It's been a tremendous year for many games in 2020, ignoring certain titles that recently came out with a number of controversies. Sales are sky-high, more people are gaming, and there's a wider variety of games out there than there ever has been. With 2020 coming to an end, companies are also sharing some signs of how the year went, and today Nintendo released a video sharing the best selling Nintendo Switch indie games of 2020.
There's no particular order to the list, but it contains the top 15 Nintendo Switch indie sellers in 2020, which we'll then go through briefly, and after that, you'll have to admit that I'm right about variety.
So here's the top 15 Switch Indie games:
- Hades
- Streets of Rage 4
- Spiritfarer
- Moving Out
- Ori and the Will of the Wisps
- Carrion
- What the Golf?
- Shantae and the Seven Sirens
- Super Mega Baseball 3
- Superliminal
- Jackbox Party Pack 7
- Sakuna of Rice and Ruin
- Kentucky Route Zero TV Edition
- Cross Code
- Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2
- Neon Abyss
Hades is the latest game from Supergiant Games, and they almost are cheating to be on a list like this given their budget and track record. It's a wonderful rogue-lite that has you playing as Zagreus attempting to escape the underworld and meeting various members of the Greek Pantheon. TechRaptor gave it a 9.5 in our review, as it helped redefine what a roguelite can do with narrative and gameplay.
Streets of Rage 4 isn't the new hot genre like Hades, but instead harkens back to the 90s and the arcade era with side-scrolling brawling action as Dot Emu and Guard Crush worked to bring back the Streets of Rage series. It was a big success, with wonderful graphics and fun gameplay, scoring a matching 9.5 in our review.
Spiritfarer breaks away from the fast-paced action of the last two titles, for a more cozy and meditative game about death, and loss. You have to manage your boat, and help your passengers live out their final days in comfort, and then move on to the thereafter. Like the first two, Spiritfarer scored a 9.5 in the TechRaptor review for its beautiful graphics, management mechanics, and characters.
Moving Out takes a step away from the strong story-focused games like Hades to the hectic couch co-op realm. Described as Overcooked but moving, it involves lots of antics, silly things going on, and shines a comedic light on the stresses of moving with silly physics and challenges. A critical slacker, Moving Out 'only' picked up an 8.5 in its TechRaptor review.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the other title that arguably shouldn't be here, given that Microsoft was involved in helping publish the game for Moon Studios. On the other hand, it's another brilliant Ori game, so an excuse to talk about the beautiful graphics, haunting melodies, and fun gameplay is always welcome. It got a Very Good on our review (7.5).
Carrion was published by the delightfully weird folks at Devolver Digital and it asks a simple question - what if you were the monster in the dungeon? Well, it wouldn't be really good for anyone, as this action game shows you breaking out of the dungeon. Carrion got an 8.5 from TechRaptor's review citing the unique mechanics, control mechanism, and more.
What the Golf? is the first game on our list not to have a TechRaptor review I can crib notes from, but that's not to say anything bad about it - just that we didn't get to this well-liked light golf game, that is designed for more chaos between friends then it is serious golf, advertising itself as, "For people who hate golf - made by people who know nothing about golf." You'll find yourself putting all kinds of chaotic objects in this wonderful parody of golf.
Shantae and the Seven Sirens was the latest release by Wayforward, who has been doing Shantae and other games in a similar vein for a long while now. This fifth outing has a tropical adventure and new fusion magic to change forms and explore both above and below the water.
Super Mega Baseball 3 is a baseball game, which tells you probably a good amount if you're interested in it or not. Apparently, a lot of people were, and by all accounts (like the last two, we don't have a review here - it's a sports game, we tend to miss those) it is a very good one, further iterating on the first two games in the series.
Superliminal returns to the realm of games TechRaptor has reviewed, with this puzzle game that had a lot of hype around it. Sadly, our reviewer didn't find it delivering, giving it a 5.5 citing that it failed to deliver on its premise and had repetitive puzzles.
Jackbox Party Pack 7 is the 7th in the long-running line of Jackbox Party Pack games combining a series of small party games into one package that can generally be a blast with friends. Appropriately, this 7th entry got a 7.0 on review with several of the games praised on what they brought to the formula.
Sakuna of Rice and Ruin was a sleeper hit of 2020, that I'm sorry that I haven't gotten to trying around yet. Taking inspiration from games like Act Raiser, Sakuna has you alternate between rice farming, and facing off against monsters, with your strength depends on how well you did farming. In fact, the game did so well that the publisher of the two-man project had their stock go soaring in Japan.
Kentucky Route Zero TV Edition is the console version of the episodic adventure game that began way back in 2013. It's done now, and apparently, people really wanted to see what all the fuss was about. If you want to know more, check out our review that gave it a 7.0
CrossCode is another PC port, but this time it's of Radical Fish's 16-bit inspired action RPG hitting consoles. Finding a natural home on the console of SNES fans, the acclaimed game meshed nostalgia with modern sensibilities.
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 is the second Bloodstained spinoff, taking the action to a more classic Castlevania action style under the command of Inti Creates who have become quite skilled at creating modern takes on these older styles appealing to both old tastes and new. It racked up a 7.5 in the TechRaptor review so if you enjoyed classic Castlevania it is probably worth your time.
Last, but not least Neon Abyss is a roguelite action platformer which many people loved. Even our reviewer, who was more down on it than most, noted it had a satisfying core combat loop, so if that type of game interests you, it might be worth looking at. Do check out the TechRaptor review which gave it a 6.5 though first, to know about the pitfalls of the title.
Wow, that was a lot of games... Here you can see that you have everything from puzzlers, to rpgs, to sports, to co-op party games, and unique experiments that you don't really see outside of that game. All of these games are available now on Nintendo Switch, and many of them are available on other platforms too.
