Diablo III: Eternal Collection

Diablo III: Eternal Collection is the complete edition of the action RPG about hacking through hordes of demons and collecting ever more absurd gear, and it works surprisingly naturally on Switch. The player chooses from several classes, from the barbarian and monk to the wizard and necromancer, each with its own set of abilities that can be further customized with runes. The core loop is simple: run through a location, cut down everything that moves, pick up better gear, and move on. But the game tunes this loop for so long that it becomes an extraordinarily satisfying rhythm, where picking up a new pair of gloves can change a character's entire build.

Once the campaign is finished, the main content opens up: an endless scaling of difficulty. Rifts generate randomly assembled levels with a boss at the end, higher tiers punish the player with steadily rising enemy stats, and the seasonal system regularly resets progress so players start fresh under new rules. The Switch release includes both the Reaper of Souls expansion and the later-added necromancer class, and above all local four-player co-op on a single screen. Just plug in controllers and you're playing instantly. Technically it's a well-executed conversion that keeps smooth performance even in the densest fights, topped off with a handful of cosmetic items referencing Nintendo brands.

The atmosphere is dark, gothic, and quite loud: blood, torches, cathedrals, and the roar of dying monsters accompanied by orchestral music that pulls back into quiet motifs during calmer moments. The original Diablo III had a troubled reception at its 2012 launch because of the auction house and mandatory internet connection, but after being reworked and expanded, it became the genre's benchmark on consoles. Today the Switch version is the most convenient way to get a short dose of this loop, even though a short evening threatens to turn into an all-nighter. For playing together on a single console, it also has few competitors on the platform, since the co-op here works without a single compromise.