Top 100 / Best Indie Games of the Year on Nintendo Switch [2020 Edition]

Hades

OK, so I’ll admit the folks at Supergiant Games (behind the favorites Bastion and Transistor in particular) had me with ...

Streets of Rage 4

Look no further for the top-of-the-line beat-em-up on Switch!

Grindstone

There’s nothing I like more than a surprise game that shows up, slaps you around a bit, and leaves you thirsting for mor...

Spiritfarer

While many gamers enjoy blowing away enemies, racing through hairpin turns, or guiding their team to victory there’s a g...

Neon Abyss

If you're up for a challenge, tons of power-ups, and bullets everywhere...

Super Mega Baseball 3

Getting right down to it there’s just something about the Super Mega Baseball series that taps into what love and nostal...

Moving Out

While the Overcooked series is famously (or is it infamously?) known to many fans of local multiplayer I’ll adm...

Hotshot Racing

With its low-poly look coming straight out of classic Sega arcade titles like Daytona Racing we have Hotshot Racing, and...

WHAT THE GOLF?

Bless the indie devs that are determined to just completely go off in left field and do something unique. What the Go...

Kingdom Two Crowns

Since I was already a pretty big fan of the first installment of the Kingdom series (New Lands) that arrived on the syst...

Shady Part of Me

There’s something pretty delightful when you encounter games that you’ve never previously heard of that, once you begin ...

Sniper Elite 4

The Sniper Elite series has always been an interesting red-headed step-child off to the side of the FPS genre. There’s n...

FUSER

The rise and fall of music titles and their mainstream popularity has always been a bit interesting to watch. Certainly ...

Carto

Having played so many of them, unfortunately the first thing I assume I’ll see when approaching any sort of puzzle game ...

Pumpkin Jack

Ah, tis the season for games that deliver at least a spooky feel, even though I’ll acknowledge more often than not Hallo...

Horace

Horace is an odd title in that much like the title character robot of the same name it is quite unassuming and humble bu...

ScourgeBringer

There’s something about ScourgeBringer that deep down brings back my nostalgia for being in an arcade, pumping quarters ...

Crown Trick

Among the many genres and subgenres roguelikes have managed to infiltrate I can’t say that a tactical turn-based adventu...

Ori and the Will of the Wisps

When reviewing games in general I try to carefully avoid hyperbole and excessive exuberance whenever possible. To tha...

West of Dead

While there are many roguelike shooters on the Switch (and quite a few of them are absolutely terrific) none of them pla...

Kingdom Rush

While one of the sequels in the series has already been released on the system (Frontiers), the OG Kingdom Rush has now ...

CARRION

While it’s great to play games or watch movies cheering on the brave heroes who fight and persevere against horrible mon...

Atomicrops

For me, Atomicrops is a story of early frustration, followed by a slow warming up, which eventually became a pretty deep...

Shantae and the Seven Sirens

While I’m a relatively recent fan of the Shantae series, having just been introduced to it in the collection release on ...

Indivisible

Probably one of the things I appreciate most in an indie game is for it to surprise me, and with its unwillingness to be...

Metro 2033 Redux

Set in a post-Apocalyptic Russia, primarily taking place in the labyrinth of subway tunnels and other areas below the su...

One Finger Death Punch 2

Ever since the early days of the genre I’ve been a big fan of a good beat-em-up. While most people immediately think of ...

KUNAI

Kunai was a title that left me excited but a bit uncertain from its PAX demo last year. I loved the look, and the abilit...

PHOGS!

While I love great challenging roguelikes and other titles geared towards the hardcore set I’ll fladly admit th...

The Jackbox Party Pack 7

My family and I have become massive fans of the Jackbox games over time, having played through each party pack at som...

PICROSS S5

The contemplative puzzle series is back and more polished than ever with this new iteration of Picross. Whether you&r...

Jenny LeClue - Detectivu

One of the more overall neglected flavors on the Switch has been single-player experiences I would consider to be bot...

Wildfire

Stealth-oriented games have never typically made for my favorite experiences but there are times when the mechanic is ei...

Chicken Police Paint it RED!

While it has been a pretty long time since the genre was even remotely in style I’ve always been a fan of the hard-boile...

No More Heroes

There’s something to be said for being authentically original, for me that’s especially the case for when the general pl...

Along the Edge

On a general level interactive fiction titles haven’t been my cup of tea. It isn’t that I don’t appreciate that such an ...

Roki

When you’re young your imagination can truly be a powerful (and sometimes scary) thing. Being fed by your parents, the m...

Windbound

Starting out with an admission I’ll say that, in general, I’m not typically an automatic fan of survival games. Too ofte...

Helheim Hassle

Where weird games are concerned I may be one of the subgenre’s biggest fans. Granted, the style of play in them varies w...

Through the Darkest of Times

While games are a great vehicle for departing from reality and enjoying an escape they’ve increasingly been used as a me...

Dodo Peak

There’s nothing I enjoy more with indies than games that defy expectation. At first glance Dodo Peak looks like a pretty...

Panzer Paladin

While I have a great deal of nostalgia for the 8-bit era since I played a ton of games back in those days, going back ca...

Biped

I first encountered Biped at PAX East, repeatedly walking by the booth on the way to other appointments and seeing small...

-KLAUS-

While puzzle platformers are represented in abundance in the indie space, there are definitely ones that put in some ext...

RUINER

With its visual flair, dystopian world, and what appeared to be a penchant for tense and violent action, Ruiner has been...

Rigid Force Redux

When it comes to shmups on Switch the tendency is to see either games that tap firmly into nostalgia, adopting classic l...

The Outer Worlds

Before fully getting into why I think this is an excellent title, and a breath of fresh air I’ve been needing on Switch,...

Huntdown

As a fan of old school shooters and beat-em-ups of all persuasions perhaps it was inevitable I’d be a Huntdown fan. Thro...

Jet Lancer

With so many high-quality shooters of all types and styles it takes some effort to put something new on the table, parti...

Lonely Mountains: Downhill

If there was a major genre on Switch to argue may be the worst represented, whether AAA titles or indies, it could be sp...

Void Bastards

While I’ve seen a few titles try to step up to the plate to establish a solid roguelike FPS to date nobody has really na...

The Complex

Having played “interactive movie” style games since way back when CD-ROMs first allowed them to exist with the likes of ...

Sky Racket

This is one of those games where with the elevator pitch alone I was revved up and ready to go. A retro-styled mash up o...

Afterparty

The indie scene, in general, has seemed to fully embrace the concept of a “story-driven adventure”, less focused on acti...

Two Point Hospital: JUMBO Edition

Sharing a thought, in many ways I still have a real beef with EA and the fact that they absorbed and pretty well ruin...

Wunderling

Who ever said that puzzle games had to be for casual gamers? Oh sure, Wunderling could likely be enjoyed by just about a...

Bloodroots

This is a title that got me excited the first time I saw it in a Nindie Direct and that I was even more thrilled with wh...

Knights and Bikes

Memories from my childhood, while often involving playing games on a variety of systems or in arcades, involve a pretty ...

198X

As a child of the 70s and 80s who spent an enormous amount of time in the arcades there’s no doubt 198X was made for me....

Super Crush KO

Early in the Switch lifespan, when the pickings were sometimes a bit more thin, there were some core Nindie titles that ...

AVICII Invector

While there have been quite a few great rhythm games on the Switch, it seems that room will now need to be made for anot...

Quiplash

I’m so pleased that Jackbox Games has decided to release my absolute favorite game of theirs as a stand-alone title now ...

Inertial Drift

While some people prefer their racing to be a bit rough around the edges, banging around turns and defying any sense ...

Pinball FX3 - Williams™ Pinball: Volume 6

Once again it’s time for old school pinball fanatics to rejoice as a new pack of conversions from the classic c...

Super Meat Boy Forever

Fans of one of the OG teeth-gnashing platforming challenges from the early indie days have been waiting for a number of ...

Maid of Sker

Survival horror may be one of the most tricky genres I’ve seen to really make a quality game in. Whether the issue is to...

Pure Pool

While I’ve never been super serious about playing pool it is a sport I’ve enjoyed in quite a number of pool halls and fr...

Serious Sam Collection

As time has gone on the first-person shooter genre has gone through quite a lot of changes and evolution, generally movi...

Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty

While the Switch has had some entries from the Oddworld series that have dabbled in a variety of styles of play, most of...

Batbarian: Testament of the Primordials

What’s interesting with indie games is their consistent ability to seem familiar at first but then consistently surprise...

Foregone

One glance at Foregone and many video game fans are likely to mistake it for the incredible Dead Cells… and given that t...

The Survivalists

As I have noted a few times before, in general survival games haven’t tended to be a favorite of mine in the past. That ...

Embracelet

This, for me, is one of those titles where it’s hard to articulate why I’m so taken in by it. With its low-poly look, it...

Going Under

As an enormous fan of anything roguelike Going Under has been on my radar since I first saw it announced, billing itself...

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw

As an old school fan of the Wing Commander series I’m always excited to take on any new space sim promising dogfights, e...

Bake n Switch

While there’s no doubt that the Overcooked franchise has been wildly successful, and can be an absolute blast to play wi...

Nexomon: Extinction

While there have been a few stabs at taking on Game Freak and the Big N’s mega-franchise they’ve tended to be at the hig...

Nowhere Prophet

In the last generation I’ve been surprised to see the deck-building strategy genre not only move from the fringes into t...

Destrobots

With loads of local multiplayer titles out there on Switch it’s a tough business to find a way to stand out in the crowd...

Knight Squad

I’ll just put it right out there, while I love the spirit of the movement to bring back local co-op games and the part t...

Liberated

This is a title that easily caught my eye the first time I saw footage of it, the black-and-white comic book style and c...

Dungeon of the Endless

I’ll admit that when I first started playing this title it was a struggle since there’s a distinct lack of explanation t...

Broken Lines

Let’s face it, while there have been quite a few titles out there that have decided to try to take on the likes of X-Com...

Curious Expedition

If you were to try to give The Curious Expedition an elevator pitch it would best be described as the love child of clas...

Hidden Through Time

If you’ve ever had kids or were a kid at some point you may recall the Where’s Waldo books. Given a dense...

Depixtion

While for many years the Picross series has sat safely at the top of its own puzzle kingdom, seeing threats from other c...

Rune Factory 4 Special

With a bit of a window remaining until the release of Animal Crossing, if you’ve been looking for something relaxing and...

GONNER2

I absolutely adore the original GoNNER but I won’t deny that it’s a love that wasn’t easy to develo...

Journey of the Broken Circle

Who knew that an incomplete circle (who looks suspiciously like a certain gaming icon) and an oddball mix of plants a...

MO:Astray

You'd think at this point in the history of gaming, given the popularity and abundance of platformers of all type...

Fledgling Heroes

There’s no doubt a good reason for people to debate whether games like Fledgling Heroes “need” to b...

Ghost Grab 3000

While I have a great appreciation for epic games that feature massive worlds and complex storylines for me to discove...

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Skellboy Refractured

When it comes to action adventure titles it is no doubt a challenge to do something that somehow feels fresh and new....

Cat Girl Without Salad: Amuse-Bouche

When it comes to weird games I’m a bit of a connoisseur on the Switch, I’ve even set aside an entire cate...

Golf Zero

Who knew that a game that initially confused me quite a bit in terms of what you were supposed to be doing (it should...

Gunbrick: Reloaded

Puzzle platformers are generally pretty common on the Switch, so it can take some effort to stand apart from the pack...

Touhou Luna Nights

Leave it to indie games to keep finding ways to push the “generic” genre experience of something so well-known as the Me...

Home Sheep Home: Farmageddon Party Edition

OK, so charming and clever puzzle games that work as well solo as when playing with others are covered pretty well on...

Spellbreak

Have you been feeling like Fortnite has become a bit played out? I have… though I think I felt that way pretty early sin...

Mad Rat Dead

With an eShop full of titles it can pay to be different, but with the variety that’s out there even that has become a ch...

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