Feature: Nintendo Life eShop Selects & Readers’ Choice (February 2024)

Image: Nintendo LifeSpring is about to…spring. But do you know what else is waiting for us? Nintendo Life eShop Selects and the new Readers Choice winner for February 2024.

As always, staff and contributors at Nintendo Life decide on the top three by an internal vote, all from eShop games we’ve reviewed on the site that were released that month. And then, for the Reader’s Choice, you lovely lot have been voting for your favourite eShop game that we’ve missed out on. You’ll see your top three at the bottom of the article.

Anyway, February was a busy month, wasn’t it? A Partner Showcase, shadow-drops — it’s been a lot to juggle. Let’s see what gems we can get on the eShop this month.

Honourable mentions
As always, below is a list of games that didn’t quite get enough votes from the Nintendo Life staff and writers to make the top three. These all got at least an 8/10 from us, and even from this shortlist, you can see just how strong a month we’ve had on the eShop.

Nintendo Life’s honourable mentions

3. Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! (Switch eShop)
Oh look! It’s Game Freak’s best game, finally on the Switch. We’re not talking about Pokémon, but Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!, a remake of one of our favourite 3DS games here at Nintendo Life. C’mon, if you’ve been reading the site, you know we’re mad for this one. Solitaire and horse racing make for a dream combination and even if you don’t love the gameplay, the hilarious writing and charming visuals will still win you over. We called Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! the “prize pony” in our review and awarded it a 9/10.

2. Pentiment (Switch eShop)
Obsidian’s medieval murder mystery Pentiment was called a “hidden gem” back on the Xbox and PC when it was released in 2022. Now it’s on Switch (and PS5), and on the little hybrid console, it’s never felt more at home. Blending RPG elements with point-and-click gameplay, Pentiment is a real labour of love that celebrates typefaces, font, the Medieval, and just darn good storytelling. It earned a 10/10 for us on Switch and we’re glad we waited to try this one out.

1. Balatro (Switch eShop)
Well, well, well… we heard you, readers, and you were absolutely right. Balatro is fantastic.

Balatro was originally one of the options on our Reader’s Choice vote, but so many of you chimed in to shout about this brilliant roguelite deckbuilder that we folded and checked it out for ourselves. Breaking poker with tarot cards, planet cards, and special jokers is satisfyingly addictive. It pipped the Obsidian murder mystery by just one vote in our staff poll, but it’s clear from your votes and its victory in the eShop Selects vote that Balatro is a must-play and plays a winning hand.

In our review, we awarded it a worthy 10/10. Yes, our second ‘Outstanding’ score in a single week! Blimey.

eShop Selects Reader’s Choice Winner (February 2024)
WINNER: Golfinite

With late review arrivals Balatro and Penny’s Big Breakaway running away with the reader poll in first and second place with a very nice 69% of the vote, we’re scootching on down the list to the next candidate for this month’s Reader’s Choice winner: Mario Golf-alike Golfinite.

We’re massive fans of the original GBC Mario Golf, and this top-down ball-whacker (ouch) certainly looks the part — we’re pleased to hear it plays the part, too. It’ll be booking a tee time on our wishlist.

Reader’s honourable mention

Froggie – A Retro Platformer

< Nintendo eShop Selects - January 2024 How we decide our eShop Selects top three: As we reach the end of every month, the Nintendo Life staff vote on their favourite titles from a list of games selected by the editorial team. To qualify for this list, these games must have been released as a digital-only Nintendo Switch eShop title in that particular month, and must have been reviewed on Nintendo Life; we select the qualifying games based on their review scores. Staff are then asked to vote for three games that they think deserve to sit right at the very top of that list; first choice gets 3 points, second choice gets 2 points, and third choice gets 1 point. These votes are then tallied to create a top-three list, with the overall winner taking that month's top prize.