1,315 games
The best indie games on Nintendo Switch
Small studios, big ideas: games made away from the big publishers, often bolder, more personal and more playful than the next sequel.
How to find games that really suit you: Select up to 5 games you have played and enjoyed. Playalike compares 36 traits such as combat, story and atmosphere and suggests games that hit exactly the same spot, even across genres.
-
1 Stardew Valley
- Cosy, great for unwinding
- Distinctive, stylised art style
- Co-op or multiplayer
A relaxing farming sim with village life, friendships and a co-op mode.
-
2 Hades
- Action-packed real-time combat
- Distinctive, stylised art style
- Runs that play out differently every time
Escape from the underworld as a roguelike with fast-paced combat and a story that grows with every run.
-
3 Terraria
- Lots to discover
- Strong character progression
- Open world
A 2D sandbox adventure where you dig, build and craft while ever-tougher bosses unlock new gear tiers and biomes. Its huge item pool and hidden secrets make it a near-endless experience, especially with friends.
-
4 Hollow Knight
- Lots to discover
- Distinctive, stylised art style
- Timing and reflexes matter (parrying, dodging)
A hand-drawn Metroidvania in a ruined insect kingdom full of secrets.
-
5 Totally Accurate Battle Simulator
- Lots of humour
- Distinctive, stylised art style
- Sandbox with your own goals
A chaotic physics battle sandbox where you place wobbly units from eras ranging from the Stone Age to fantasy and watch them hilariously clash. Figuring out the perfect army on a tight budget meets glorious slapstick absurdity.
-
6 Undertale
- Strong, story-driven narrative
- Choices with consequences
- Lots of humour
A charming indie RPG where every fight can be resolved without violence, blending turn-based menus with bullet-hell dodging. Its quirky humor, memorable monsters and a story that remembers your choices made it a cult classic.
-
7 Slay the Spire
- Turn-based combat
- Tactical depth
- Cards and deck-building
A deckbuilding roguelike in which every run demands new card combinations and strategies.
-
8 Vampire Survivors
- Strong character progression
- Runs that play out differently every time
- Action-packed real-time combat
A minimalist auto-attacking roguelite where you only steer while your weapons fire on their own, snowballing through clever upgrade synergies into a screen-clearing force against thousands of monsters. Short runs and constant unlocks make it wildly addictive.
-
9 Celeste
- Timing and reflexes matter (parrying, dodging)
- Jumping and platforming
- Challenging difficulty
A precise platformer about climbing a mountain and overcoming inner fears.
-
10 Subnautica
- Lots to discover
- Open world
- Sci-fi setting
Stranded on an ocean planet, you dive ever deeper into a gorgeous yet terrifying alien sea. You build bases and submarines while piecing together the planet's mystery, and the dark depths themselves become the real source of dread.
-
11 Balatro
- Tactical depth
- Distinctive, stylised art style
- Cards and deck-building
An addictive poker roguelike where Jokers, card upgrades and wild synergies push your scores to absurd heights. Every run plays differently, and the hunt for the perfect build never gets old.
-
12 Hotline Miami
- Action-packed real-time combat
- Timing and reflexes matter (parrying, dodging)
- Dark, serious atmosphere
A brutally fast top-down shooter where one hit kills and every floor is mastered through rapid trial, error and instant restarts. Its neon visuals, pulsing synthwave soundtrack and unsettling, surreal story about violence make it unforgettable.
-
13 Inside
- Dark, serious atmosphere
- Distinctive, stylised art style
- Lavish presentation
A wordless, oppressive puzzle-platformer in which a boy slips through a bleak dystopia, controlling bodies with his mind along the way. Masterful atmosphere and a disturbing finale make it unforgettable.
-
14 Stray
- Sci-fi setting
- Lavish presentation
- Strong, story-driven narrative
You play a stray cat lost in a decaying, robot-inhabited neon city, climbing, sneaking and poking around to uncover what happened to it. Its charming feline interactions and dense cyberpunk atmosphere make this short adventure stand out.
-
15 Dead Cells
- Action-packed real-time combat
- Runs that play out differently every time
- Timing and reflexes matter (parrying, dodging)
A fast, fluid 2D roguelite with Metroidvania structure, where tight, punchy combat and a huge arsenal of weapons make every run feel different. Permanent unlocks and new routes give you a real sense of progress even as you die again and again.
-
16 Katana Zero
- Action-packed real-time combat
- Timing and reflexes matter (parrying, dodging)
- Dark, serious atmosphere
A blistering neo-noir action platformer where one hit kills and each room plays like a puzzle solved with your katana, slow-motion and deflected bullets. It's wrapped in a twisted, fragmented story with dialogue choices and a superb synthwave soundtrack.
-
17 Factorio
- Building and crafting
- Tactical depth
- Open world
Stranded on an alien world, you grow a crude mining operation into a sprawling automated factory, endlessly optimizing belts, production chains and logistics. All the while you must defend it from native creatures angered by your spreading pollution.
-
18 Cuphead
- Action-packed real-time combat
- Timing and reflexes matter (parrying, dodging)
- Distinctive, stylised art style
A brutally tough boss-rush shooter animated like a 1930s cartoon, where precise dodging, parrying and shooting decide every fight. A swinging big-band jazz score and local co-op round it out.
-
19 A Short Hike
- Cosy, great for unwinding
- Lots to discover
- Distinctive, stylised art style
Play as Claire, a young bird climbing and gliding through a charming park toward its summit, chatting with quirky hikers and stumbling on little secrets everywhere. A short, heartfelt, pressure-free adventure with a lovely pixelated low-poly look.
-
20 Phasmophobia
- Co-op or multiplayer
- Playing together in co-op
- Dread and tension
You and your friends play ghost hunters, using EMF readers, spirit boxes and cameras to work out which kind of ghost haunts a location. Voice recognition and sudden hunts make for genuine panic and plenty of hilarious co-op moments.
-
21 Inscryption
- Turn-based combat
- Cards and deck-building
- Dark, serious atmosphere
A creepy card game played against a shadowy figure in a dark cabin, mixing deckbuilding with escape-room puzzles while constantly breaking its own rules. Beneath the surface lies a surprising, fourth-wall-bending mystery.
-
22 Don't Starve
- Distinctive, stylised art style
- Open world
- Lots to discover
A merciless survival game with a gothic, Tim Burton-esque hand-drawn style, where you scavenge, craft and fend off hunger, insanity and monsters in a procedurally generated wilderness. Death is permanent, but every run teaches you something new.
-
23 A Hat in Time
- Distinctive, stylised art style
- Jumping and platforming
- Lots of humour
A charming 3D collectathon platformer in the vein of N64 classics, where a tiny girl uses magical hats to bounce through varied, wonderfully weird worlds. Its chapters, from a mafia-run town to dueling bird film studios, overflow with humor and creativity.
-
24 Outlast
- Dark, serious atmosphere
- Dread and tension
- Lavish presentation
As a defenseless journalist armed only with a night-vision camcorder, you creep through a nightmarish asylum where hiding and running are your only options. Relentless, unfiltered terror with no way to fight back.
Not quite your taste?
Tell us your favourite games and we'll find recommendations that fit you exactly.
