up a ton of your time during the summer drought of 2018, INSIDE is absolutely one of those indie games you just have to play. Considering how solid its port to the Nintendo Switch is, too, this is a no-brainer.
Enter the Gungeon
What better way to spend the months of the summer drought this year than by immersing yourself into Enter the Gungeon’s bullet hell? You’ll make your way through eerie dungeons, filled with a veritable selection of menacing creatures all trying to kill you. Cue plenty of eccentric weapons being fired, tables being flipped over to be used as cover, and plenty of blasphemy as you die and have to start all over again.
Enter the Gungeon is challenging, but incredibly compelling, and more often than not, when you die, it’s clear what you did wrong. With procedurally-generated levels, a range of weapons that offers something for every occasion, and co-op to boot, Enter the Gungeon is one heck of a great way to pass the time either on your own or with friends on Switch this summer.
This Is the Police
This Is the Police sees players thrown into a story of corruption and crime (as you may have guessed from the title). You’re Jack Boyd, a Police Chief who comes face to face with the criminal underbelly of Freeburg. In order to pull the city out of the gutter, you’ll have to successfully manage your staff, respond to emergencies, and investigate all of the crimes that pop up across the city. All of this plays into your ultimate goal of making $500,00 in 180 days before you reach retirement.
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