With its bigger screen, deeper blacks, richer colours, sharper pixels, and sturdier kickstand, the Switch OLED is a tasty piece of hardware—and undoubtedly the best way to experience Nintendo's hybrid console in handheld mode. But it is a sideways upgrade, and an expensive one at that, so I get why some people are still on the fence about buying one. Earlier this year, having taken a gamble on a Switch OLED myself and quickly falling in love with it, I wrote about a few standout games in my library that I think justify the upgrade. But I couldn't stop there. Here are even more games that look sublime on that deliciously crispy display.
Tetris Effect: Connected
This sublime revival of the world's most famous puzzle game is an incredible showcase for the new display. As you drop blocks and clear lines, the screen explodes with wild, psychedelic imagery. Your senses are bombarded by coloured bubbles, windswept sand dunes, leaping dolphins, and trippy geometric shapes folding in on themselves—all accompanied by some wonderfully dreamy music. This combined with the explosions of sizzling particle effects that fill the screen make this one of the best games to play on the Switch OLED.
Return to Monkey Island
Hapless buccaneer Guybrush Threepwood is back, and this time he's brought a bold new art style with him. Return to Monkey Island is a gorgeous looking game, with stylish characters, expressive animations, richly detailed backgrounds, and vibrant, zingy colours that burst from the screen. Whether it's the eerie glow of LeChuck's ghostly galleon or a Caribbean island bathed in atmospheric moonlight, every lovingly illustrated frame of this point-and-click adventure comes alive on the new Switch. It's one of the prettiest 2D games on the console.
Famicom Detective Club
This pair of visual novels is a hidden gem on Switch. They're both remakes of NES games from the '80s, with some ridiculously lavish new art. Set in the Japanese countryside, the games feature lush hand-painted backgrounds, vibrant characters, smooth animation, and a clean, sharp UI—all of which, you guessed it, look extra mint on the Switch OLED. You spend the majority of your time going through pages of text (it's an especially hands-off visual novel), so the sharper display on the OLED makes for a more enjoyable reading experience too.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
It's amazing to think this is a 2017 re-release of a 2014 game, because it still looks incredible. From Sweet Sweet Canyon's golden sunset and Rainbow Road's kaleidoscopic rollercoaster, to Sunshine Airport's dazzling blue skies and Electrodome's cyberpunk cityscape, every course comes to life on the Switch OLED. The bigger screen comes in handy too, giving you a clearer look at the track ahead—essential in a game with such a busy, cluttered art style. Every single pixel of that 7-inch display is filled with colourful, eye-searing stuff.
Inside
Colourful games look great on the Switch OLED, but darker ones do too. Inside, a side-scrolling sci-fi adventure from the creator of Limbo, makes stylish use of light, shadow, negative space, and silhouettes to tell its grim story. Similar to Alien: Isolation, this is a game where the deep blacks of the OLED display make the shadows look darker and more ominous. The minimalist art style and muted colour palette still look fantastic, as does the way the game's big, imposing environments make our red-shirted hero seem terrifyingly small and vulnerable.
Sonic Mania
An homage to the Blue Blur's 16-bit glory days, Sonic Mania is the best Sonic game in decades—and even better on a Switch OLED. This blisteringly fast-paced platformer boasts wonderfully bright, bold, and colourful art, which really sings on the new screen. The game's art style is very much rooted in the days of the Mega Drive/Genesis, with crisp pixel art that the new display showcases perfectly. If you'd prefer to go back in time for real, Sonic Origins—a retro collection containing Sonic 1, 2, 3 & Knuckles, and CD—also looks very slick on the OLED.
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
The beautifully stylised art in this remake of Game Boy classic Link's Awakening makes you feel like you're looking at a little plastic diorama come to life. There's even a neat tilt-shift-like depth of field effect, which really adds to the illusion—although, admittedly, some people just found this distracting. On the Switch OLED the chunky, almost hand-made look of the world and characters becomes even more tactile, although the game does have some performance issues in handheld mode that sour the experience slightly.
Unavowed
Another Switch hidden gem—this time a supernatural point-and-click adventure with light RPG elements. In Unavowed you join a secret society dedicated to ridding the world of supernatural evil, including demons, vampires, and other nightmare fuel. Set in New York City, the game's sumptuous hand-painted backgrounds are vividly colourful and drenched in atmosphere, which the Switch OLED's display only enhances. This is one of the best homages to old school adventure games by genre torchbearer Wadjet Eye Games.
