clock menu more-arrow no yes

Filed under:

Some must-play Nintendo Switch games are $20 off

New, 3 comments

Snag these modern classics if you haven’t already

By Cameron Faulkner

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

If you’re a newcomer to the Nintendo Switch, or perhaps you’re buying for someone who needs a boost to their game library, it’s always wise to snag the console’s best games when they go on sale, as they rarely do. Best Buy is listing several games that I consider to be must-play experiences for $20 off — both in physical and digital formats. Other retailers, like Amazon and Walmart, are honoring the price cuts, too. Better yet, there’s a range of games included in this sale, suiting people who want a shooter, a turn-based strategy game, or a good ol’ 3D Mario platformer.

Super Mario Odyssey is an inviting and delightful take on the traditional 3D Mario game, giving Mario a throwable cap to vastly extend his move set and to possess objects to get around levels. If you’re fatigued by open-world games that have lots of objectives, it may be refreshing to play this, where your only goal is to jump, climb, and collect shiny things.

Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario Odyssey

  • $50
  • $60
  • 17% off

The keystone Mario title for the Nintendo Switch, Super Mario Odyssey, doesn’t disappoint. The latest installment in the Mario franchise brings plenty of fun, new mechanics, and ample charm. Perhaps the most interesting and prevalent twist is Mario’s ability to possess just about anything in the game world, thanks to his new companion, Cappy. Inhabiting creatures and objects isn’t just hilarious — it also plays a big role in solving the Odyssey’s numerous challenges and puzzles.

Super Mario Odyssey is a game with a firm understanding of what the franchise has done well in the past and builds on it in some interesting and unexpected ways. It’s an absolute must for fans of Mario, platformers as a whole, or just about anyone who owns a Switch. Read our review.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the turn-based tactical title that I mentioned earlier. The game essentially has two parts: one that feels like a spin on a Persona game, where you’re building relationships with your students-turned-warriors, and the other part that sees you taking on foes in interesting battles that never overstay their welcome.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

  • $50
  • $60
  • 17% off

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a remarkably deep, turn-based strategy game. While most games in this genre treat your units as disposable pawns, Three Houses forces you to become attached to these units by having specific characters lead them into battle. These characters each have their own distinct strengths, weaknesses, and personality quirks that become more apparent as you build relationships with them between missions.

This can make some missions extremely tenuous as you try to balance the benefits of bringing characters into battle, each with their own unique strengths while risking their potential death. This option can be switched off for a more relaxed experience, but this is one of the features that sets Fire Emblem apart from its peers. This latest entry in the Fire Emblem franchise is excellent for first-timers or returning fans. Its turn-based battle has never been sharper, and the characters and plot are memorable. Read our review.

Splatoon 2 is an off-beat, unique third-person shooter where you play as squid-like humanoids who shoot paint at each other. This game has clever weaponry (sort of akin to Ratchet & Clank), and similar to Super Mario Odyssey, its story mode offers a simple structure, letting you zone out on your way to the goal (which in this game’s case is sniping a lot of enemies).

Splatoon 2

  • $50
  • $60
  • 17% off

Splatoon 2 is likely the most colorful shooter you’ll ever play. The multiplayer-focused game has players dousing maps with a variety of weaponized painting tools, ranging from paint rollers to airbrushes. It’s the perfect shooter for players that typically don’t enjoy shooters, namely because of its vivid color scheme and lighthearted approach to the genre.

While hunting down other players certainly has its benefits, victory in a given match and your personal score isn’t determined by how many players you knock out but by how much of the map you paint with your team’s respective color. This objective-based gameplay allows anyone, regardless of skill, to contribute to the success of their team. Read our review.

And, of course, you should buy The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It was released alongside the Switch, but as my colleague Sam Byford wrote on the game’s five-year anniversary, it set an extremely high bar as an immersive, open-world action game that competing titles have struggled to meet. If you’re a Zelda fan, you’ll probably gobble this up, but new players should have a great time, too.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

  • $40
  • $60
  • 34% off

Taking place in a massive open world, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a much different take on the Zelda series, one that stresses exploration, experimentation, and emergent gameplay. BOTW is much tougher than previous entries in the franchise but presents multiple, unconventional ways to tackle the game’s more difficult challenges. Mastery of the game comes more from learning and exploiting the systems in the world rather than looting a bunch of sweet gear.

Years after its release, players are still discovering new wrinkles in the aging classic. While this isn’t the most recent title to feature Link, Breath of the Wild remains an essential entry in the franchise. It offers all of the hallmarks of a traditional Zelda title, including challenging combat and puzzles, but within a gorgeous, open-world design. Read our review.

Amazon is, once again, selling its third-generation Echo Dot smart speaker for next to nothing, with a couple of strings attached. You can get the charcoal-colored speaker for $1 so long as you’ve never owned an Echo device on your Amazon account and so long as you sign up for one month of its Amazon Music Unlimited service, which costs $7.99 monthly for Prime members and $9.99 each month for non-members.

Your total will come out to $8.98 at checkout if you’re on Prime or $10.98 for non-Prime members. And, just so you know, the streaming service subscription will be set to auto-renew each month, so keep that in mind.

A three-pack of Blink’s wireless Outdoor cameras costs $159.99 at Amazon and Best Buy, down from the usual $249.99 cost for the bundle. This price drop matches the big discount that occurred in mid-February. These cameras run on AA batteries, and the company claims that you’ll get two years of use before needing to replace them.

The camera system includes a complimentary 30-day trial to Blink’s subscription that lets you record, view, and save clips. It costs $3 per month per camera after that or $10 per month for unlimited cameras. Alternatively, if you’d prefer a local storage solution, you can pick up the Blink Sync Module 2 for $34.99, which can save clips and photos from up to 10 Blink cameras.

A few other deals you might dig

Next Up In Verge Deals

Loading comments...