Supergiant Games announced today that they will release their smash indie hits Bastion and Transistor on Nintendo Switch. These award winning RPGs are available on the Switch on 13 September (Bastion) and 1 November (Transistor). They announced the news on their official Twitter account. While there is no word on Supergiant's third game, Pyre, this is a huge addition to the Switch's library. Their tweet also states that both of their games will be playable at PAX this week. This is the latest in a long line of Nintendo adding indie titles to the Nintendo Switch. The latest, releasing on Switch today, is Into The Breach, Subset Games' follow-up to FTL: Faster Than Light released earlier this year.
Supergiant Games' Bastion (2010) and Transistor (2014) are some of the most critically acclaimed indie games of all time. Bastion, which Greg Miller at IGN called "the best downloadable game" of the year, sits on metacritic.com with a score of 86. Combining a beautiful watercolour art style, tight tactical action gameplay, and a minimalist story, the game is a masterclass in simplistic game design and is the gaming epitome of the saying "less is more". Players control an unknown boy, who wakes up from an unknown calamity, and must literally piece it all together. The vibrant colours, short levels and easy-to-learn but difficult-to-master controls are almost perfect for the Switch. Another standout feature of Bastion is its award winning soundtrack. The success would provoke composer Darren Knob to emphasis music across all of Supergiant's future games.
Transistor, while not as highly acclaimed as Bastion, is still a solid title that meets Supergiant's exceptionally high standards. It received a score of 83 on metacritic.com. In Transistor, Supergiant make a rich Sci-Fi world, crafted with a sleek neo-Jazz aesthetic. The development of the team themselves is highlighted in Transistor. The characters are much more strongly defined and the narrative is more complex. Players control Red, a singer who has lost her voice after a failed assassination attempt. Her bodyguard/love interest was murdered by a sentient sword called the Transistor, which downloads his consciousness. The Transistor then acts as both a guide and a combat tool, slowing time down to fuse real-time and turn-based strategy.
Bastion and Transistor will be available for Nintendo Switch on 13 September and 1 November respectively. Here's hoping their third game, Pyre, makes it to Switch in 2018.
