It’s a shame that being a Nintendo player can be such an expensive hobby, but there are actually a number of games for the Switch that are a lot of fun to play which won’t cost you more than $10. If you want to know which are the best cheap Switch games, we’re here to help.
Indeed, there’s quite a variety available, if you know where to look in the Nintendo eshop. As you may expect, there are a number of Switch indie games available for less than $10, but you can even find some instalments in big, well-known series.
Of course, there are a lot of cheaper games that may not quite meet the expectations of modern gamers – not every game you play will be a Breath of the Wild type wonder. We’ve But to assure anyone looking for cheap Switch games, we’ve found a selection of games that are genuinely great.
Here are the best Switch games for under $10:
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Among Us
Easily the most popular game on this list, Among Us is an indie game that became so successful, you’d have a hard time finding a gamer who had never heard of it before. If you’ve not yet played it, then it’s well worth giving it a try on the Nintendo Switch.
If you don’t know the general premise, Among Us puts you and a bunch of other players on board a spaceship – but you’ll soon find yourself saying ‘there’s an imposter among us!”. One of you is a murderer and if it’s not you, you need to figure out who it is based on the way that the other players are behaving. If it is you, you better do your best to convince the others that it’s not, because they’ll be casting any suspected murderers out of the ship and into space.
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Toree 3D & Toree 2
There are a lot of great Switch platformers, but the Toree games try to harken back to a simpler time, attempting to capture the gameplay and feeling of games from the 1990s. In them, you play as a little chick, Toree, who has to make their way through a number of linear 3D platforming courses. To look at it, you’d genuinely believe it could have been released on the PlayStation 1 – the atmosphere is perfect throughout, including the uncanny ability of older games to be uniquely creepy at times.
Both games are really cheap and we’d recommend picking them both up. Your goal is simply to get from the start to the finish, but provides extra challenge by adding a number of stars to the levels for you to collect along the way. It also encourages speed-running, with rewards for fast completion of the levels. For the price you pay, these are a pair of really wonderful games.
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Macbat 64
From the same developers behind the Toree games, Macbat 64 goes out of its way to capture the charm of the Nintendo 64 – with a particular focus on paying tribute to the games developed by Rare Ltd. Just as it would be easy to believe that Toree could have been on the original PlayStation, if you see any gameplay from Macbat, you’ll think it could have easily been on Nintendo 64.
This is something that will be particularly appealing to those who may have found themselves enjoying Banjo-Kazooie for the first time through the N64 games on Nintendo Switch Online (or indeed, revisiting it). The game has Macbat exploring a number of different levels (including a jungle, a haunted house, and a tropical beach) and fans of the N64 era will find themselves grinning from ear to ear the whole time. It even has a cameo from Grant Kirkhope (composer of Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, Yooka-Laylee, etc.)
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Part Time UFO
In this quirky pixel title from HAL Laboratories, you take control of a mini UFO called Jobski. Jobski has a claw hand that can be used to grab things and comes to Earth in order to help people with tasks, such as helping load up a lorry, or even constructing a temple.
It’s good to know that even in this modern world, Nintendo are happy to publish smaller, quirkier titles like this. Fans will be happy to spot cameos and references to HAL creations, such as the Kirby series and the BoxBoy series. It’s definitely worth playing – hopefully we’ll see Nintendo publishing more of this kind of thing in future.
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SteamWorld Dig
In SteamWorld Dig, you play as a robotic character named Rusty, who inherits a mine from his deceased uncle. The mine is located in a Wild West town called Tumbleton and the game revolves around taking trips down into the mine. Each time you go a bit deeper and deeper, mining more gems which get you more money, which in turn can be exchanged for better mining equipment in Tumbleton.
It’s a really addictive game, where you’ll find yourself thinking ‘just one more trip into the mine’. It’s dark down there and Rusty’s oil lamp will burn out if you take too long, so each trip down already has a kind of time limit. You can buy lamps that burn for longer, though, and even pickaxes that will break through the tougher rocks that you’ll find deeper in the Earth. The way that progress is structured here means that this game provides a really satisfying gameplay experience.
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Arcade Archives: Vs Super Mario Bros
A lot of people look at this and think that it’s just the original Super Mario Bros., and they’d be forgiven for doing so. Visually, it bears a great resemblance to the first game, but it would be better described as a remixed version of both Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels. It takes levels from both games, but changes their order, adds or removes different things, re-organises enemies, alters the layout, and so forth. It makes for a unique experience.
This game is part of the Arcade Archives series, which brings arcade games of the past to home consoles. These games are all under $10 and we recommend many of them, from the original Donkey Kong games (much better than their NES ports), to Haunted Castle (a Castlevania game), and Pinball (which features an appearance by Mario and Pauline).
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Shantae
Shantae was originally released on the Game Boy Color in 2002 and, actually, not a lot of people played it. Still, the game managed to become something of a cult classic and since it got its first sequel in 2010, the series has continued to grow, , with many people becoming huge fans of this magical genie.
The original game is a 2D platforming adventure game, with Shantae exploring large worlds, travelling between towns and fighting different monsters. Iconically, she whips her ponytail to attack and slowly unlocks different transformations that grant her new abilities (such as gaining the ability to climb once she becomes a monkey). Some Nintendo fans may recognise her from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, where she appeared as a spirit (and you could get a Shantae outfit as DLC too). This classic game holds up well and would be a good addition to your library.
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Toy Stunt Bike: Tiptop’s Trials
This one is a bit of a weird game. If you squint really, really hard you could imagine that it’s Diddy Kong Racing 2 – but it absolutely is not. In this game, you play as Tiptop, a professional Diddy Kong impersonator, or, at least, he might as well be. He’s a tiny little monkey and you ride around on a motorbike inside somebody’s house, driving across the sofa, on the kitchen tops, and so on.
We’ll be honest, we didn’t exactly include this game because it’s amazing, but just because it’s quite funny. Perhaps it falls into the ‘so bad it’s good’ category. Perhaps it is actually kind of good? We’re on the fence. It’s the kind of gameplay you’d expect in any 2.5D motorbike game and it holds up well, just for some reason you’re a tiny monkey riding around a house. It’s a game that is sure to make many gamers laugh and if you really want to, you can get a lot of time out of it by collecting flags and aiming to get high scores and best times.
So those are our recommendations for the best Switch games under $10. We hope to have brought to light some of the more obscure games from the Switch library which you otherwise might not have encountered. If money is no object, check out our guide on the best Switch games for gaming suggestions which may exceed $10.
Considering that these are all digital games, you’ll want to make sure that you’ve got enough memory space on your console. We recommend using the 256gb microSDXC-Card, which was specifically designed for Nintendo Switch use.
Because Nintendo Switch sales are few and far between, it’s also worth keeping an eye out for any deals that might pop up to help you save some extra money when you’re building your Switch library. Luckily, we’ve sought out the best offers for you right here. For another list so long it’ll boggle your brain, check out our complete Pokédex.