2022 has been off to a fun start in gaming, with the Switch eShop serving up some darn good titles throughout January. If the rest of the year keeps up the standard it’s going to be a hoot.
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 January 2022!
Honourable Mentions:
While these titles didn’t quite make our top three this month, they’re still certainly worth checking out:
Publisher: System Era Softworks / Developer: System Era Softworks
Taking the bronze medal for January is Astroneer, a game heavily focused on crafting and exploration.
It’s been on the market for many years on PC and other platforms, but it arguably feels right at home on Switch. In our review we acknowledged the ‘genial jank’ in the game, but found a lot to love – “Over time Astroneer has become one of the all-time greats of sandbox crafting adventures. It balances its jank with a heaping space-bucket of charm, and a gather-craft-explore loop that’s incredibly moreish.”
Publisher: Annapurna Interactive / Developer: Beethoven And Dinosaur
After making its debut on Xbox late last year, it’s rather pleasing to see this extremely colourful and imaginative title come to Switch.
The Artful Escape tells the tale of a folk singer who truly desires being a rockstar, but it’s far more out there than that summary suggests. It’s a bold and creative adventure designed to blast your ears and burn your retinas, in the best possible way. In our review we said the following – “The Artful Escape is a thrill. It’s true that the most joyous bits of action are underused – in terms of both playtime and what they could give the story – and some scarce but present graphical issues on Switch are a shame. Overall, though, the strengths are major, the niggles minor, and it will strike a chord with any pipe-dreaming rock star.”
Publisher: Dotemu / Developer: Dotemu
Taking the gold this month is a Dotemu-developed sequel to a cult classic in which you play a high-tempo futuristic sport that’s a bit like frisbee x volleyball.
Yes, it’s Windjammers 2, a game that is particularly awesome when playing with and against others. We loved it in our review, so will leave you with the conclusion that earned it 9/10:
“With Windjammers 2, Dotemu has taken the fiendishly addictive core formula of the Neo Geo classic and improved upon it in every way. The core gameplay here remains as immediately endearing as ever whilst being enhanced and given a real strategic kick by a bevvy of new moves and skills that add to the fun without detracting from or overcomplicating proceedings. Yes, there’s not much in the way of modes, and we’ve yet to see how online fares here, but this is another banger from Dotemu. An all-time classic improved upon, and an arcade classic refined for a new generation.”
< Nintendo Life eShop Selects - December 2021
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.
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