10 WORST Nintendo Switch Games
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VOICE OVER: Geoffrey Martin
WRITTEN BY: Geoffrey Martin
You may not have heard of some of them, but these are the absolute worst games on the Nintendo Switch. For this list, we'll be looking at the bottom of the gaming barrel in terms of games that can be purchased and played on the beloved Nintendo system. Our list of the worst Nintendo Switch games includes “Decay of Logos” (2019), “Superola and the Lost Burgers” (2018), “Bounty Battle” (2020), “Tennis” (2018), and more!
Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we’re counting down our picks for the 10 worst Nintendo Switch games. For this list, we’ll be looking at the bottom of the gaming barrel in terms of games that can be purchased and played on the beloved Nintendo system. While none of the games on this list are much fun to play, we would love to have you sound off in the comments section in regards to the Switch games you have utterly despised.
Apart from the goofy homage to the car pummeling bonus stage from Street Fighter 2, Superola and the Lost Burgers is an outlandish game, and not in the good kind of way. If your ears can even handle the grating music and sound effects enough to actually play this 2D platforming adventure game, then sadly, you aren’t in for a treat. The Switch is littered with highly colorful platforming games just like this one. While the silly premise of playing as a llama who needs to save the day from some hotdog aliens might be entertaining, the game as a whole is constantly let down by egregious presentational aspects, poor controls, and far too much tedium.
A near constant and endless smorgasbord of jank and pain is what you are with this port. While an Ultimate Edition was released in 2022 that fixed many of the 2018 version’s messes, it can’t be understated just how broken the original release was on Switch. Muddy visuals, texture pop-in, inconsistent AI, a myriad of bugs and glitches, hampered framerate, and much more brought this game to a halt on the beloved hybrid system. The actual game itself, at least on other platforms, provides a somewhat fun and enjoyable survival adventure game experience where dinosaurs and sci-fi tech are blended together like some unholy smoothie. The game has come a long way to be sure, but still best to avoid the stellar misfire.
It’s hard to expect too much from a game simply called Tiny Racer, but my goodness, this one is rough. Tiny Racer is an arcade sort of kart racer that looks about as fun as changing a flat tire. Apart from the janking physics and wonky hit detection that makes you fling off the stage into oblivion, the game also just looks bland and boring. Sure, you get to choose from a variety of vehicles and stages, but when that’s all the game has going for it, you know you are in for a bad time. Tiny Racer seems to push the limits of mediocrity on the Switch. And, chances are that you have played countless other games like this before. It’s, unfortunately, a last place finish for this shovelware title.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I am a shameful sucker for almost any 3D platformer, good, bad, or otherwise, especially on the Switch. Because of its incredibly vibrant and charmingly wholesome art style and presentation, I was lulled into thinking Woodle Tree Adventures Deluxe would be a good game, worthy of my time and cash. While the presentational aspects do hold up, the actual gameplay monotony sets in within the first 10-15 minutes. There really is no meat when it comes to the gameplay here since all you are doing is mindlessly hopping around, gathering some orbs, slowly smacking enemies with your all-powerful leaf, rinse and repeat. There’s just nothing to this game to keep you immersed and it shows all of its cards immediately. While certainly a valiant platforming effort by an indie team, it sadly ends up as just a broken stump in a forest of similar titles.
You know, in a gaming era where massive publishers tend to skew marketing language to think you are buying one type of experience to just end up with something completely different, I gotta hand it to the team who made the game Tennis for Nintendo Switch since you do indeed play tennis. Shocker, right? Tennis is just that, a tennis game where you hit a tennis ball back and forth until someone wins. Sadly, that’s all the game has going for it since it’s an otherwise soulless Switch title that feels more like an asset flip than anything else. The game tries to infuse anime characters with a cartoony style but this blend falls flat on its face. There’s just nothing to this game to make it worth your time or money.
Awkward is a strange question and answer, trivia-adjacent game, where you must find out if a friend or family member happens to know you as well as you think, oh, and you get compared to how the rest of the world answered. This game features some really spicy and scandalous questions that really don’t feel at home on the Switch. Fortunately, the game just isn’t good which means most people will never even play it. Considering Awkward lies in the party game genre, it’s hard seeing anyone want to share this experience with anyone. I guess you could always play it by yourself to see if you truly know your honest thoughts and feelings about random, nonsensical subjects. Nope, scratch that…just avoid this game at all costs.
The Switch really gets the short end of the stick when it comes to multiplatform releases, and this truth is ever present here! For the uninitiated, Decay of Logos is meant to be an epic action-adventure title set in a sprawling fantasy world brimming with enemies to wail on with your sword, treasure to discover, and lore to unearth. Sadly, and if you didn’t already guess from this video’s title, none of this works out well in the Switch version of the game, or really in general. While the game did receive some updates, the original release was a broken mess, filled with awful visuals, sluggish controls, a laughable framerate, and so much more. Even with updates, it’s simply not a fun game to experience in its own right.
What is it with the Switch’s love affair with wonky, broken, unpolished, and unfinished shovelware racing and vehicle games? Seriously, there are seemingly hundreds of them on the Eshop. Ultra Off-Road 2019: Alaska, apart from being a mouthful to say, aims to be a budget-friendly version of something like Snowrunner or Mudrunner. However, unlike those two, Alaska is downright brutal to play, and not in the enjoyable Soulsborne-esque way. There’s simply no enjoyment here due to the terrible controls, inconsistent physics and world geometry, and laughable presentation. If this one falls off a cliff, it’s probably best to just let it stay there.
Ah man, this one really sucks to talk about. Bounty Battle, at least on paper, should be a downright winner. Here, let me give you the elevator pitch: battle against a host of popular indie game characters from the likes of Dead Cells, Owlboy, Steamworld, and Guacamelee in a single or multiplayer smash ‘em up brawler style experience. Ya, that premise sounds awesome! However, this game is sheer torture to play and might just make you despise some of the indie properties attached. No part of this buggy mess of a Super Smash Bros style clone feels good to play. The stages are bland and void of life, the fighting controls are shoddy, the framerate constantly drops, the visuals are muddy, and it just feels like it was rushed out the door, with little care or attention put into it. Bummer!
The true poster child for the worst Nintendo Switch games, Vroom in the Night Sky is hilariously abysmal and is worth no amount of entry, even free. You should actually get paid to play this mess of a game since it means losing out on precious moments of your gaming free time. As I type this, I can’t help but chuckle to myself each time I think about this delightfully awful game that, in all honesty, shouldn’t even exist. You essentially ride around Superman 64-esque stages as a witch on a motorbike trying to collect star ring things, all while jazzy music plays, and poorly translated jargon pops up in text boxes. My goodness, this one sure is a doozy and proves why the Switch Eshop has so many truly terrible shovelwares games on it.
“Superola and the Lost Burgers” (2018)
Apart from the goofy homage to the car pummeling bonus stage from Street Fighter 2, Superola and the Lost Burgers is an outlandish game, and not in the good kind of way. If your ears can even handle the grating music and sound effects enough to actually play this 2D platforming adventure game, then sadly, you aren’t in for a treat. The Switch is littered with highly colorful platforming games just like this one. While the silly premise of playing as a llama who needs to save the day from some hotdog aliens might be entertaining, the game as a whole is constantly let down by egregious presentational aspects, poor controls, and far too much tedium.
“ARK: Survival Evolved” (2018)
A near constant and endless smorgasbord of jank and pain is what you are with this port. While an Ultimate Edition was released in 2022 that fixed many of the 2018 version’s messes, it can’t be understated just how broken the original release was on Switch. Muddy visuals, texture pop-in, inconsistent AI, a myriad of bugs and glitches, hampered framerate, and much more brought this game to a halt on the beloved hybrid system. The actual game itself, at least on other platforms, provides a somewhat fun and enjoyable survival adventure game experience where dinosaurs and sci-fi tech are blended together like some unholy smoothie. The game has come a long way to be sure, but still best to avoid the stellar misfire.
“Tiny Racer” (2020)
It’s hard to expect too much from a game simply called Tiny Racer, but my goodness, this one is rough. Tiny Racer is an arcade sort of kart racer that looks about as fun as changing a flat tire. Apart from the janking physics and wonky hit detection that makes you fling off the stage into oblivion, the game also just looks bland and boring. Sure, you get to choose from a variety of vehicles and stages, but when that’s all the game has going for it, you know you are in for a bad time. Tiny Racer seems to push the limits of mediocrity on the Switch. And, chances are that you have played countless other games like this before. It’s, unfortunately, a last place finish for this shovelware title.
“Woodle Tree Adventures Deluxe” (2017)
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I am a shameful sucker for almost any 3D platformer, good, bad, or otherwise, especially on the Switch. Because of its incredibly vibrant and charmingly wholesome art style and presentation, I was lulled into thinking Woodle Tree Adventures Deluxe would be a good game, worthy of my time and cash. While the presentational aspects do hold up, the actual gameplay monotony sets in within the first 10-15 minutes. There really is no meat when it comes to the gameplay here since all you are doing is mindlessly hopping around, gathering some orbs, slowly smacking enemies with your all-powerful leaf, rinse and repeat. There’s just nothing to this game to keep you immersed and it shows all of its cards immediately. While certainly a valiant platforming effort by an indie team, it sadly ends up as just a broken stump in a forest of similar titles.
“Tennis” (2018)
You know, in a gaming era where massive publishers tend to skew marketing language to think you are buying one type of experience to just end up with something completely different, I gotta hand it to the team who made the game Tennis for Nintendo Switch since you do indeed play tennis. Shocker, right? Tennis is just that, a tennis game where you hit a tennis ball back and forth until someone wins. Sadly, that’s all the game has going for it since it’s an otherwise soulless Switch title that feels more like an asset flip than anything else. The game tries to infuse anime characters with a cartoony style but this blend falls flat on its face. There’s just nothing to this game to make it worth your time or money.
“Awkward” (2018)
Awkward is a strange question and answer, trivia-adjacent game, where you must find out if a friend or family member happens to know you as well as you think, oh, and you get compared to how the rest of the world answered. This game features some really spicy and scandalous questions that really don’t feel at home on the Switch. Fortunately, the game just isn’t good which means most people will never even play it. Considering Awkward lies in the party game genre, it’s hard seeing anyone want to share this experience with anyone. I guess you could always play it by yourself to see if you truly know your honest thoughts and feelings about random, nonsensical subjects. Nope, scratch that…just avoid this game at all costs.
“Decay of Logos” (2019)
The Switch really gets the short end of the stick when it comes to multiplatform releases, and this truth is ever present here! For the uninitiated, Decay of Logos is meant to be an epic action-adventure title set in a sprawling fantasy world brimming with enemies to wail on with your sword, treasure to discover, and lore to unearth. Sadly, and if you didn’t already guess from this video’s title, none of this works out well in the Switch version of the game, or really in general. While the game did receive some updates, the original release was a broken mess, filled with awful visuals, sluggish controls, a laughable framerate, and so much more. Even with updates, it’s simply not a fun game to experience in its own right.
“Ultra Off-Road 2019: Alaska” (2019)
What is it with the Switch’s love affair with wonky, broken, unpolished, and unfinished shovelware racing and vehicle games? Seriously, there are seemingly hundreds of them on the Eshop. Ultra Off-Road 2019: Alaska, apart from being a mouthful to say, aims to be a budget-friendly version of something like Snowrunner or Mudrunner. However, unlike those two, Alaska is downright brutal to play, and not in the enjoyable Soulsborne-esque way. There’s simply no enjoyment here due to the terrible controls, inconsistent physics and world geometry, and laughable presentation. If this one falls off a cliff, it’s probably best to just let it stay there.
“Bounty Battle” (2020)
Ah man, this one really sucks to talk about. Bounty Battle, at least on paper, should be a downright winner. Here, let me give you the elevator pitch: battle against a host of popular indie game characters from the likes of Dead Cells, Owlboy, Steamworld, and Guacamelee in a single or multiplayer smash ‘em up brawler style experience. Ya, that premise sounds awesome! However, this game is sheer torture to play and might just make you despise some of the indie properties attached. No part of this buggy mess of a Super Smash Bros style clone feels good to play. The stages are bland and void of life, the fighting controls are shoddy, the framerate constantly drops, the visuals are muddy, and it just feels like it was rushed out the door, with little care or attention put into it. Bummer!
“Vroom in the Night Sky” (2017)
The true poster child for the worst Nintendo Switch games, Vroom in the Night Sky is hilariously abysmal and is worth no amount of entry, even free. You should actually get paid to play this mess of a game since it means losing out on precious moments of your gaming free time. As I type this, I can’t help but chuckle to myself each time I think about this delightfully awful game that, in all honesty, shouldn’t even exist. You essentially ride around Superman 64-esque stages as a witch on a motorbike trying to collect star ring things, all while jazzy music plays, and poorly translated jargon pops up in text boxes. My goodness, this one sure is a doozy and proves why the Switch Eshop has so many truly terrible shovelwares games on it.
