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Aside from some cartoon violence and maybe a little spookiness every once in a while, games like these wouldn’t be considered scary. But there are quite a few proper horror game titles on the Switch that will still make the hair on the back of the neck stand up, and please many fans of the genre. And even though the Switch has lower graphics than other next-gen consoles, the details aren’t lost in these 2D games.
10 Limbo
Originally released on the Xbox Live Arcade, Limbo was released on the Switch in 2018. Players are in control of a young nameless boy as he searches for his sister in a dark and deadly forest. Limbo is a puzzle platformer where players have to safely navigate the boy through a danger-filled environment.
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The grayscale art style doesn’t just give the game a creepy atmosphere, but it also hides many of the traps and enemies that lie in wait, like bear traps, pits filled with spikes, and giant spiders with blade-like appendages.
9 Detention
Detention was first released in 2017 for PC and was ported over to the Switch in 2018. It’s a 2D horror side-scroller set in 1960s Taiwan during the White Terror era. Two students find themselves trapped in their school as a typhoon is set to hit.
As they try to find a way out, they discover that their once normal school has been changed into a nightmare filled with terrifying creatures. Players must solve puzzles and hide from monsters based on Chinese, Taoism, and Buddhist mythology.
8 Spirit Hunter: Death Mark
Spirit Hunter: Death Mark is a horror visual novel game that was originally released on the PlayStation Vita in 2017, but was ported to the Switch in 2018. The game is played from the perspective of an amnesiac with a scar on his arm known as the Mark.
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It’s rumored that those who bear the Mark are cursed and end up dying of unknown and terrible causes. Spirit Hunter: Death Mark also has elements of an adventure game and a turn-based battle game as players must search for clues and battle enemy spirits.
7 Darkwood
Released for the Switch in 2019, Darkwood is a survival horror game that stands out among others for its top-down perspective. Survival is entirely up to the player as they have to scavenge a world that changes daily.
The daytime and the nighttime have their challenges as players have to scavenge and craft weapons for survival during the day, and then secure a proper shelter at night to keep themselves hidden and safe from the things that roam in the dark.
6 Carrion
Known as a reverse horror game, Carrion was released on the Switch in 2020. In Carrion, players get to control the terrifying monster. Where it came from or what it is exactly is unknown, but all players have to concern themselves with is consuming the ones that captured them.
Stalk the humans in the facility to grow and evolve to develop more skills and grow stronger.
5 Signalis
Released on the Switch in October 2022, Signalis is a sci-fi horror survival game that takes place in a dystopian future. Players follow Elster, a Replika, a humanoid android, as she wakes up from cryostasis on another planet.
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She discovers that her partner is missing and searches for her on the wrecked spaceship she woke up in. During her search, she discovers dark and dangerous secrets about the ship and about the horrors that lurk deep within the planet.
4 Blasphemous
Blasphemous can be described as a Metroidvania game where players play as The Penitent One, who is the only survivor of a brutal massacre of his association known as the Brotherhood of the Silent Sorrow.
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Living in a land that has been struck with a curse known as The Miracle, The Penitent One sets out on a pilgrimage to search for redemption and a way to free his land from The Miracle.
3 Yomawari: Lost In The Dark
Yomawari: Lost in the Dark is a 2D JRPG that was released on the Switch in October 2022. Players take control of the protagonist, a young girl that finds herself in an unfamiliar forest. Lost and without certain memories, including of how she got there, she meets a mysterious older girl who tells her she’s cursed.
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The only way to break the curse is to wander the town to find her lost memories. However, the town is haunted by malevolent ghosts, and players have to avoid or run away from them.
2 Omori
Omori is a psychological horror game made with RPG Maker by Omocat. It was ported over to the Switch in the Summer of 2022. In a surrealist-style game, players take control of the main character Omori as he and his friends go on adventures.
As colorful as the world around him is, all is not what it seems and something much darker lurks around Omori. It plays like a standard RPG game with turn-based battles. There are two routes with five endings, determined by the choices the player makes.
1 The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters
A sequel to the first game in the Coma series, The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters is a 2D survival horror game that was released on the Switch in 2020. The game focuses on Mina Park as she finds herself facing the same dangers as her friend, Youngho, had in the previous game.
Being chased by a nightmarish killer, Mina escapes the school and ventures into the surrounding Sehwa district to try and survive. Players must explore, scavenge, and craft items to prepare them for life-or-death situations and avoid being detected.
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