December still has a few days left, which means we still have a little bit more time to reminisce back on the year that was. In this case, Japanese publisher Nintendo released a punchy supercut of what are, apparently, the most popular smaller budget games on its portable platform.
Some of these indies, I’m sure won’t be a surprise: from the moment they were announced, folks immediately wanted to know when the Switch version of said title was dropping. (Hello, timed exclusive Spelunky 2.) Others, like Road 96—I had no idea they had this much hype! What’s worth noting is that there’s no additional information here, so we can’t say if this list goes from least to best selling or what, exactly, the sales figures for this particular console are. Kotaku reached out to Nintendo for clarification. But the list, in the order of presentation during the video, includes:
- Cyber Shadow
- Unpacking
- Tetris Effect: Connected
- Stick Fight: The Game
- Curse of the Dead Gods
- Ender Lilies
- Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!
- Spelunky 2
- Road 96
- Subnautica/Subnautica: Below Zero
- Littlewood
- Islanders Console Edition
- Slime Rancher: Plortable Edition
- Eastward
- Axiom Verge 2
See any trends here? Forty percent feature gorgeous pixel art aesthetics, and a notable number are (sometimes older) ports or remasters of some sort. And hey, wouldn’t you know it, Nintendo also happens to be holding an end-of-year sale for many of these very same titles (and more) on the eShop as we speak, should any of the inclusions pique your interest. If you’re on the fence, Kotaku has written reviews for many of these games. We liked Axiom Verge 2, Doki Doki, Unpacking, Spelunky 2 and, while Eastward was good, we walked away with some mixed feelings.
Now if you’re curious about Nintendo’s best-selling games period, that list is topped by none other than…Mario Kart 8, a port of a game that came out years ago.