The Nintendo Switch might be the best place on earth to play indie games. Its pick-up-and-play handheld form is perfect for the inventive, bite-sized, endlessly replayable games the indie scene does best — and developers have flocked to it. This is our running, curated list of the very best indie games you can play on Switch, spanning every genre — in no particular order.
We update this list as we review more games, so bookmark it and check back. Entries link straight to our full reviews.
Hollow Knight
A vast, hand-drawn metroidvania of haunting beauty and brutal challenge — one of the genre’s defining masterpieces.
Stardew Valley
The beloved farming life-sim — endless cosy depth, and a perfect fit for handheld Switch play.
Hades
The roguelike that perfected the genre: lightning-fast action, endless replayability, and a story that rewards every death.
Celeste
A pixel-perfect platformer about climbing a mountain and your own anxiety, with some of the tightest controls ever made.
Undertale
The genre-bending RPG where you can befriend every monster — funny, heartfelt, and unforgettable.
Dead Cells
A razor-sharp roguevania that fuses Metroid-style exploration with souls-like combat into pure, addictive flow.
Cuphead
A punishing run-and-gun wrapped in jaw-dropping 1930s hand-drawn animation — gorgeous and merciless.
Sea of Stars
A gorgeous modern throwback to the golden age of JRPGs, built on satisfying timed-hit combat.
Into the Breach
Bite-sized turn-based tactics of perfect-information chess from the makers of FTL — easy to learn, endlessly deep.
Spiritfarer
A cosy management game about ferrying the dead to the afterlife — beautiful, gentle, and quietly devastating.
Hyper Light Drifter
A wordless, neon-soaked action-RPG of brutal combat and aching, painterly beauty.
Slay the Spire
The deckbuilding roguelike that launched a genre: build a deck, climb the spire, lose, and instantly start again.
Tunic
A gorgeous isometric adventure about a tiny fox — and a love letter to the mystery of old game manuals.
Citizen Sleeper
A narrative survival RPG about scraping by on a derelict space station — choice-rich and deeply humane.
Ori and the Blind Forest
A breathtaking, emotional metroidvania with painterly art and platforming that genuinely sings.
Cult of the Lamb
Equal parts roguelike dungeon-crawler and cult-management sim, wrapped in adorably sinister art.
Cassette Beasts
An inventive monster-taming RPG where you fuse creatures into wild new forms.
Vampire Survivors
The minimalist bullet-heaven phenomenon that turns mowing down thousands of enemies into pure dopamine.
Gris
A wordless, watercolour platformer about grief and recovery — closer to a moving painting than a game.
Cocoon
A serene, mind-bending puzzle adventure of worlds within worlds, from the lead designer of Limbo and Inside.