The best Switch OLED games

(Prototype credit: Nintendo)

The Nintendo Switch OLED is the best Switch console you can buy right at present, It may not be an essential purchase for people with the original Switch, only for those who've yet to make the plunge, it's the model to go. And when yous have 1, y'all'll want to find the best Switch OLED games to play.

With the obvious upgrade existence the adoption of an OLED display, a lot of existing Switch games merely look ameliorate on the new 7-inch screen, with richer colors and deep contrast on offer. But smaller tweaks, such as improved speakers and a better kickstand, can all assist make for a more premium Switch gaming experience.

For the most part, the best Switch OLED games are the same as the best Nintendo Switch games. However, the Tom'southward Guide staff has picked x of our favorite Switch games that emphasize deep blacks and vibrant colors, and put the OLED screen through its paces. From start-person shooters to survival/horror games and racers, here are some games that excel on the Switch OLED.

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Alien: Isolation

Alien: Isolation is maybe the very best video game based on the Alien franchise. (That's absolutely a low bar to articulate, but nosotros'll leave that aside for the moment.) While most Alien games have inspiration from the activity-packed Aliens, Alien: Isolation hearkens back to the creeping horror of the first moving-picture show. You play as Amanda Ripley (Ellen Ripley's daughter), who finds herself evading a mortiferous xenomorph on a creaky old salvage transport. Using only your wits and a variety of improvised weapons, y'all must survive and escape before the titular alien gets you. With lots of blacks and grays, Alien: Isolation looks bang-up on an OLED screen.

Bayonetta 2

Perhaps the best directly-upwardly activity game of the last decade, Bayonetta 2 was originally a Wii U exclusive, but got a 2d life on the Switch. You take control of the titular protagonist as she battles a diversity of angels and demons using her guns, her other guns, her fists, her legs, her arsenal of weapons, her shapeshifting abilities and her hair, which tin can literally devour enemies whole. Bayonetta two takes place in a variety of colorful environments, from crowded cityscapes to trippy alternate dimensions, and an OLED screen makes them wait even meliorate than before.

Catherine: Full Body

Catherine is one of those games y'all might desire to check out, but considering there's zip else like it. You play as Vincent Brooks, an average guy who finds himself attracted to two women with extremely like names. On the one hand, in that location's Katherine, his steady girlfriend, and on the other hand, there'southward Catherine, a free-spirited beauty whom he meets by take chances. To sort out his feelings, Vincent solves a diverseness of block puzzles and platforming challenges that beset his recurring nightmares. Catherine is a weird game, to be sure, but information technology'due south also a colorful 1, bursting with pinks, whites and browns that pop on the Switch OLED's screen.

Doom (2016)

steam summer sale — (Image credit: Steam)

The excellent Doom reboot from 2016 takes place on Mars. As a result, a lot of the game is ruby-red — and nothing displays reds like an OLED screen. Yous accept command of the Doom Slayer, an ancient soldier who'south become a one-man regular army in order to quash a demon invasion. In this game's meaty campaign, yous'll eviscerate whatsoever demon that even looks at yous funny, using a variety of satisfying weapons and gory executions. This is one game where the Switch OLED's slightly larger screen comes in handy, since information technology tin be difficult to play first-person shooters on handheld devices.

Hollow Knight

Among Metroidvania fans, Hollow Knight needs no introduction. Sort of "Dark Souls meets Castlevania," Hollow Knight is a minimalist adventure with a memorable art style, a haunting soundtrack and a number of creative gameplay mechanics. Equal parts exploration and combat, Hollow Knight casts you every bit a taciturn adventurer who explores a dying kingdom of bugs. (It's as weird as it sounds, but the insectophobic need not fear; they all await kinda cute.) With rich blues, grays and blacks, an OLED screen brings Hollow Knight to life in a way that an LCD screen can't quite manage.

The Legend of Zelda: Jiff of the Wild

The Fable of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is arguably the best game on the Nintendo Switch, and so information technology stands to reason that it should be the all-time game on the Switch OLED as well. Breath of the Wild is an incredibly colorful game, from the verdant fields south of Central Hyrule, to the white mountains of Hebra, to the blue oceans of Faron. While Breath of the Wild is arguably best experienced on a large TV screen, if you practise want to play on-the-go, the Switch OLED gives you a somewhat bigger and more colorful canvas than either the base Switch or the Switch Low-cal.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

mario kart tour — (Image credit: Nintendo)

The Switch tin facilitate impromptu multiplayer sessions, and it's one of the system's coolest features. Mario Kart viii is an ideal choice to prove off this feature, with its "pick-up-and-play" mechanics, its extensive roster of colorful characters and its short, focused races. However, competing confronting friends can be difficult on a small screen. That's where the Switch OLED's seven-inch screen comes in handy. On the Switch OLED, it's much easier to run into your racer and the obstacles in forepart of you, especially when split-screen mode gives you lot merely a few inches of infinite to work with.

Metroid Dread

Metroid Dread launched on the same solar day as the Switch OLED, essentially making it the console's flagship championship. Later just a few minutes with Metroid Dread, you'll see why. This game follows intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran as she explores the eerie Planet ZDR. From the very showtime level, the Switch OLED renders the blacks, grays and blues of the cavernous levels beautifully. But as y'all progress, you'll besides meet red lava, dark-green forests and golden statues — not to mention a diverseness of colorful, deadly enemies to defeat. It's been 19 years since the terminal new side-scrolling Metroid game, but Metroid Dread was worth the wait.

Octopath Traveler

If y'all like sometime-school Japanese RPGs, then Octopath Traveler should be an easy sell. In this open-ended adventure, you'll take command of 8 different party members, each of whom is pursuing his or her own personal quest. Equally yous explore the quaint towns and unsafe dungeons of Orsterra, your party members will interact in unexpected ways as each one gets a little closer to his or her goal. The highly strategic battle system is 1 large depict in Octopath Traveler; the "Hd-second" art style is another, which marries retro design with modern depth effects. It looks good on a standard Switch, and great on a Switch OLED.

Splatoon ii

Splatoon 2 may be the all-time competitive multiplayer game on the Switch. That'southward a bold claim, considering the Switch also hosts titles similar Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Rocket League and Overwatch. But something well-nigh Splatoon's baroque premise, combined with its creative visuals, makes the game impossible to resist. In Splatoon two, you take control of an Clue: a child armed with a paint gun. After roofing an area in pigment, you can dive in, transform into a squid, and traverse the battlefield much faster. Information technology's a profoundly weird game — and a profoundly colorful 1, cheers to all the paint. The experience looks even more than vibrant on a Switch OLED.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is one of the best fighting games around; it mixes simplicity with the option for deeper mastery, all wrapped up in what'southward basically a love letter to all things Nintendo and, at times, beyond. You'll find the likes of Mario bumping fists Castlevania'southward Simon Belmont and Metal Gear'south Solid Snake. If you've always argued on the playground virtually what character is best in the Nintendo universe, and so Super Smash Bros. Ultimate allows you to settle those debates in a fantastic Switch game.

With a suite of furnishings emblazoned in colour, Super Blast Bros. Ultimate will expect peachy on the Switch OLED with its improvised gamut of colors. The extra screen space won't hurt either, letting you run across more of the activeness on the myriad of levels; handy when things become quite charoite.

Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom's Guide, overseeing the site's coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a science writing background, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and technology. After hours, you can find him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi.