December was another busy month at the Nintendo Switch eShop, with lots of great games to choose from for a fun holiday. Naturally, then, we should probably withdraw the old Nintendo Life eShop Selects awards.
These awards aim to celebrate the best of Nintendo’s digital store, giving a little love and attention to games that could so easily be lost in the Switch’s growing library.
Let’s start, then. These are the best Switch eShop games of December 2020.
Honorable mentions:
While these titles haven’t quite become our top three this month, it’s still worth reviewing.
Editor: Distractionware / Developer: Distractionware
This month Dicey Dungeons ranks third, a beautiful, outrageous character, though dangerously fun roguelike adventure. The game takes place within a strange game program, where players become a game dice and have to make their way through a series of treacherous and changing dungeons ruled by chance. In our review, we gave one a lot strong 9/10, praising its variety of gameplay, music and combat system. Be sure to read it and download the game if it looks like it might be yours.
Editor: Inner sheet / Developer: Inner sheet
In second place is one you’ve probably heard of, even if you haven’t had a chance to play it yet: Among Us. This one has been attacking the gaming world for the umpteen blockages we’ve been facing recently, so it’s no wonder the Nintendo Life team has had fun with it now that it’s finally on Switch.
You need a group of friends and a standalone voice chat app to get the most out of it, but when we overcome these barriers, what we have here is an instantly accessible and super addictive casual gaming experience, perfect for getting online – togethers. Get in there if you haven’t already.
Editor: Bethesda / Developer: Software id
And grabbing gold is a game that certainly shouldn’t even have qualified for the awards. Yes, Eternal DOOM is technically a digital-only e-store game on Nintendo’s platform, which means that despite its huge fan base and equally huge budget, it meets our strict criteria.
Of course, the big talking point of this is the severe, but sadly essential, visual degradation needed to make the game work on Switch. We’ll admit it looks much better on other systems, but the fact that the panic button works on a portable tablet (at 30 fps, no more and no less) is remarkable.
Keep in mind that the game itself is another wonderful, cruel and demonic journey to Hell, which is as satisfying as you would expect, and it becomes easy to see why we have designated this is our best selection the gang. Tear and tear, people. Rest in peace. I. Tear.
How do we decide that our e-store selects the first three: As we get to the end of each month, Nintendo Life staff vote 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 as the Nintendo Switch eShop digital title this particular month and will need to be reviewed on Nintendo Life; we select the ranking games based on their review scores. Staff are then asked to vote for three parties they believe deserve to be at the top of this list; the first option gets 3 points, the second option gets 2 points and the third option gets 1 point. These votes are counted to create a list of the top three, and the overall winner will get this month’s top prize.