Brace yourself: May is over, the big summer of gaming is here, and it’s time for eShop Selects again. Time flies!
To say May was crazy is a bit of an understatement. Nintendo may have had two big(ish) releases with Endless Ocean Luminous and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, but have you seen India this month? We’re almost drowning. But as always, we have work to do: our staff and contributors vote for their top three eShop games from the list of games we’ve reviewed, and we’ll give you the winners (and the best ones that didn’t). rather make the top)
But we can’t go to May without the Reader’s Choice winner for April 2024 – stitch.! Announced at a surprise Indie World, the adorable sewing game is utterly charming.
Right, it’s time to see how big your backlog is.
Honorable mentions
This might be our biggest eShop Selects month yet: 13 exclusive eShop games scored at least a 7/10, making for a great vote. But there were some very clear favorites. Here are the gems that didn’t quite make our top three.
Nintendo Life’s Honorable Mentions
It’s Braid. What more can we say? One of the defining indie titles of the 2000s, Braid, Anniversary Edition gives the beautiful puzzle platformer new life, with updated graphics and music and a fantastic series of commentary tracks that delve deep into the themes, art, development and development of the game. and just about everything.
We gave this remaster of Braid a 9/10, proving that it has easily stood the test of time.
It may not have been our top-rated game of the month, but no one can say no to a little kitty in the big city, it seems. Little Kitty, Big City is a short, utterly charming adventure packed with personality. Even if you don’t like cats, it’s hard to resist this little mischief-maker as he explores the big city. Plus crazy hats. Come on, there’s nothing better than crazy hats, right?
We scored it a 7/10 here at Nintendo Life, but for many of our writers here, a cat has more than nine lives.
We’ll be honest here: it wasn’t even close. Animal Well walked away with the votes, with every staff member who took part voting for it, with all but two voting for it in first place. Damn. Why? Well, it’s absolutely fantastic.
Animal Well is weird and wonderful in so many ways: a puzzle box version of a Metroidvania that never holds your hand but never feels impossible. It encourages exploration without any dialogue and satisfies the curiosity of any budding adventurer. And the secrets run oh so deep. It’s a NL 10/10, pure and simple. Brilliant, brilliant stuff from Billy Basso.
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eShop selects readers’ choice (May 2024)
Once again we want you, dear readers, to tell us about a game we may have missed this month. Yes, it’s possible, considering how absolutely stacked May has been! 1000xRESIST has blown many away with its stories. Umbraclaw proves that cats are in charge right now. Duck Detective is on the case. Viral sensation Bread & Fred tumbled down the mountain. These are just four titles we missed, so there are many more, but why not tell us what your favorite game is.
And of course you can also vote for your favorite from our choices.
How we determine our eShop Selects top three: At the end of each month, Nintendo Life employees vote on their favorite titles from a list of games selected by the editors. To qualify for this list, these games must have been released as a digital Nintendo Switch eShop title in that specific month and reviewed on Nintendo Life; we select the qualifying games based on their review scores.
Staff are then asked to vote on three games they think should be at the top of the list; The first choice gets 3 points, the second choice gets 2 points and the third choice gets 1 point. These votes are then added together to create a top three list, with the overall winner winning that month’s top prize.