While some fans were saddened by the delay of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, 2022 was still a great year for the Switch. Kirby and the Forgotten Land was an early release in 2022 and was one of the biggest entries in the series to date. Around this time is also when Triangle Strategy was released, a new tactical RPG from Square Enix.
Bayonetta 3 was a long-awaited title along with Splatoon 3 which also did well. The Switch certainly had its fair share of AAA games, but the smaller titles deserve some love too. These games may have slipped through the cracks initially, but it is never too late to go back.
7 Airoheart
Airoheart is a love letter to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past without a fraction of doubt. The game looks like the developers used some sort of building blocks engine similar to Super Mario Maker to build Airoheart. The two biggest differences are the emphasis on the story and the magic system.
Players will collect runes to imbue their family staff with elemental powers for some cool puzzles and combat opportunities. The narrative, on the other hand, gets in the way of the top-down action. Other than that, it is a blast from the SNES past for good and bad.
6 Captain Velvet Meteor: The Jump+ Dimensions
Captain Velvet Meteor: The Jump+ Dimensions is a tactical RPG that seemingly takes place in the imagination of a young child. He calls himself Captain Velvet Meteor and he sails across the galaxy fighting aliens. His journey takes him to familiar anime universes including Kaiju No. 8 which is the first manga players will interact with.
Hibino Kafka from that series becomes an ally and more heroes will unlock as the story progresses. The tactical nature of it all isn’t as involved as something like Triangle Strategy. It does get points for the bold blending of universes though.
5 Demon Throttle
Demon Throttle is a Switch exclusive that is almost guaranteed to have missed a majority of players in 2022. Even though it was released by a big indie publisher, Devolver Digital, it was sold in physical copies only. It’s an old-school vertical shooter that looks and plays a lot like the old NES game, King’s Knight.
Players can switch between a cowboy and a vampire who teamed up to get revenge on their enemies. The game can be played in co-op which is almost a must as this is one tough nut to crack. It can be hard, but it is a rewarding throwback for those missing the shooter genre and days when physical games were the only way to go.
4 Haiku The Robot
Haiku the Robot is a console for the Switch but it is on PC too. It’s a Metroidvania with a similar aesthetic and plot to a game from 2020, Kunai. In Haiku the Robot, the world was destroyed two hundred years ago. All that’s left is scrap and the remnants of a robot empire.
Go through a maze of interlocking paths, collect parts to upgrade and repair the body, fight bosses, and repeat. It’s a typical action-based Metroidvania without the RPG elements. It doesn’t broaden the genre and again, with Kunai as an example, the idea overall has been done before. That doesn’t mean the game won’t be entertaining though.
3 The Pinball Wizard
The Pinball Wizard was an Apple Arcade exclusive for a couple of years but now it is out for Switch and PC. It’s a combination of a pinball game, an RPG, and a roguelike. Instead of hitting a ball around, players launch their hero in bite-sized tables as they climb up a seemingly endless tower.
The more they play, the more they can level up their hero with new stats buffs, and abilities. It can get tricky to maneuver on some levels, but it gets full points for being a creative take on the pinball genre.
2 The Ramp
The Ramp is a skateboard game but one of the most chill in a while. There are four ramps players can dive into from standard setups to empty pools. Players can choose from a small variety of avatars and their range of movement is pretty average.
The game feels more like a demo than a full game as there aren’t many other options, stages, stories, or missions. The only goal is to practice on each stage and to have fun which is the purest form of video games. It's like having a virtual toy to play with for short bursts and the Switch makes The Ramp a perfect home.
1 Wolfstride
Wolfstride is two games in one. Most of it is a visual novel wherein players are the manager, Shade, of a mech fighter who goes by the name Cowboy in the ring. Shade is in charge of setting up fights and getting cash to repair and upgrade the mech before a fight.
The battles do not have to end in victory and are set up like traditional turn-based RPGs with a few tactical mechanics such as movement. The boss fights are okay, but players will be enthralled with this rags-to-riches story thanks to the number of fun characters introduced. The black-and-white manga/anime aesthetic works too for an RPG.