Spring has sprung, and so has the next edition of eShop Selects.
This time, we’re looking at the best hidden gems — as voted for by Nintendo Life staff — alongside a separate poll for the Reader’s Choice for March’s eShop releases. You’ll see the winner of the latter at the bottom of the article.
We’ve been trialling the Readers’ Choice for a few months now, and for April’s eShop Selects, we’ll be changing how we release the Readers’ Choice vote. Instead, we’ll be sharing the poll alongside the eShop Selects post instead of beforehand.
Aaaanyway, let’s spring into action, shall we?
Honourable mentions
We’ve had reviews growing out of our ears this month despite it being a “quieter” one. What is a quiet release month in 2024, eh? We included games we scored 7/10 or above in the staff poll this time around; here’s what didn’t quite make the top three.
Nintendo Life’s honourable mentions
With speed to rival Sonic and transformations to match Mega Man, Berserk Boy nails the retro 2D-style platforming and gunning that we’re constantly champing at the bit for. Nailing that 16-bit aesthetic, Berserk Boy is delightfully fun and replayable, blending traditional SNES platformers with some Metroidvania backtracking. It launched at the beginning of March, and we highly recommend you check it out if you haven’t already — we scored it an 8/10 in our review.
The second game in Digital Eclipse’s Gold Master Series, Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story is an incredible compilation and history lesson on one of the most unique figures in the industry today. We’re still in love with the idea of these interactive documentaries that allow you to play the games and learn about the people behind them. You have to play these games as you go through Minter’s life because tracking the development of these games in order is a joy. We gave Llamasoft a 9/10 in our review. A gold star, indeed.
Drill Dozer fans, wherever you are — you need to check out Pepper Grinder. This sort of spiritual sequel is full of charm, colour, and personality, bursting with fantastic level design and unique mechanics which see you play as a pirate exploring the world with her drill. If this sounds even remotely fun to you, then you better head to the eShop and check out the demo. We could also take twice as many levels, or a sequel, or something else from this unique platformer. Pepper Grinder drills down and strikes gold, and we awarded it a 9/10 in our review. It’s a more than worthy winner in our staff eShop Selects poll this month.
eShop Selects Reader’s Choice Winner (March 2024)
WINNER: Death Trick: Double Blind
Lots and lots of games got your votes this month, but the clear winner of the Readers’ Choice poll is a game that featured in an Indie World Showcase last year — Death Trick: Double Blind. Winning with 17% of the votes, Death Trick sees you swapping between two different perspectives to help solve a mystery at the circus.
Lots of other games tied for second place — a couple of rereleases among the pack — but the two that stood our are two hits that are both on Steam and have proven a hit with readers.
Reader’s honourable mentions
< Nintendo eShop Selects – February 2024
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.
