An Indie Backlog curated overview. We round up the best indie games on Nintendo Switch and how professional critics and players received each one — the scores below are theirs, linked to the source.
The roguelike that finally made the genre’s endless deaths feel like the best part of the story — and the highest-rated game on this whole list.
At a Glance
| Developer | Supergiant Games |
| Release year | 2020 |
| Platforms | PC, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox |
| Subgenre | Action roguelike |
| Length | ~22 hours (main story) |
| Metacritic | 93 / 100 |
| Steam rating | Overwhelmingly Positive (~98%, 300,000+ reviews) |
| Steam Deck | Verified |
| Languages | 11 |
About the Game
Hades, from Supergiant Games (Bastion, Transistor), casts you as Zagreus, immortal son of Hades, fighting his way out of the Underworld. It’s a fast, gorgeous, top-down action roguelike: each escape attempt is a fresh run through randomized chambers, and death simply sends you back to the House of Hades to try again with new boons from the Olympian gods.
Its masterstroke is weaving story into the structure. Every death and every run advances the relationships, dialogue, and family drama — Supergiant wrote so much voiced, reactive dialogue that the narrative deepens the more you “lose.” Dying isn’t a punishment here; it’s how the story unfolds.
Combine that with razor-sharp combat, a different build every run thanks to the boon system, and a sumptuous art and music package, and you get a roguelike that converted countless players who’d always bounced off the genre. It’s a landmark, and it plays superbly on Switch.
Screenshots
Screenshots: official Steam media for Hades.
Why It Made the List
Hades earns its place as arguably the most polished, accessible, and replayable game on this list. It solved the roguelike’s biggest problem — that losing feels bad — by making every loss part of a brilliant story. If you own a Switch, it belongs in your library.
What the Critics Say
Hades holds a Metacritic score of 93 — the highest on this list. Critics hailed its combat, art, voice acting, and the way it fused narrative into a roguelike structure; serious criticism is essentially nonexistent.
What Players Say
On Steam it’s rated Overwhelmingly Positive across more than 300,000 reviews — about 98% positive, the best ratio on this entire list. Players routinely name it the game that made them love roguelikes.
Praise & Criticism
Praise
- Best-in-class action combat
- Story brilliantly woven into every run
- Stunning art, voice work, and music
- Endlessly replayable build variety
Criticism
- Repetition is inherent to the genre
- Story requires many runs to fully unfold
- Can become a serious time sink
Games Like This
- Dead Cells — another superb action-roguelike
- Children of Morta — a story-rich roguelite
- Cult of the Lamb — roguelike runs plus base-building
Where to Buy
Plain store links for now — swap in your affiliate-tagged URLs once you’ve joined Amazon Associates and the eBay Partner Network. (Steam and the eShop have no consumer affiliate program; those links are for convenience.)
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