There are plenty of full-price retail releases on the Switch, many of which are excellent games worth checking out. But the console is also home to a number of games with substantially lower price points that are also great playthroughs. If you’re looking to pick up a new game without breaking the bank, here are some of the best Switch games under $10. Note that this list only includes games that are $10 or under before sales, and doesn’t include free games — we’ll have another list of those soon.
Among Us
Price: $5.00
The social game that became an online sensation, Among Us can be a blast to play with friends or strangers. The simple gameplay — based around performing basic tasks or trying to sabotage and kill the other days — is straightforward but enduring.
Gato Roboto — Best Switch Games Under $10
Price: $7.99
A 2D platformer where you play as a cat piloting an armored suit, Gato Roboto is a quick and breezy adventure. It takes everything great about games like Super Metroid and compresses them into a tight experience while adding some little twists of its own, like the ability to climb out of the suit to crawl around in vents.
Fatum Betula
Price: $5.49
If you’re looking for something a little slower paced and unsettling, Fatum Betula fits the bill. Built around a single puzzle, Fatuma Betula has you wander around a lo-fi, eerie world in search of something with which to water the roots of a mystical tree. Which approach you take will determine the ending you get, and there are plenty to discover.
ISLANDERS
Price: $4.99
ISLANDERS is a stripped-down city building game that plays more like a puzzler than it does a fully-fledged simulation. Given a certain set of structures, each which award points depending on their placement and proximity to other buildings, you try to get the highest score possible. It’s a surprisingly absorbing game that’s a perfect fit for the Switch and a great game to wind down with at the end of the day.
PICROSS S
Price: $7.99
Picross is a kind of logic puzzle game where you’re trying to create a picture by using clues to deduce which spaces on a grid should be filled in and which should be left blank. I’m putting the original PICROSS S here, but the whole series is great.
SteamWorld Dig — Best Switch Games Under $10
Price: $9.99
Originally released way back on the 3DS in 2013, SteamWorld Dig is a platforming/exploration game where you play as a mining robot trying to dig further and further down into the earth to find treasure and ancient secrets. It’s a thoughtful game where you have to think about your dig approach, manage your resources, and watch out for enemies. There’s also a sequel that follows up on the game’s design, but it’s a little pricier.
A Short Hike
Price: $7.99
A tiny open world game, A Short Hike won high praise from Fanbyte EIC Danielle Riendeau when she played it on the Switch last year. Playing as a bird running around an island, you can finish the whole game in just a couple of hours — making it a nice pick if you’re looking for a quick playthrough that’s impeccably crafted.
Stick Fight: The Game
Price: $7.50
For chaotic multiplayer action on a budget, you can’t get any better than Stick Fight: The Game. Dropping you and some friends into a small arena with weapons ranging from the mundane to the ridiculous (e.g. a cannon that fires snakes), Stick Fight makes for some excellent physics-fueled mayhem.
Toree 3D — Best Switch Games Under $10
Price: $0.99
Toree 3D is an adorable 3D platformer with some light horror vibes, owing to its origins as a part of the Haunted PS1 Demo Disc project. The game doesn’t drop jump scares or anything, it’s just going for that kind of weird lost “cutesy title with something unusual going on under the hood” vibe. Also check out Toree 2, which is also only 99 cents and mostly ditches the latent horror aesthetics in favor of being a straight-up retro platformer.
Spelunky
Price: $9.99
One of the games that kicked off the Great Roguelike Rebirth of the 2010s, Spelunky still holds up today. It’s one of the purest forms of the genre — you don’t get many upgrades that persist across runs, you just get better at dealing with what the game throws at you. It’s a game that careens between slow-paced and deliberate on the one hand and tense and action-packed on the other, and getting to its ending — and then its true ending — is a real accomplishment.
