Smash into cheap multiplayer fun on Switch

As many of us are about to begin our Winter Break, we’d like some multiplayer games to play with our mates or family while we’re home. The Switch is a great system for two player games because it always has two detachable joycons, and there’s lots to choose from right now. Sure everyone’s playing Smash, but maybe you can’t afford that right now, or you’re waiting to unwrap it for Christmas. Let’s see what fun you can have with your mates right now on the cheap.

Nintendo Switch has become the go to destination for indie titles, but with around 20 titles released a week, it can be confusing to know what to try out of the huge list of titles. I dived into the eShop with a simple challenge. Find some games I’d never heard of, and try them out. For this challenge I gave myself four rules. 1. I must have never heard of the game. 2 It must include local multiplayer. 3 It must be under a dollar. 4. I would only give myself five minutes for an impression. Let’s take a quick look at what I found!

Bouncy Bob was the clear winner as the bargain bin game of the challenge. At just a penny, Nintendo practically gave me this game. Although I liked the art style, I can’t say I enjoyed the slingshot style movement of the game, and Bob just wasn’t bouncy enough to get around the environment. I never figured out exactly where I was supposed to bounce to, and what the objective was, and honestly at a penny, I was done with this game before the 5 minutes were up.

Robonauts set me back a whole .86 cents, and it features cute robots fighting off waves of alien foes. Armed with a laser and a bomb attack, you circle around a planet clearing out foes. As one planetoid clears, you can jump to another nearby asteroid, and blast the baddies there as well. If your robot buddy falls in combat, you can quickly revive them by standing next to them. Each stage wraps up quickly with a planetoid boss battle, and the two players even get to compare scores at the end.

Just under my self imposed .99 limit was Brawl, which also came with an M rating. This dark spin on a Bomberman type game has characters that would be right at home in Twisted Metal or Alice and Wonderland, and the art reminded me a bit of Borderlands. Each character has its own backstory in story mode, as well as it’s own special ability besides dropping bombs. I suspect most people will jump right into the Player Versus Player combat, and if you are looking for a Bomberman type game to play with your friends, it’s safe to say you’ll get your dollar’s worth out of this one.

Astro Bears Party set me back .49 cents, and it was the clear favorite for my Player 2 and I.  Imagine running as an astronaut bear on a globe like Super Mario Galaxy, while leaving a colored trail behind you like a Tron lightcycle. You can hover with a jump pack, which will let you jump over your colored trails, while also leaving a trail in the sky instead of the ground. Any time a player hits a trail, the other player scores points, and a player wins when they hit a predetermined amount like 20 or 40 points. We had a lot of fun playing rounds of this one, and I would pick it as the best of the bunch.

Tim Bledsoe

Podcasts & Single-player games are his thing except on "Adventure Time Tuesdays"