Halloween is just over a week away, and if you’ve already checked out our essential horror viewing lists across Netflix, Showmax, and Prime Video, why not get the heart pumping by booting up the ol’ Nintendo Switch? Whether you’re in the mood for simple, spooky platforming fun or full-blown horror, there’s no shortage of games in the Switch’s catalogue. We’ve gone through the list and compiled our ten favourite Switch games that are bound to set the tone ahead of the big day.
Alien: Isolation
This list isn’t ranked in any particular order, except for this one right here. Alien: Isolation, inspired by Ridley Scott’s horrific (and still epic) Alien, follows Ripley’s daughter fifteen years later in this survival horror classic. You’ll be taking on (in other words, hiding in a cupboard from) a Xenomorph haunting the Sevastopol station with a range of weapons, crafting items, and resources (you’ll want to save those) to keep you alive as you scour the ship for information left in the wake of your late (you’ve seen Alien 3, right?) mother. Better yet, Alien: Isolation is loaded up with seven DLCs to keep you playing – even as Ripley herself – beyond the main story.
Pick up Alien: Isolation for R325.
BioShock: The Collection
Look, you might be a little late to the BioShock party, and that’s perfectly okay. How else are you going to pick up three of the most highly acclaimed games of all time for R180? That’s what the Switch eStore is offering, anyway, with a collection including BioShock Remastered, BioShock 2 Remastered, and BioShock Infinite: The Complete Collection. You’ll be diving headfirst into the gorgeous underwater city of Rapture, taking on the game’s astounding, award-winning narrative and excellent first-person shooter mechanics. Just… have a box of tissues handy. Take that however you will.
Pick up BioShock: The Collection for R170 (80% sale).
Limbo
“Uncertain of his sister’s fate, a boy enters Limbo.” That’s all the developer, Playdead, feels comfortable sharing about Limbo and we wholeheartedly agree. Limbo deserves a blank slate, an open mind, and three hours of your life if you’ve somehow managed to avoid this brilliant indie puzzle platformer until now. Whether handheld or docked, Limbo’s hauntingly beautiful 2D world deserves to be explored at your earliest convenience (or even sooner, it really is that good). It’s a game that foregoes an epic soundtrack and instead opts for an eerie sort of silence that can swallow you up if you’re not all that careful. Seriously, get Limbo. We’re not going to say it again.
Pick up Limbo for R18 (82% sale).
Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club
The Famicon Detective games are back, baby. 27 years later, we might add. Except this time, in the case of Emio – The Smiling Man, the fourth entry in this long-standing series, it’s actually being released outside of Japan unlike those remasters that came out a couple of years back. This is Nintendo’s first ‘M-rated’ game, involving a high school student’s murder from one Emio (supposedly) – a paper bag-wearing urban legend serial killer in this point-and-click visual novel adventure that’ll scare those joy-cons right out of your hand. Time to grab those straps out of the box, we guess.
Pick up Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club for R930.
Dead by Daylight
Have you ever wanted to form a team comprising Nancy Wheeler, Nicolas Cage, Alan Wake, and Lara Croft? A team trying to escape from Dracula, no less? No? Well, that’s what Dead by Daylight is offering in the form of a 1v4 multiplayer horror survival game mode that’ll see teams working separately or alone to escape from some form of iconic film villain trying to remove their faces or something similar. No two rounds are the same what with the unique character progression content and never-ending DLC updates that make Dead by Daylight the best kind of time- and money-sink.
Pick up Dead by Daylight for R490.
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 4 isn’t just one of the Switch’s best horror titles. It’s one of the best horror titles. Period. Don’t get it confused, however. This isn’t the 2023 remake that garnered a seat at the GOTY conversation, but rather a port of the original 2005 game. If you’ve got a Switch (and only a Switch) handy, however, this is still the best way to explore Leon Kennedy’s story as he attempts to, uh, save the president’s daughter (no, really) in an over-the-shoulder first for the series that went on to inform the entire survival horror genre.
Pick up Resident Evil 4 for R160 (50% sale).
Alan Wake Remastered
Still crying over the lack of Alan Wake II on the Switch? We’ve got a simple solution. Play the original action-thriller, Alan Wake, again, especially now that it reps enhanced visuals and two story DLCs in one, glorious bundle. If you’ve yet to step into the shoes of the desperate Alan Wake as he attempts to solve the disappearance of his wife Alice (with a couple of mind-altering scenes along the way, of course) in this Stephen King-esque universe, you’re in for a real treat. Be warned. Completion of Alan Wake may lead to severe FOMO and a PS5 or Xbox Series X entering your house “against your will.”
Pick up Alan Wake Remastered for R450.
Inside
If you thought Limbo was revolutionary, Inside somehow propels the puzzle-adventure-horror-platformer genre to even further heights, creating an even spookier world (yes, creepier than literal limbo) that can be conquered in about four hours if you know what you’re doing. It’ll stick around on your mind for a whole lot longer, however, despite the lack of any real voice acting. Inside sees players controlling a young boy at the centre of a dark narrative we’d rather leave for you to uncover personally. Its atmospheric score is spine-chilling at best, and its dour artistic undertone even more so. Oh, and it’s on a massive sale right now so… chop chop.
Pick up Inside for R19 (90% sale).
Amnesia: Collection
While most of the games on this list won’t do more than give your smartwatch heart rate sensor something to do, the Amnesia series is equal parts horrifying and amazing. This collection contains three titles – The Dark Descent, A Machine for Pigs, and the Justine DLC for the first game. You won’t exactly know what’s going on story-wise if this is your first time playing Amnesia, but your eventual goal is to escape Brennenburg Castle while dodging the monsters lurking around corners and solving puzzles thrown at you along the way. Amnesia: The Dark Descent is arguably the scariest of the pack, if big scares are up your alley.
Pick up Amnesia: Collection for R455.
Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD
Luigi (full name Luigi Mario) may not get to bask in the spotlight often, but when he does, it’s one of the most highly-regarded Nintendo titles of all time. Fortunately for us, the HD remaster for the iconic puzzle platformer Luigi’s Mansion 2 featuring the ghost-hunting plumber is about as scary as the Mario series gets, enabling us to stick it on this here list. Players will take a trip down to Evershade Valley – trusty vacuum cleaner alongside them – as they attempt to rid various castles of the paranormal spooks trapped inside.
Pick up Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD for R1,130.