Pink up — May is over, the big Summer of Gaming is here, and it’s time for eShop Selects again. Time flies!
It’s a bit of an exaggeration to say that May was crazy. Nintendo may have had two big releases with Endless Ocean Luminous and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, but did you saw indie this month? We are practically drowning. But as always, we’ve got work to do — our staff and contributors are voting on their top three eShop games from the list of games we’ve reviewed, and we’re giving you the winners (and the best that weren’t Enough make a top)
But we can’t move on to May without congratulations Reader’s Choice Winner for April 2024 – stitch.! The adorable sewing game was announced during the surprise Indie World and is utterly charming.
Okay, so it’s time to check your backlog.
Honorable mentions
This might be our biggest eShop Selects month ever — 13 eShop-exclusive games scored at least 7/10, making for a great vote. But there were a few clear favourites. Here are the gems that didn’t quite make our top three.
Nintendo Life Honorable Mentions
It’s Braid. What else can we say? One of the most important indie titles of the 2000s, Braid, Anniversary Edition, gives the beautiful puzzle-platformer new life, with refreshed graphics and music, and a fantastic series of commentaries that dive deep into the game’s themes, art, development, and just about everything.
We gave this reworked version of Braid a 9/10, proving that it has easily stood the test of time.
It might not have been our best game of the month, but it seems no one can say no to a little kitty in the big city. Little Kitty, Big City is a short, extremely charming adventure bursting with personality. Even if you don’t like cats, it’s hard to resist this little mischief while exploring the big city. Plus, silly hats. Come on, there’s nothing better than silly hats, right?
We rated it a 7/10 here at Nintendo Life, but for many of our writers here, the cat has more than nine lives.
We’ll be honest — it wasn’t even close. Animal Well ran away with the votes, as every staff member who participated voted for him, and all but two of them voted for him in first place. why the hell? Well, it’s absolutely fantastic.
Animal Well is weird and wonderful in so many different ways: a puzzle-box version of Metroidvania that never holds your hand but never feels impossible. It encourages exploration without any dialogue, satisfying the curiosity of every adventurer. And the secrets run so deep. It’s NL 10/10, pure and simple. Brilliant, brilliant stuff from Billy Bass.
< Nintendo eShop Selects - April 2024
eShop chooses a reader’s choice vote (May 2024)
Once again, we want you dear readers to tell us about a game we may have missed this month. Yes, it is possible, given how absolutely stacked May was! 1000xRESIST delighted many with his story. Umbraclaw proves that kitty cats rule the roost right now. Duck Detective is on the case. The viral sensation Bread & Fred has crashed down the mountain. Those are just four titles that we missed, so there are many more, but why not tell us what your favorite game is.
And, of course, you can also vote for your favorite from our selection.
How we decide that our eShop chooses the top three: As we come to the end of each month, the Nintendo Life staff votes on their favorite titles from a list of games selected by the editorial team. To qualify for this list, these games must have been released only as a digital Nintendo Switch eShop title in that particular month and must have been reviewed on Nintendo Life; we select qualifying games based on their ratings.
Staff are then asked to vote for the three games they think deserve to be at the very top of that list; the first choice gets 3 points, the second choice gets 2 points, and the third choice gets 1 point. Those votes are then tallied to create a top three list, with the overall winner claiming that month’s top prize.
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