We've found the best cheap Nintendo Switch games to bring you a whole lot of fun for not much money
(Image credit: Jim McCauley)
If money's tight, the best cheap Nintendo Switch games can deliver a stack of entertainment on your favourite console without costing you a fortune. And frankly, we often find that a well-chosen cheaper title can provide you with a lot more fun than many full-price games.
While the big appeal of the Nintendo Switch is its raft of flagship IPs – your Super Marios, Zeldas, Metroids and all that – that are usually well worth the asking price, you can't always be quite so sure about other big-budget, full price games.
While it doesn't take much effort to find a whole load of truly terrible cheap Switch games on the Nintendo eStore, you can also find plenty of innovative and polished indie titles developed by true gaming enthusiasts, and these are often the cheapest Switch games that we'll be pointing you to in this guide. If you want to play these games with a bit of fun, take a look at our guide to the best retro controllers.
We've picked out eight of the best cheap Switch games available now; everything's under $20/£20 (with a few that are a whole lot cheaper) and there's something for most gaming tastes, from chilled out puzzle games and adventures through to full-on arcade bangers, and quite a few that we'd happily choose over the latest AAA blockbuster.
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Fans of classic cartoons should get a kick out of Cuphead; its entire aesthetic pays homage to the golden age of American animation, with 1930s looks and a jazz soundtrack to complete the experience. It's a joy to look at but be warned, despite its charming visuals it's also a monstrously tough game: a frantic run and gun with a whole load of boss battles that get increasingly difficult the further you progress.
Cuphead can be a frustrating experience for less hardened gamers, but its gorgeous animation is definitely worth checking out, and it's at a reasonable enough price that nobody should really object to taking a punt on it.
At the opposite end of the difficulty scale to Cuphead is Oxenfree, a beautiful adventure game in which you investigate paranormal activities on a spooky island. It's a piece of wonderfully laid-back gaming, with lots of exploration and dialogue, and a plenty of emphasis on story and character.
There aren't any tedious cut-scenes to sit through; all the action and conversations happen in real time, and the game has a beautifully understated art style that lets you focus on the thoroughly gripping supernatural story. Best of all, there's no danger of getting it wrong and losing the game; whatever you do in the game you'll get to the end (over the course of about five hours), but there are several different endings you might encounter.
(Image credit: Playdead)
03. Inside
Dark and minimal action with a hell of a twist in the tail
The thing we love the most about the thoroughly brilliant Inside is when you get to the end and all you can think is, "What the hell just happened?" Developed by Playdead, it's an unsettlingly creepy game in which you, as a weird blank-faced young boy, run through a dark and threatening environment in which everyone and everything is out to kill you.
There are loads of environmental puzzles to solve in order to progress, and lots of horrible ways to die; thankfully it's rare that you'll run up against an obstacle that'll hold you back for too long. What really makes it, though, is that ending; it's next-level bonkers and guaranteed to make you want to restart the game afresh to see if you can spot any clues that could make the whole thing make a little more sense.
If Inside gives you nightmares, soothe your frazzled nerves with Mini Metro, a delightfully minimal puzzle game in which you have to join the dots in order to create a smooth-running city metro system.
Its looks are reminiscent of the iconic London Underground map, and its simple gameplay is pleasantly relaxing – at least until you start facing more complex challenges with more stations opening all the time, and still have to keep all those commuters happy.
Mini Metro's a bit of a chill-out game, with a suitably relaxing soundtrack, but with just enough tension along the way to keep you coming back for more.
Looking for a helping of classic arcade action with just enough of a modern feel? Tempest 4000 should do the trick.
It's the latest update to Atari's 40-year-old arcade game in which you attempt to hold back a swarm of enemies advancing up a glowing web in space, and ticks all the right boxes: fast-paced shooting that's a lot more than mindless blasting, plenty of power-ups to collect, eyeball-sizzling visuals that marry old-school vectors with psychedelic graphical tricks, and a choice of three thumping soundtracks.
It's beautifully paced with perfectly-tuned controls, and its restart best feature means that you can pick up the game on any level you've previously completed, enabling you to seriously hone your skills.
(Image credit: Whippoorwill)
06. A Short Hike
Relaxed exploration with a gorgeous pixel art style
Another more relaxed cheap Switch game, A Short Hike is a positively delightful open-world adventure in which you, as Claire, an anthropomorphic bird, set out on, yes, a short hike to the top of a mountain so that you can get a phone signal.
Of course, the real fun's in the journey itself; there's a fabulously detailed pixel art world to explore with all manner of things to find along the way as you hike, climb and fly around the game's island setting.
It's not an especially long game if you take the direct approach, but if you instead kick back and take the scenic route you'll be in for hours of lovely, chilled discovery.
An underrated gem on the Nintendo Switch Store, Rogue Aces is a classic 2D shooter in which you take to the skies in an old-fashioned fighter plane and blast your way through randomly-generated enemy territory. Your plane handles beautifully and is kitted out with guns, bombs and rockets, and as you carry out missions as ordered by your brilliantly blustering commander, you can power everything up by shooting enemy aircraft and snatching crates out of the air.
There's plenty of dogfighting, buildings to blow up and low-level strafing runs, as well as a decent assortment of game modes to unlock as you progress, and the best bit? If your plane picks up too much damage, it's possible to eject and steal an enemy plane in mid-air.
Everyone loves a good rhythm action game, right? Thumper's in that ball park, except it describes itself as a rhythm violence game, and that's a fair assessment. It's all about hitting the right controls at the right time, but a whole lot darker: you're this weird metallic scarab beetle thing, screaming down a track through a foreboding void at breathtaking speed, trying to hit corners on time and avoid obstacles while regularly facing off against gargantuan Lovecraftian bosses.
Thumper has quite the foreboding mood to it, accentuated by a pounding industrial soundtrack, and after being immersed in its nightmare dimensions for a while it's a positive relief to put it down and stand in the sunshine for a bit. Still, you can't beat the feeling of nailing one of its levels and getting one of those elusive S-rankings.
Jim McCauley is a writer, performer and cat-wrangler who started writing professionally way back in 1995 on PC Format magazine, and has been covering technology-related subjects ever since, whether it's hardware, software or videogames. A chance call in 2005 led to Jim taking charge of Computer Arts' website and developing an interest in the world of graphic design, and eventually led to a move over to the freshly-launched Creative Bloq in 2012. Jim now works as a freelance writer for sites including Creative Bloq, T3 and PetsRadar, specialising in design, technology, wellness and cats, while doing the occasional pantomime and street performance in Bath and designing posters for a local drama group on the side.
