All the New Nintendo Switch Games We Can’t Stop Playing This Fall
As the temperatures dip and the days grow shorter, we somehow find ourselves playing even more Nintendo Switch than usual, and this fall has been quite the season for games.
We love the Switch not just because it's the perfect console to play in bed under piles and piles of warm blankets, but because the game selection is one-of-a-kind—and we especially like using it to play cozy games. Curious about our current favorites? Keep scrolling to check out the games we won't stop playing all fall.
(Wylde Flowers via Studio Drydock/Paradise Marsh via Etienne Trudeau)
Ooblets: $29.99
You may have already spotted Ooblets on our summer list, but guess what? We're still unable to put this cozy, addictive game down. In the game, you arrive in the colorful city of Badgetown to start a new life on an old farm, meeting the delightfully weird locals as well as creatures called Ooblets. Ooblets are adorable, kooky creatures who grow from seeds and love to participate in dance battles, and you'll be doing all kinds of crop-growing and resource-managing as you recruit more to dance your way to the top. It's all in service of helping Badgetown thrive—as well as to uncover a massive conspiracy that could spell its doom.
Splatoon 3: $59.99
We've been Splatoon junkies ever since the first game debuted on the Wii U, and Splatoon 3 truly is the best entry yet, bringing back all of the paint-based dueling we love with more weapons, play modes and clothing options than ever. Whether you play the ultra-competitive Anarchy Battles, love cooperating with teammates for Salmon Runs or go casual and classic with Turf Wars, where the goal is simply to coat the ground in your team's color, it's nearly impossible to get bored with everything it has offer. It's so bright and fun, and the music is also some of the best in the series—if you spend hours and hours playing the game, like we do, that really matters!
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Lemon Cake: $29.99
On the surface, bakery sim Lemon Cake may look like one of those casual, low-stress games about making friends and serving cute cakes, but it's actually hectic, fast-paced and quite the opposite of relaxing—in the best way possible. In the game, you take over a haunted bakery (with a ghostly former baker as your guide), managing every aspect of the job, from watering the produce in the garden to brushing animals, loading firewood into stoves, sweeping up messes, serving customers and bussing tables—not to mention the actual mixing and baking! As you make more money, you slowly add upgrades to the bakery and items to the menu, with the ultimate goal of restoring the location's famous lemon cake. The game may be cozy, but with all of the work to be done, it's not for the faint of heart.
Restless Soul: $14.99
Now here's a game for anyone who loves a good pun. In Restless Soul, you take control of a newly dead ghost who just wants to return to the land of the living, going up against the forces of the Grim Reaper and the evil Dr. Krull to find the Portal back home. We love the game's approach, blending a black-and-white 3D pixel art style like we've never seen with classic RPG movement and light shoot 'em up combat, but our favorite thing about the game has to be its sense of humor. It's sweet, silly and full of pop culture references that'll keep you chuckling to yourself until the very end.
Paradise Marsh: $9.99
For a stunningly beautiful yet totally cozy experience, without spending a lot of money, you can't do much better than Paradise Marsh. In it, you traverse a sprawling marshland, where it seems the stars have mysteriously fallen from the sky. To restore them, you explore, capturing critters with a net and filling a journal with your findings while interacting with the lush, rich world. Slowly, the constellations are restored, and vast wisdom is shared along with them, but if you're anything like us, you'll find that the world sucks you in, and completionism is far from the only goal of discovering all there is to find there. It may only take a couple of hours to complete, but it feels so much bigger than that, and it's an experience you'll want to revisit again and again any time you need a break from the hustle and bustle of the real world.
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Wylde Flowers: $24.99
We don't care what anyone else says—we'll never get tired of cute, comfy farming sims—and Wylde Flowers adds in a witchy element that makes the game even more irresistible. In the game, you play as Tara, a newcomer to the town of Fairhaven who joins her grandmother in tending her family farm. There truly is so much to do in the game that we feel like we've only started to scratch the surface, but the combination of both farming and magic elements, including mixing potions and casting spells, has us fully hooked. The game also has a memorable cast of 30 characters (who, impressively, are all fully voice-acted), and seven romance options—though we haven't quite picked our favorite just yet. Just don't blame us when the hours absolutely fly by while you play this one.
Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet: $59.99 each
After the release of Pokémon Legends: Arceus earlier this year, we had high expectations for the next mainline Pokémon titles, and Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet deliver with a pair of epic, open-world adventures that make the Pokémon world feel bigger and bolder than ever. They've got a massive, colorful world, the best new monsters we've seen in a decade and three unique, interweaving storylines that allow players to create their own, non-linear adventure—and stumble into increasingly dangerous territory, if they so choose. The new Terastallizing mechanic is a blast that allows for all kinds of new strategies and lets players participate in raids for great loot. Plus, this is the only Pokémon game that's ever brought us to the verge of tears with its story. And did we mention you can make sandwiches? Picnics might seem frivolous at first, but are actually one of our favorite new mechanics, allowing players to manipulate Pokémon spawns to build their ideal team—or hunt rare shiny Pokémon to add some flair to their battles.
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Disney Dreamlight Valley: $29.99
The minute we heard there was a Disney-themed life sim, we knew we had to get our hands on it, and Disney Dreamlight Valley is even more charming (and addictive) than we could have guessed. The game throws the player's custom-made character into Dreamlight Valley, a land where Disney's most beloved characters lived together peacefully, until the Forgetting claimed the land, causing not just destruction, but mysterious disappearances. It's up to you to clear evil Night Thorns from the land and help the inhabitants of Dreamlight Valley remember what they've forgotten and reunite—with the help of a little farming, crafting and fishing—as you travel between different Disney movie lands to set things right. There's something about the game that makes it nearly impossible to put down, and since it's constantly expanding with new content, you won't run out of things to do in the game anytime soon.
Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch: $39.99
Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch is the chill horseback adventure game we never knew we needed in our lives. After discovering that the family ranch estate has fallen into despair, the player takes it upon themself to restore it to its former glory. As you learn to tame and ride the local wild horses, you set off on a wide adventure across on open world to befriend the locals, completing quests and gathering the resources you need to rebuild the ranch from the ground up. Not only do you get to renovate and decorate the ranch to your heart's content, but you'll also be breeding horses, each with their own unique personalities, abilities and colors, to create your ideal companion. We love how free and relaxed the game is, and it'll be right up the alley of more casual players.
Kukoos: Lost Pets: $29.99
As long-time lovers of 3D platformers, we find that Kukoos: Lost Pets is a breath of fresh air, with a great aesthetic, from the cute characters to the memorable soundtrack, and legitimately challenging gameplay that's tough without feeling unfair. It follows the titular Kukoos, the game's adorably round protagonists, who find themselves in danger after special collars designed to tame their pets actually turn them into havoc-wreaking creatures. It's up to the Kukoos to find out what went wrong, and as they travel the world through each wonderfully crafted platforming stage looking for answers, they utilize the unique abilities of different pets, for a fun new challenge every step of the way. We were surprised by just how polished the game looks and feels, and even though it's not very long, we hope this title becomes the classic it deserves to be.
Missed our favorite games of the summer? Click HERE to check out the list of our fave games from earlier in the year.