Puzzle games make up a huge portion of the Nintendo Switch library, and with good reason.
Some puzzle games are approachable, lighthearted and ideal for beginner players. Others come complete with rich storylines and genuinely challenging gameplay to put seasoned gamers through their paces. It’s an incredibly versatile genre.
If you’re looking for a new puzzle title to tackle, I’ve gathered up 14 of the best Nintendo Switch puzzle games that you need to add to your library today. I’ve made sure to include a variety, covering everything from story-heavy games to mind-bending classics.
The Gardens Between
The Gardens Between is a visually stunning indie game that puts a new spin on the puzzle genre. It’s charming and creative, and manages to tell a fantastic story with no dialogue.
The game follows two children (Frendt and Ariana) who are hiding out from a storm in the treehouse that connects their back gardens.
A time-traveling orb flips their worlds upside down, providing them with a constant stream of puzzles and challenges to navigate that take place around their homes.
The time travel element here is fascinating, and it works masterfully with the controls. Instead of moving the characters around like a standard puzzle game on the Nintendo Switch, you’re controlling the flow of time and assisting the characters.
It’s genius, and makes for an immersive experience.
I love the attention to detail that went into the character design with this game, too. Both Ariana and Frendt have a unique ability to help them navigate the confusing world in the game, and there’s a lot of personality in their every movement.
The game itself plays very smoothly, with intuitive controls that don’t take long to pick up and a very pleasing art style. It matches the console perfectly, and you can pick from handheld or docked mode depending on your preference. The soundtrack is utterly entrancing, too.
The Gardens Between is one of the most creative puzzle games on the Nintendo Switch, hands down. The puzzle style is unique, and there’s a real level of difficulty to match the satisfying challenges that the game throws at you.
Gorogoa
If you’re on the hunt for a unique game that’s driven by elegant visuals, Gorogoa is the game you need to buy this year. It’s an absolute gem.
This game feels similar to a visual novel, but with a fascinating twist. The screen is split up into four sections for each page of the story, and players will have to interact with each individual element to solve the puzzles.
It’s hard to talk about Gorogoa without immediately jumping into a monologue about how beautiful it is. This is a truly stunning game, with wonderful graphics and controls that match the overall aesthetic perfectly. It looks fantastic on the Nintendo Switch, and it plays very smoothly as well.
The level of challenge presented in Gorogoa is perfect, and it builds at a steady pace.
The game allows you to get your bearings with minimal hints and suggestions, and presents a real challenge with the puzzles throughout the game. It’s ideal for experienced gamers, yet still accessible for people who are new to puzzle games.
I won’t dive into the story too much, as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who’s hoping to play through the game in full. It’s an immersive and enchanting narrative, and it’s easy to see why this game picked up such a cult following.
Gorogoa is unlike the vast majority of puzzle games on Nintendo Switch. It offers an entirely fresh perspective on puzzles and story-driven games, and it’s something that you simply cannot miss out on playing.
Lumines Remastered
This remaster of the 2004 title Lumines is really masterful. It’s perfectly built for the Nintendo Switch, and offers up a fun, fast-paced experience that’s ideal for gamers who enjoy classic games like Tetris.
The general idea behind Lumines is that players have to position blocks that fall from the top of the screen, while keeping up with a timeline on the top of the screen that’s synced up to the music. It’s a fast, vibrant and exciting game, with plenty of twists to keep you on your toes.
Something that I really love about Lumines Remastered is that it’s accessible for new players, but still presents a real challenge as you get stuck into the game. It ramps in difficulty steadily, and it’s quite intense towards the end of the game.
There’s a mountain of content to tackle in Lumines Remastered, as it comes with several game modes. You can play through it in everything from shuffle and skin edit mode, to challenge and time attack mode.
There’s a lot to unpack in this game, and it offers great value for money.
Lumines Remastered also offers a great single player CPU mode, where you can battle against a surprisingly active and complex computer opponent. Unlike other puzzle games with CPU modes which can feel repetitive or not challenging, this mode is refreshingly difficult and you can adjust the pace where needed.
You can also use the online leaderboards to add extra hype and excitement to your gameplay. I would have personally loved to see some online multiplayer modes (sadly, there aren’t any) but the different leaderboards manage to keep it interesting still.
This is a stellar example of what a puzzle game should look like on the Nintendo Switch. It’s full of wonderful content to keep you occupied, and plays incredibly well on the console. I highly recommend getting a copy for yourself today.
Tricky Towers
If you’re a fan of Tetris, this is the ideal pick for you.
Tricky Towers is a fun, fast-paced game that’s very similar to Tetris and has been made with multiplayer gaming in mind. You’ll stack and arrange falling blocks in rainbow towers, battling against physics to keep everything lined up and in the right place.
One of the things that makes this game stand out from the other puzzle games on Nintendo Switch is that it offers both local and online multiplayer modes. This means that there’s plenty of ways to enjoy the game with friends and family.
There’s also a handful of different modes and gameplay styles to explore in the multiplayer aspect of Tricky Towers, too. You can play through race mode, survival mode or puzzle mode, each coming with their own challenges and perks.
There are single player options available in Tricky Towers, but they’re admittedly a little less fleshed out than the multiplayer modes. You can play through in endless mode, or tackle the trials mode. They’re still great fun, and a nice feature to have available if you want even more content to sink your teeth into.
If you’re a competitive person, you’ll be happy to know that the scores in the endless mode for single players end up on a global leaderboard.
Each mode also has difficulty settings on offer, to help make this game accessible to all.
If you’re an experienced gamer, you’ll be able to bump the difficulty settings up high for a fast-paced and intense game. If you’re a newer player or looking for something more chilled, you can skip that and fit the game style to your needs.
Something that I love about this game is the extra features and add-ons that each mode has to offer. For example, race mode can add in everything from challenging winds blowing across the screen to magic bolts that you can chuck at opposing players. They’re small features, but add to the complexity and overall enjoyment of the game.
Tricky Towers plays incredibly well on the Nintendo Switch, with no performance issues or hiccups. The art style is charming and colorful, and the controls are very easy to pick up.
7 Billion Humans
7 Billion Humans is a refreshing addition to the puzzle game genre on the Nintendo Switch. This game has a coding theme, and oddly charming characters to go along with it.
The general premise behind this game is that you’re an office manager solving problems in a workplace, using code to keep employees busy and finish tasks like shredding or copying. You’re working with data cubes that all have a numerical value, and will be using basic code to solve the problems throughout.
It’s important to note that you don’t need to know how to code to play this game. 7 Billion Humans is a fairly paced, accessible game that steadily ramps up in difficulty, and it’s worth checking out even if you’ve never coded before.
The game itself is beautiful, with quirky little characters, vibrant set design and bold fonts. It plays very well on the Nintendo Switch, with intuitive controls and no performance issues.
Games about coding might not always make you think of great writing, but this particular title has some stellar writing throughout it. It’s a genuinely enjoyable experience, with emotive scenes and characters that you’ll grow to love as you play through it.
Out of all the games in this list, this is one of my personal favorites. It’s incredibly unique, and brings something entirely new to the puzzle genre. It’s been made well, and also comes with some educational value too. What’s not to love?
Bomb Chicken
This game stars a bomb-laying chicken, fighting against the fowl misdeeds of a huge, evil fast food corporation named BFC.
That sets the tone for Bomb Chicken nicely. This is a silly, fast-paced arcade style game that meshes the adventure, platform and puzzle genres together perfectly.
As the main character, you’ll have to use bombs to cross lava pits, break down barriers and fight enemies. Each stage is full of challenges like moving through obstacles, hiding from danger or battling bosses.
There’s a wonderfully retro vibe to this game, with a vibrant and pixelated art style that works perfectly on the Nintendo Switch. The music fits the theme perfectly too, and the game makes good use of the rumble mechanics that the Switch has to offer. It manages to feel just like an older arcade game, but with a polished spin.
Something that really stood out to me with Bomb Chicken is the creative and quirky character design. There’s a heap of different enemies and characters to battle, ranging from mystical old gods to BFC employees. The characters make the world feel much more alive.
Bomb Chicken scales in difficulty perfectly as you progress throughout the game. If you’re a new gamer, you’ll be able to tackle this game and learn on the go. It still offers enough challenge to keep experienced gamers occupied and happy, though.
I’m a big fan of the silly, pixelated world that Bomb Chicken has to offer. It plays well on the console, looks great and crosses multiple genres skilfully.
Little Inferno
Little Inferno is one of the most interesting puzzle games on the Nintendo Switch. Tomorrow Corporation is known for creating innovative and unique titles, and this particular game is no different.
Little Inferno has one simple task at its core. Burn things.
As you sit in front of a fireplace and burn things, you’ll earn money. This money can in turn be used to buy more items that can be burnt up. It’s an incredibly simple premise, but surprisingly very enjoyable and almost meditative. To complete catalogs of items, you’ll need to burn up specific item combos.
This game is a gem, and I’m a huge fan of the visuals. It’s a charming yet eerie art style that fits the vibes of Tomorrow Corporation’s other games nicely, and it looks great on the Switch. It plays well too, with minimal performance issues and intuitive controls.
This game is a port of an older WiiU title, and they’ve managed to nail the controls surprisingly well. It’s easy to pick up the game controls, and it fits the console incredibly well.
Unlike the original WiiU version of this game, Little Inferno has a multiplayer option available which is good fun. It’s not the most complex or competitive game by any means, but it makes for a fun two player experience.
I love the aesthetic and creepy, underlying story of Little Inferno. To me, it stands out from the majority of the puzzle games on the Nintendo Switch and I’d highly recommend checking it out today.
Puyo Puyo Tetris 2
This title is a crossover game that features both the worlds of Puyo Puyo and Tetris, which are both iconic games in the puzzle niche. It’s a colorful and vibrant addition to the Nintendo Switch eShop, and worth checking out.
If you’ve played Puyo Puyo or Tetris before, you’ll be able to pick up this game quickly. This game offers fun, fast-paced versions of both games, and even a quirky fusion mode which combines both gameplay styles into one package. It’s a lot of fun, and easy to pick up.
I’m a big fan of how this game looks on the Nintendo Switch. It plays very well, with funky graphics and easy, intuitive controls. It feels right at home on the console, and captures the vibes of both featured games perfectly.
Something that’s essential to highlight with Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 is the sheer amount of content that is on offer. This is a huge game. There’s a main adventure mode and free play mode, skill battle mode and four individual game leagues to check out. There’s gameplay modes for both single players and multiple players.
This game offers immense value for money.
It is worth noting that you will have to play either Puyo Puyo or Tetris at some point in the game, so if you’re only a fan of one of the games then this may not be the best pick for you. There are some individual game modes, but the two games do cross paths.
Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 is a polished, light hearted game that’s ideal for both experienced puzzlers and newbies alike. It’s perfect for players who enjoy both Puyo Puyo and Tetris, and offers even more content than the first game.
Untitled Goose Game
Have you ever wanted to experience life as a chaotic goose? If so, this is the game for you.
Untitled Goose Game is absolutely ridiculous, yet wonderful to play through.
This title is a hybrid between a puzzle game and an action game, and it features (as the name might suggest) a goose as the main character.
You’ll be set increasingly disruptive tasks as you play through as the beaky protagonist, including breaking objects, dressing up statues and forcing people to pay for their own belongings.
While this is certainly a silly and goofy game, there’s still a nice amount of difficulty to be found in the puzzles. It’s not the most complicated game on the market by any means, but solving the puzzles is very satisfying and you’ll need to be a creative thinker if you want to beat the game.
The art style for this game is endearing, and it looks fantastic on the Nintendo Switch. The game itself plays very well, with a surprisingly realistic physics system that makes the puzzles that much more rewarding to solve.
This game is a cohesive title, with delightful puzzles, an intriguing world and a simply horrible main character that is immensely fun to play as. I’m a huge fan of the inherently chaotic vibes that this game gives off, and highly recommend checking it out.
Touhou Spell Bubble
If you’re looking for something that combines the best of puzzle and music games on the Nintendo Switch, this is the perfect pick for you. Touhou Spell Bubble is a lively party game that combines a musical theme with a fast-paced puzzle mechanic.
This game is a competitive puzzler, tasking you with scoring more points than your opponent by popping bubbles and successfully keeping up with the rhythm element of the game. There are special bubbles and character spell cards that help to add an extra level of complexity, too.
Something that I adore about this game is how well it plays. The mechanics work incredibly smoothly, with intuitive controls and a pleasant user interface. It feels at home on the Nintendo Switch, and it’s enjoyable to play through.
The character design in this game is second to none. Each character sprite is vivid and well drawn, and there’s a fantastic level of style throughout the game. The narrative in the story mode is great too, but can feel a little clunky in places.
It’s refreshing to see that this game doesn’t hold your hand through every stage. There’s a cohesive introduction for newer players, but the game has plenty more to unlock and explore past this. It’s a game that is accessible for sure, but the difficulty ramps steadily.
Touhou Spell Bubble capitalizes off of the popular bubble popping style of puzzle game, and presents something unique and enjoyable. This game is a gem, and it’s worth getting it for your Nintendo Switch library today.
Baba Is You
Out of all the games in this list, Baba Is You stands out to me as one of the most creative indie games on the Nintendo Switch. This game is simplistic at first glance, but offers a truly unique and immersive world to explore.
This game follows a simple sliding puzzle mechanic with a twist.
Each level will have phrases on the floor, which you can slide around the map. You’ll need to push them into the right spaces to form the rules of that level e.g. if the phrase ‘object is push’ is seen, you’ll be able to push that object on screen around until the phrase is broken up.
There is so much nuance and detail to explore in these 2D puzzles, and it’s an absolute joy to play through. The world is vivid and charming, with a lovely art style and interesting soundscape to accompany it. It plays well on the Nintendo Switch too, with sensible controls and no performance issues.
The difficulty picks up steadily as you get further into the game, and the solutions to the puzzles get much more complex. If you’re a big fan of puzzle games and you want something tricky, the later puzzles in Baba Is You are genuinely challenging.
While this game is not the most accessible puzzle game on the Nintendo Switch, the unique game mechanics and intriguing play style make this a must-have for any puzzle game nerds. The art style is wonderful, the puzzles are challenging and the game world is fun to explore.
Subsurface Circular
Did you read those ‘choose your own adventure’ RPG books growing up? If so, you’ll be a huge fan of this game. Subsurface Circular is a creative puzzle-adventure hybrid, with a simple text RPG style of play.
The general premise for this game is that you’re a robot (known as a Tek) who is programmed to be a detective. The whole experience takes place inside one train carriage, with the initial story focusing on a missing Tek. You’ll need to unravel the story and get to grips with the strange world that you’ve found yourself in.
The star of the show here is the storytelling. The sheer quality of the writing and attention to detail that went into the story is second to none, and makes this one of the best games in this list. It’s simply fantastic.
Despite the singular location that this game takes place in, the visuals in Subsurface Circular are fantastic. The art style is smooth and polished, and the visual mechanics work incredibly well on the console. As a whole, the game plays incredibly well.
This game has a wonderful electronic soundtrack too, which matches the art style and gameplay perfectly.
In terms of difficulty, Subsurface Circular feels incredibly balanced. It’s not immediately difficult right off the game, but as you uncover more mysteries and gain more pieces of information, each interaction and conversation becomes more loaded.
Something that I love about this game is the ability to unlock developer commentary. Once you play through the game and complete it, you’ll be able to unlock the developer commentary and play through with this in place. It makes for an intriguing experience, allowing you to learn more about the world and game itself.
Subsurface Circular is impressive, and worth picking up today. It may seem simple at first, but the story and puzzles that lay within it are rich and packed with detail.
Tumblestone
Diehard puzzle game fans will adore Tumblestone. This game is a masterclass in the match 3 style of puzzle games, and will keep you entertained for hours.
In Tumblestone, you’ll be presented with a grid of multicolored blocks to shoot with other blocks, with the aim of matching colors. There’s a limit on which blocks can be shot in which order, requiring you to plan ahead and think strategically about your moves.
There’s a surprising amount of difficulty to be found in this game, with new mechanics and challenges being thrown at you in every step of the way. If this is a game style that you find yourself leaning towards often, this is a title that I’m sure you’ll get hours of enjoyment out of.
Speaking of hours, there’s an immense amount of content in this game. There are tons of levels to play through, and completing the game will take you a good while. There are different game modes to explore too, including marathon, arcade, infinipuzzle and heartbeat modes.
There are also some wonderful multiplayer modes to explore as well, including puzzle race, battle and tug of war mode. The multiplayer mode offers local multiplayer only, though, which is a shame as online multiplayer could have been a lot of fun here.
Tumblestone is a stellar game. There’s a lot of warmth and humor packed into this game, with quirky characters, vibrant level designs and plenty of content to keep you occupied. It’s enjoyable for local multiplayer games, and offers plenty for single player options as well.
Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon
There are lots of games on the Nintendo Switch eShop that combine action, adventure and puzzles, and Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon is one of the best, hands down. This pixelated puzzler packs a punch, and I’d absolutely recommend checking it out.
In this game, you play as a knight who discovers a magical cube that transports him into a mystical dungeon. To escape the dungeon, you’ll have to tackle a falling block style of gameplay that feels similar to Tetris, with more of a focus on combat and battling enemies. A new block drops every time you take a step.
The art style and character design in Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon stand out to me, as there’s clearly been a lot of thought put into it. Each enemy is unique and has a different skill set to contend with, and the world feels immersive and lively.
Speaking of characters, I love the variety of playable characters that are on offer in this game. There are characters to fit any needs or preferences that you have for a game like this, and unique skills and designs to go along with each one.
Something that’s worth noting is that this game is pretty tricky. There are a lot of different challenges and obstacles to overcome, with a slightly unforgiving style of play. Don’t let this immediately discourage you though, as the game can be modified and adapted where needed to suit all skill levels.
There’s a great multiplayer mode available with Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon, where you can play against a friend in versus mode. Unfortunately there is no online multiplayer mode available, but it’s fun to play with a friend in person.
Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon is a cohesive, fast-paced game that’s ideal for experienced puzzle gamers. The art style is charming, and there’s a lot to love about the puzzles, too.
