Gaming juggernaut Nintendo has a reputation for being a family-friendly company, making and publishing lots of colorful games that gamers of all ages and skill levels can enjoy. However, the company has also garnered a reputation for games that are notoriously difficult, with its consoles historically hosting games like Battletoads and the Mega Man series.
This trend continues to this day, with the Nintendo Switch being home to not only a number of "retro hard" ports of classic games but also a newer wave of challenging games, mostly made up of indie titles that have found a home on the console. From colorful platformers to deeply dark RPGs, the Nintendo Switch has plenty of hard games to satisfy the most hardcore of gamers.
TumbleSeed
This unique roguelike from early on in the Switch's lifespan quickly became an early example of the possibilities for difficult gaming on the console. TumbleSeed has players controlling a horizontal bar guiding a seed up a mountainside littered with holes and obstacles.
Players have to tilt the bar back and forth as the screen scrolls up the mountain, guiding the seed around obstacles by rolling it to and fro. The game's procedurally generated mountain quickly becomes filled with complicated patterns of holes and enemies that players must navigate through, creating a uniquely difficult experience for players.
Cuphead
With its highly acclaimed retro-inspired art style and its challenging boss battles, Cuphead has become one of the most prolific difficult games in recent years. The gameplay is made up mostly of boss levels with a few run-and-gun stages also spread throughout its three worlds.
Whether players are taking on a giant genie, a mischievous flower, or the devil himself, Cuphead's adorable aesthetic masks some incredibly difficult gameplay. Cuphead and his pal Mugman (in two-player mode) have to run, jump, and shoot their way out of devious attacks and constantly shifting levels with very little room for error in this modern classic.
Hollow Knight
Taking its cues from the likes of Dark Souls in terms of challenging gameplay, Hollow Knight is perhaps just as known for its dark yet adorable hand-drawn art as for its crushing difficulty. In this game, players take control of a tiny warrior insect through platforming, enemy encounters, and boss battles in the foreboding land of Hallownest.
Even though all of the game's characters are insects, there are a wide variety of designs running the gamut from cute to creepy, and for every friendly bug players meet on their journey there are dozens of enemy insects looking to chop the protagonist down to size. Despite its clear inspiration from classics like Metroid, Hollow Knight has carved a niche in the world of challenging games all its own.
Into The Breach
In many cases, difficult games on the Switch involve some sort of fast-paced gameplay, requiring players to carefully time their movements and have a quick reaction time. Into The Breach, however, is a much slower tactical game, asking players to think ahead about their moves and take their time, because mistakes can be ruinous.
The game follows a futuristic war between humans in mechs and giant monsters threatening humanity's very existence, and each level has players taking control of several mechs fighting the threatening beasts. Players have to carefully plan their movements and limited firepower in order to protect civilians from the monsters, and the difficulty curve is fairly steep, meaning that players may have to try over and over in order to save the world.
Thumper
Rhythm games can be very challenging, but this Switch offering goes beyond most other musical titles to deliver a truly daunting test of players' rhythm. Ominously branded as a "rhythm violence" game, Thumper follows a small beetle creature sliding along a track and taking on enormous monsters in a dark psychedelic world.
Players control this beetle as it maneuvers the tracks many turns and obstacles, ultimately facing each monster in epic battles set to an intense and increasingly complex soundtrack. There is little room for error and the dark environments only become more high-pressure as the music intensifies over the course of the game's campaign, giving gamers a truly unique rhythmic challenge.
Darkest Dungeon
As the title suggests, this dungeon crawler is incredibly dark, with horror-inflected art that depicts terrifying versions of classic fantasy RPG characters and enemies. Darkest Dungeon sees players controlling a party of heroes as they travel deeper and deeper into the titular dungeon, taking on the many monsters found there.
Even the most hardened gamers will likely struggle through Darkest Dungeon's challenging enemy and boss encounters, especially with the game's use of permadeath and a sanity system that players have to be constantly aware of. With so much to manage, players need to be prepared for every enemy encounter, or it may be their party's last.
Dark Souls Remastered
The Dark Souls franchise looms large over the milieu of difficult games, its name having become synonymous with tremendous challenges in general. In 2018, a remastered version of the first game in the trilogy made its way to the Switch, bringing the iconic game to a whole new audience.
Players of the game take control of an undead main character exploring the kingdom of Lordran, fighting challenging enemies, and taking down truly punishing bosses. The open nature of character creation and development allows players to customize their approach to combat, but wizards and warriors alike will face daunting obstacles in Dark Souls.
Celeste
This challenging game has earned a lot of attention for its difficult platforming gameplay, cute pixel-art style, and ability to tackle serious issues like mental health. Following in the tradition of similarly adorable retro-hard platformers, Celeste offers something for all kinds of players.
While there is an Assist Mode available to make the game and its character-driven story more accessible to all, the game offers plenty of challenges for gamers looking for it. However players choose to experience the story, they will control Madeline as she attempts to conquer both Celeste Mountain and her own personal struggles, resulting in a rich story experience mirroring the deceptively simple gameplay.
Ikaruga
Although it originally launched in 2001, Ikaruga has been rereleased on a number of consoles in the years since, including the Switch. This shoot-em-up game has players controlling the titular ship which can change color to absorb either the black or white bullets that fill the screen, but not both at once.
As a highly respected arcade game, Ikaruga's fans will already know how difficult the game can get as the screen fills with black and white bullets. Every second of this classic requires players to have perfect coordination and split-second reflexes if they want to survive the onslaught, and coordination is required to master the two-player co-op mode.
Super Mario Maker 2
This platformer gives players a massive amount of customization tools to create their own Mario levels and share them online, allowing gamers to test their creative skills as well as their platforming and puzzle-solving prowess. Even longtime fans of the series will struggle with some of the impossible creations fans have uploaded to Super Mario Maker 2.
Some of the toughest courses online require absolute pixel-perfect gameplay and impeccable timing, sometimes filling the screen with countless obstacles. Even if players master the game's toughest courses, they can always challenge themselves to create the next nigh-impossible creation.