Nintendo Life eShop Selects – February 2022
2022 is certainly picking up momentum in terms of game releases, with the Switch eShop serving up some excellent titles throughout February. It was a tough month of voting for our staff this time around!
These awards aim to celebrate the best of Nintendo’s digital store, giving some love and attention to the games that could so easily be missed in the Switch’s ever-growing library.
So, let’s get started. Here are the best Switch eShop games of February 2022!
Honourable Mentions:
While these titles didn’t quite make our top three this month, they’re still certainly worth checking out:
Publisher: Square Enix / Developer: Square Enix
Coming in third this month was a very welcome, and slightly surprising, arrival from Square Enix.
Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden arrived on the eShop around four months after predecessor Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars, showing that the card-based storytelling is allowing creative director Yoko Taro and the development team to turn these unique RPG experiences around rather quickly. The speed of release didn’t harm the quality, though, as mechanic familiarity nevertheless made way for an enjoyable story and experience.
We gave it a strong recommendation in our review.
Publisher: The Arcade Crew / Developer: Berzerk Studio
Taking the silver medal this time around is Infernax, the excellent title from Berzerk Studio (Just Shapes & Beats).
It’s a retro throwback that nevertheless has a strong sense of its own style; you work through a large world while fighting all sorts of monstrosities, also suffering plenty of gory deaths as you go. It’s tough but undoubtedly fair, and smart design combines with terrific presentation to help it stand out among the best ‘new retro’-style games on the eShop.
In our review we said it’s “a cut above most efforts in the subgenre, Infernax both demands and requires attention.”
Publisher: Private Division / Developer: Roll7
This month’s winner is the latest entry in a popular series from Roll7, and a worthy gold medal recipient.
It’s OlliOlli World, a title that takes the skateboarding series in a bold new direction while retaining the core of what makes the series so popular. Whether you like skating games, its visual style, or simply enjoy a challenge and chasing high scores, this one’s hard to ignore. Below is part of the summary from its 9/10 review.
“OlliOlli World takes Roll7’s refined 2D skateboarding concept to cosmic heights. Tight and challenging gameplay, a high skill ceiling, dozens of hours of content, and a remarkably stylish sense of presentation combine to make this a release you absolutely don’t want to miss.”
< Nintendo Life eShop Selects – January 2022
How we decide our eShop Selects top three: As we reach the end of every month, the Nintendo Life staff vote on their favourite titles from a list of games selected by the editorial team. To qualify for this list, these games must have been released as a digital-only Nintendo Switch eShop title in that particular month, and must have been reviewed on Nintendo Life; we select the qualifying games based on their review scores.
Staff are then asked to vote for three games that they think deserve to sit right at the very top of that list; first choice gets 3 points, second choice gets 2 points, and third choice gets 1 point. These votes are then tallied to create a top three list, with the overall winner taking that month’s top prize.