Nintendo is most widely associated with family-friendly games like Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and the Pokémon franchise, but the Nintendo Switch has its fair share of great horror games as well. Horror is a popular genre across more mediums than just video games, with the ability to captivate audiences whether the frights are concealed within the pages of a book or projected in a theater. The interactive experience found in games can help make horror experiences especially terrifying, so they can be a great choice to round out a personal Switch library.
Although horror games are more widely associated with PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5, a surprisingly high number of blood-curdling titles have been released on the Switch. From original IPs to remasters, remakes, and horror games ported over from other consoles, the variety in the console’s expansive catalog is hard to deny. Many of these exceptional horror games are relatively tame, but there are a number of options that could give even the most frightening of nightmares a run for their money.
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10 Alien: Isolation Lets No One Hear You Scream
Creative Assembly, 2014
The Alien franchise had a big video game misstep with the much-maligned Aliens: Colonial Marines, but Alien: Isolation more than compensated for it. It’s a tense, gripping survival horror experience making full use of the terror that the Xenomorph can induce, with smart enemy AI making stealth and clever play a necessity. The Switch version is one of the most impressive ports on the system, avoiding any compromises that could significantly detract from the experience.
9 Mad Father Makes The Most Of Simple Scares
Sen, 2016
Mad Father is a horror adventure game in which Aya Drevis, an 11-year-old girl, uncovers a series of secrets pertaining to an incident that occurred at her family home. Although the phrase family home may evoke a sense of warmth, safety, and familial affection, Aya Drevis’ mansion would be better placed on Elm Street, or perhaps Roxbury Street. This remake of the 2012 version maintains all that made the original horrifying and is undoubtedly one of the scariest horror games on the Nintendo Switch.
8 White Night Is A Stylish Modern Classic
OSome Studio, 2015
Released in 2015, White Night presents a modern re-imagining of many tried and true horror game tropes. Taking place in a haunted house populated with ghosts, White Night features a camera angle reminiscent of the earliest Resident Evil games, as well as an exclusive black-and-white color scheme. The survival horror puzzle game uses its reserved color scheme to maximum effect; one particular way it does so is the mechanic of limited light – a valuable resource determined by a quickly dwindling supply of matches. Remaining in the light is the only effective protection from the dark and what lurks within it.
7 Limbo Has A Truly Unsettling Atmosphere
Playdead, 2011
Limbo is a beautifully executed monochromatic side-scroller in which a young boy must find his lost sister while solving puzzles, combating enormous spiders, and avoiding deadly caverns. Although this is a scenario of particular horror to arachnophobes and agoraphobes, Limbo, owing to the intensely unsettling ambiance, is a horror game that constantly evolves and never permits the player to acclimatize to the environment or threats. Terrifying in a psychological way, Limbo masterfully avoids the pitfalls of gratuitous violence and gore, remaining just as scary as many of the most jump scare laden games on the Switch.
6 Darkwood Makes The Player Struggle To Survive
Acid Wizard Studio, 2017
A dark, endless forest full of deadly threats – this nightmarish scenario is the premise of the game Darkwood. The only way to survive the night is to scavenge for resources and find shelter. The difficulty and significance of choices exacerbate the horror of Darkwood; one mistake could result in a terrible and terrifying death – permanently if the player so chooses. Darkwood is a difficult game to learn and even harder to master. The top-down camera angel is a throwback to the earliest survival horror games and a welcome change to modern first or third-person adventures.
5 Resident Evil (2002 Remake) Still Holds Up Today
Capcom, 2002
The 2002 remake of Resident Evil is a truly terrifying classic survival horror game, and it still stands up against the more modern remakes of Resident Evil games. Ported to the Switch in 2019, Resident Evil, like many of the other games in the immensely popular franchise, is spine-chillingly scary at times, with a persistent atmosphere of unease and danger. Like the original 2002 remake, the Switch version is one of the greatest horror games ever created – perhaps because it rations its horror, carefully and considerately saving moments of fright to maximize their effect.
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4 Little Nightmares 2 Makes Small Fears Big
Tarsier Studios, 2021
Sourcing inspiration from Lewis Caroll’s 1865 children’s fiction classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Little Nightmares 2 is an adventure side-scroller in which the diminutive protagonist must avoid homicidal chefs, leeches, and a plethora of other evil entities. Little Nightmares 2 presents the world from a miniature perspective, a design choice that heightens the horror, as the enemies all appear to be enormous. Although its art style is cartoon-esque, Little Nightmares 2 is nevertheless a horror game of the highest order, capitalizing on the innate human fears of vulnerability, isolation, and claustrophobia.
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3 Detention Finds Fears In A School’s Secrets
Red Candle, 2017
Perhaps the most novel horror game on the Switch, Detention has a simple yet effective presentation as a 2D side-scroller with a basic but oddly beautiful art style. This presentation shouldn’t distract from the fact that Detention is one of the scariest games on the console. Detention is a survival horror game set in a Taiwanese high school during the nation’s era of martial law, and it has masterfully been converted into a labyrinth of corridors adorned with frightening imagery and an unsettling ambiance.
2 Amnesia Collection Brings Together True Frights
Frictional Games/The Chinese Room, 2019
Widely regarded as one of the best survival horror franchises of the 2010s, the Amnesia Collection was released on the Nintendo Switch in 2019. It features Amnesia: The Dark Descent and its DLC Justine, and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, all of which on their own are exceptional candidates for some of the scariest horror games on the Switch. It’s Amnesia: The Dark Descent that’s arguably the most terrifying of the lot, and the quest to survive and escape Brennenburg Castle while solving puzzles and avoiding monsters features an exceptional amount of dread.
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1 Observer Is Thoughtful Sci-Fi Horror
Bloober Team, 2017
Horror, as a genre, has always been closely related to science fiction. Observer capitalizes upon this association with its advanced technology and futuristic setting yet maintains a primal sense of horror. Observer is set in the future and follows Daniel Lazarski, a detective who hacks into the brain implants of suspected criminals. Observer is a horror game with major psychological, moral, and ethical questions, but beyond this, Observer is simply an excellent game that will scare any who dare play it and easily a champion of the genre on the Nintendo Switch.
