Image: Nintendo Life
August is nearly over, so it’s time to look back over the last few weeks and crown three of the Switch eShop games we’ve reviewed this month.
We’ve got eight games that met our 7/10 criteria for our monthly showdown: Switch eShop games that don’t have physical releases (including Game-Key Cards) at the time of release. And this month saw a couple of unreleased Virtual Boy gems debut on Nintendo Switch Online – unconventional entries, but we reviewed them both, so they meet our criteria!
We asked our writers and contributors to vote for their top three eShop games of August 2026 and tallied the votes, so let’s crack on and see which came out on top.
Honourable Mentions
Before we get to the podium, some honourable menches:
Now, on to our winners…
Publisher: PixelCount Studios / Developer: PixelCount Studios
Release Date: 4th Aug 2026 (USA) / 4th Aug 2026 (UK/EU)
Taking third place this month (narrowly beating out Duskfade and Future Knight), Kynseed launched in early August.
Made by Pixelcount, a team of former Fable devs who have been working on this for years on PC, this console release for the indie life-sim had some issues, but it did enough for the team to come away feeling plenty positive.
“It may not be the fairest of them all, but it’s a merry time nonetheless,” said Michelle in her review. Absolutely worth investigating.
Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Intelligent Systems
Release Date: 4th Aug 2026 (USA) / 4th Aug 2026 (UK/EU)Available On: NSO + Expansion Pack
Taking second place is a new-old Nintendo game: Dragon Hopper for *checks notes… the Virtual Boy?
Yes, this unreleased gem from the mid-’90s finally found its way out of Nintendo’s vaults in 2026, and we couldn’t be happier to finally play this top-down platformer where you control a cute, hopping dragon (hence the name, although it’s now listed as D-Hopper due to a trademark snafu).
“Bolstered by a great chiptune soundtrack, expressive spritework, and dashes of quirky personality, Dragon Hopper is a polished adventure,” wrote Nile in his review. As a neo-retro game from Intelligent Systems, of course we reviewed it, which makes its inclusion here technically correct: the best kind of correct, as fathers across the land will remind you.
If you’re able to check this out in any form and can appreciate the historical context and fortune that we all have access to an unreleased Nintendo game 30 years after it was canned, it comes highly recommended.
Publisher: Panic / Developer: House House
Release Date: 4th Aug 2026 (USA) / 4th Aug 2026 (UK/EU)
And finally, sharing the podium, we have House House’s Big Walk and another Virtual Boy title, Zero Racers.
The developer’s co-op follow-up to Untitled Goose Game, Big Walk isn’t at its absolute best on Switch 2 — not at launch, at least — but that wasn’t enough to dampen Alex and the team’s enthusiasm. Here’s what Alex said in his review:
“Its strict reliance on communication and clever puzzle design makes it one of the most rewarding games I think I’ve ever played, but its technical shortcomings on the Switch 2 version do take the shine off a touch. Thankfully, it’s not enough to break what is one of the most unique and intriguing games released this decade, if you’re willing to learn to communicate.”
And as for Zero Racers, it’s a long-lost F-Zero spin-off that’s been unearthed and made widely available three decades after it was pulled from Nintendo’s release schedule due to the commercial failure of the Virtual Boy…but you had us at long-lost F-Zero spin-off.
“I can honestly say that Zero Racers is the most fun I have ever had in a Virtual Boy headset,” said Nile in his review. That’s a low bar! said the wag at the back. Both are correct.
Do you agree with our ranking? Tell us about your favourite eShop releases of last month by voting in our poll and sharing your thoughts in the comments.
What’s your favourite August 2026 eShop game from our picks? (69 votes)
- Big Walk (Switch 2)
- D-Hopper (VB)
- Duskfade (Switch 2)
- Future Knight (Switch eShop)
- Kynseed (Switch eShop)
- LEGO Party! Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (Switch 2)
- Project Neon (Switch eShop)
- Zero Racers (VB)
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 three points, second choice gets two points, and third choice gets one point. These votes are then tallied to create a top-three list, with the overall winner taking that month’s top prize.