E-Shop is very feature poor compared to Steam. I use Deku Deals to get notified when something I want goes on sale. They offer a pricing history as well to gauge how often a title has price cuts.

Nintendo’s exclusives are where the Switch really shines. Unfortunately, they’re expensive. I’ll echo the DekuDeals recommendation for finding sales.

Other Nintendo titles that are worthwhile, aside from the obvious Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom and depending on your tastes:

• Super Mario Odyssey
• Mario Kart 8
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
• Animal Crossing New Horizons
• Splatoon 3 (2 is good too, but 3 is an improvement and more active)
• Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze
• Pikmin (the whole series)
• Metroid Dread
• Metroid Prime Remastered
• Fire Emblem Three Houses
• Pokemon Legends Arceus

There are also tons of great indie games that play well on Switch (especially handheld):

• Hades
• Dead Cells
• Hollow Knight
• Slay the Spire
• Into the Breach
• Shovel Knight

Used physical copies for older flagship titles (SM Odyssey, BoTW, etc.) can sometimes be found for cheap online! I bought most of my favorite games this way, even if I owned the digital copy.

My most played games are Breath of the Wild, Animal Crossing New Horizons, Pokemon Violet, and now Tears of the Kingdom. And Mario Kart 8 Deluxe but I feel like that one’s more of a multiplayer experience. Nothing else comes close to those on the Switch for me and I can recommend all of them.

Spaltoon 3 if you get switch online and totk is a masterpiece

At most you’re gonna get like $10-15 off on most 1st-part titles. Better off going physical and buying used, if you want to save money.

As for games, Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Luigi’s Mansion 3 are great. Link’s Awakening, also. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are good too, but overrated imo.

Nintendo tax is so real — was a big factor in my deciding to buy a Steam Deck despite having a Switch (a gift).

Anyone know if there’s typically any change there when Nintendo announces a new console?

My personal favourites on the Switch are Metroid Dread and Mario Odyssey, so I’d definitely recommend those. Another game I love that I don’t see mentioned very often is Cadence of Hyrule, it’s a crossover between Crypt of the Necrodancer (a rhythm roguelike) and Zelda. With Zelda soundtrack of course! If you like 2D Mario you’ll probably want to get Mario Maker 2, but be aware that it’s not worth it if you don’t want to pay for a Switch Online subscription since wouldn’t be able to play other people’s levels.

Mario Kart 8 and Smash Ultimate are both really good, but I’d only recommend them if you intend to play multiplayer. Especially local multiplayer is fun, but online works too of course (again, needs a subscription).

The Switch also has some cool remasters and remakes of games you might have missed, like Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Metroid Prime, Zelda: Skyward Sword, or the first three Pikmin games (the fourth one comes out this week and I’d be surprised if you needed knowledge of any previous games to play it). Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl were a bit lacklustre, but if you like classic Pokémon games they might still be worth it. Just don’t expect a lot of new stuff if you’ve played the originals.

I’ve played them on PC, but Stardew Valley and Celeste are some of my favourite games. If you haven’t played them on another platform already check them out as well!

Do you have a PC?

If you do, obviously most of Nintendo’s titles are worth having. Zelda games are an easy recommend, but also Splatoon is pretty great.

If not, there’s tons of games that are good that aren’t Nintendo games that I think are worth having.

• Octopath Traveler is awesome. I haven’t played 2 yet, but I can recommend 1 if you like JRPGs
• All legacy FF games are on the platform to some capacity
• Ace Attorney game collections are great if you like visual novels
• Basically every indie is on the platform at this point. Hollow Knight, Shovel Knight, Axiom Verge, probably a lot of others but those are some big names that come to mind.
• Otherwise, I would avoid ports that haven’t gotten good reviews. Also, make sure that the games aren’t “cloud only” unless you’re comfortable with that.

I had a surprising amount of fun with the Dragon Quest games, DQ Builder I/II and Treasure Hunters. Squeaky clean polish and very focused, nearly arcade-like gameplay. Don’t forget the various Marios and Kirby Forgotten Land.

Cadence of Hyrule is a bit of a weird departure but very fun and replayable with a kickass track. You can get the Binding of Isaac physically, as well as the Ori collection which is incredible and Stardew Valley. Moonligher is a bit repetitive but that can be good comfort. Celeste, if you’ve never played it, is potentially life changing if you struggle with perfectionism and/or anxiety.

For a very obscure digital game, Chasm was an amazing randomized full-length metroidvania.

Everyone has different tastes. My switch almost only has strategy games with Fire Emblem Engage/Three houses, Triangle Strategy and Wargrove. If you like games like that i would either start with Fire Engage if you like character focused games or if you like to do decision on a story then play Tiangle Strategy

You can get Mario + Rabbids very cheaply from time to time, it’s one of the few exclusive Switch games you’ll get a good price on.

Deku Deals is your friend. Any game you have in mind just throw it on a waitlist there and you can get notified when price drops!

I really enjoyed metroid dread and hollow knight. I also played a fair bit of hades and going under. Dredge is also really good. I wouldn’t worry too much about sales unless it’s a first party game. It’s really the first party games that don’t really go on sale often.

I really enjoyed metroid dread and hollow knight. I also played a fair bit of hades and going under. Dredge is also really good. I wouldn’t worry too much about sales unless it’s a first party game. It’s really the first party games that don’t really go on sale often.