'Stardew Valley' for Nintendo Switch Review Roundup

By Edward Leano, Christian Post Contributor Tuesday, January 23, 2018

"Stardew Valley" has been the surprise hit for the Nintendo Switch, as the indie farm life role-playing game took the top spot on Nintendo's official global rankings for eShop games. The game made a seamless transition to Nintendo's hybrid console, and the Switch proved to be a perfect fit for the game since it launched late last year.

Since "Stardew Valley" came out for the Nintendo Switch in October of last year, the indie game has surprisingly done well enough to beat out even the bigger titles coming to the platform. The farming RPG managed to take the top spot even from the sandbox hit franchise "Minecraft" for the switch by the end of 2017, according to Nintendo's 2017 overall rankings for eShop download games.

This ranking only includes games that are exclusively available on Nintendo's eShop for download, so it doesn't include titles like "Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" or "Super Mario Odyssey," as Games Radar points out.

Still, it takes a special game to beat out the likes of "Sonic Mania" or "Rocket League," and it's all due to a game design that seeks to reward any venture a "Stardew Valley" chooses to work on, according to Eurogamer's Simon Parkin.

Parkin noted in his review that, no matter which direction a player decides to follow, the game conforms in a beautiful way and rewards the player generously.

Additionally, Gamespot's Mary Kish also highlights another strength of the game, which is its writing. Kish made note of the strong writing and character building that the game has. She added that with them, the game manages to elicit unexpected feelings. She also made note of the surprisingly well-fleshed out romance system, as she gives the game a nine out of ten.

"Stardew Valley" for the Nintendo Switch has garnered a Metacritic score of 87 from critics, which users readily agree with, going on to have a corresponding user score of 8.7 out of ten.