Feature: Nintendo eShop Selects – September 2022

Image: Nintendo Life

We’re sorry, when did it become October? Well, we suppose it’s time to look back at September for our monthly dose of eShop Selects!

It’s autumn (or fall depending on what term you like to use for the crispy leaves season). The nights are drawing in. The temperature is dropping. And the holiday season is fast approaching — we know, we’re sorry. But that does mean there are lots of video games coming our way, and you need to know which ones are the best that you can grab from the eShop.

Which games will put a smile on your face and keep you all nice and cosy as the chill comes in? Read on…

Honourable Mentions:

Unless you’ve been living under your blankets for the past month, then you know September has been packed — this is one of our biggest lineups ever for eShop Selects! So if you don’t jive with our top three, then there’s a healthy dose of excellent eShop titles here for you:

Radiant Silvergun (Switch eShop)

Radiant Silvergun (Switch eShop)

Publisher: Live Wire / Developer: Treasure

Release Date: 13th Sep 2022 (USA) / 13th Sep 2022 (UK/EU)

Well… that was a lot of 9/10s, wasn’t it? How about another one? Treasure’s classic Sega Saturn shmup Radiant Silvergun surprised us during a Nintendo Direct by dropping the same day it was announced! We sort of knew it was coming thanks to a Tokyo Game Show presentation schedule, but it’s actually here — after a little bit of an eShop snafu in North America.

And thank goodness, because this game still holds up nearly 25 years later. It’s brash, beautiful, brilliant, bold, blessed, and maybe one of the best shmups ever. And while it’s often brutally difficult, Story Mode offers a more welcoming introduction to a genre-defying classic.

We’re smitten, basically. Find out exactly everything we love about Radiant Silvergun in our review.

Tunic (Switch eShop)

Tunic (Switch eShop)

Publisher: Finji / Developer: TUNIC Team

Release Date: 27th Sep 2022 (USA) / 27th Sep 2022 (UK/EU)

We knew this had to be coming to Switch eventually — it’s a cute little Legend of Zelda fox-like game!? And Tunic does not disappoint. After receiving critical acclaim on Xbox and PC earlier in the year, Tunic truly feels at home on a Nintendo console.

Don’t let the cuteness fool you though, as there’s a meaty amount of Dark Souls-eqsue combat to sink your teeth into. On top of that, the game is also a love letter to old video game manuals. The in-game manual, which we’ve covered previously, invites you to tap into your childhood where you sat in front of the NES and SNES and scribbled down solutions. It’s gloriously charming.

Check out our 8/10 review of Tunic for more fantastic fox fun.

Return to Monkey Island (Switch eShop)

Return to Monkey Island (Switch eShop)

Publisher: Devolver Digital / Developer: Terrible Toybox

Release Date: 19th Sep 2022 (USA) / 19th Sep 2022 (UK/EU)

Guybrush Ulysses Threepwood came back to us on Talk Like A Pirate Day, and we’ve never been happier. Return to Monkey Island is just that — a return to one of the best point-and-click series’ ever made, with both Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman back to show us how it’s done, and then some.

It’s a fresh-feeling nostalgia trip, a celebration and a poke at everything that’s come before it, finely crafted with all of the wit that we’ve come to know and love. It’s also completely intuitive on Switch. There’s hardly a grain of sand out of place, and it sparkles like a piece of treasure we’ve kept close to us for all of these. There’s no need to walk the plank with this one.

Haven’t checked out Guybrush’s rapturous return yet? Our 9/10 review should convince you to set sail.

< Nintendo Life eShop Selects – August 2022


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.

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