The Switch eShop Is A Nightmare, So We've Made Our Own "Better eShop"

Nintendolife to the rescue, as ever! Now shop til you drop!

I want the ability to filter publishers. Cut out wide swaths of licensed games, shovelware, and asset flips from my purview. RedDeerGames, GameMill, Outright Games, etc.

This is fine, but, um, I'm just gonna keep using Dekudeals with its wishlist notifications and numerous sorting options, price tracking, and rather robust and quite accurate recommendation algorithm.

So Deku Deals but your version?

The UI mockup craze has reached even NL, I see. But if anything, wasn't "a better eShop" already made by Michael Fairley years ago?

Hopefully a lot of these changes come to Switch 2

While I don't want to accuse NL of anything, in light of the Honey revelation I would like y'all to explicitly state if and how the site generates revenue by providing this service. If you don't (outside visits to your webpage generating ad revenue) I think you should state that as well.
Again, I'm not accusing you of anything deceptive, I just think in the current climate y'all should be up front on what you potentially gain from this.
Thanks

I browsed the mobile version on my phone. Very fast and fluid as is needed for such a vast library. I like dark mode and the music.
I hope this will resemble the eshop experience on the next console.

@antdickens

Can you add options to filter and sort games by Nintendo Life review scores and Nintendo Life user scores?

That music continues to play even when my phone screen is off on my mobile... It's awesome ha.

The eshop I feel is missing a gifting system to friends but adding that would be very hard.

Excellent idea, great work!

This is a good effort, and a decently made product, but Dekudeals is already the absolute king of this space. Their waitlist feature is too good to give up. Plus they also track games across different platforms, so you can add a game to your list and be notified if it's on sale on any platform. I congratulate the effort, but I won't be using it.

@antdickens thanks for the response! Sorry for the negativity, but again, Honey.

Would be nice if this was on the Switch 2 eShop. By the way, where's our announcement for the reveal trailer happening tomorrow?

Awesome look this is a Fix how should look . Not a stupid more stable updated

I prefer over complicated mild inconveniences, but kudos. Good job.

Are you actually allowed to use "eShop"? That seems like a trademark issue waiting to happen...

I skimmed through the article at first, thinking it was just for fun. But nope, you actually have created a 'better Eshop'. I'll give it a proper browse later and definitely make use of this. Let's hope Nintendo betters Nintendolife's effort even further with the Switch 2, Eshop.

idk if it's my monitor or just the weight of the letters, but that orange with white text is very difficult for me to read. Dark mode looks good, though. Either way, a really cool resource.

Tbh, I miss the "Nintendoness" that the eShop has; it's streamlined (and sluggish at the same time fml), but it just feels like another bland digital store front. Bring back the goofy Pikmin and clunky Wii cursor, I say.

This is fantastic! Even though I have used deku deals for a long time, I would probably "switch" to this (hahaha) for the aesthetic improvements alone.

The shovelware filter, which is set on by default, filters out 6434 games. That's mental. I knew it was a lot but bloody hell.

WOAH THIS IS SO COOL ANOTHER HOOKSHOT WEBSITE WOW I CANT BELIEVE THIS!! man good job lovely people!! i may have missed this, but do you give any money to NL by buying via better eshop?

Nice discovery work on what people think are the biggest issues. You should start a job as a UX designer / researcher!

With the shovelware filter enabled, there are 18 games between the previous 2 Arcade Archives releases, Castle of Dragon and Warrior Blade. With the filter off, there are EIGHTY TWO! I had no idea it was that bad. I haven't browsed new releases for a long time.

Looks cool, but would it be possible to add a counter to games that are on sale to show how long those games are on sale?

this is damn awesome^^ I'm sure this took quite some effort. If it is always up to date I'll probably get some good use out of this!

Thanks. This is really good. I love the simplicity music, filtered search. Just so much faster. Bookmarked and saved to Home Screen

Really cool this is here. Although I probably won't use it because when I'm browsing the eShop, I just wanna window-shop on my Switch and potentially add to my wishlist there lol

Y'all are absolute chads for doing this. Cheers!

Wow this is really cool, kudos to whoever built this behind-the-scenes. I'm sure it can't have been easy.

I created an account just to post this, so I suppose it's met its purpose.

I appreciate the effort, but the shovelware section is a terrible idea. Games like Chompy Chomp Chomp Party and 12 Orbits amongst many others are NOT shovelware. You guys gave the former 8/10 yourselves on the Wii U.

I get the premise and I appreciate there is clutter on the eshop. Perhaps have a system to filter out anything rated on average lower than X stars, but please, don't use the word shovelware for these games. They don't even come up if you search for them unless you play around with the filters first. Not cool imo.

Nintendo Life, doing what Nintendon't

Really well made and quick to use. Among what is missing in the official store, for me the most important is the user reviews. I use this feature a lot on Steam before buying. The anti-garbage filters are also excellent!

Cool idea. I hope they do make the eShop better with the new Switch, then roll it out to the rest of them afterwards.

This is great. As someone who has checked out the eshop almost every week since launch, I can attest that it needed help in the beginning and only become worse. Please Nintendo, look at this!

@antdickens

Some more ideas:

1.) Wanted list with possibility to rank/filter how much you want it:

• Must have
• Want
• Maybe

2.) Menu/email Alert if on sale.

3.) Filters: Games on sale from own wanted list. (All or one or two of the ranks.)

4.) List based on the most wanted games from all users.

5.) Filter: Games on sale from most wanted games from all users.

@antdickens

Even more ideas - maybe add info and filters for:

1.) Game length
Possibly team up with https://howlongtobeat.com

2.) Accessibility Features
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/07/site-news-nintendo-life-partners-with-family-gaming-brings-accessibility-info-to-reviews-and-game-pages

I don't think Nintendo wants to be in the business of labeling a game "shovelware"

Excuse me? I worked on my game (Juiced!) as a solo dev for seven years and poured my heart into it and you're tagging it as "shovelware"? That feels really random and breaks my heart.

If I could suggest one thing, it would be adding more currencies. Currently, it's only USD, EUR and GBP, none of which are the currency of my eShop.
That being said, I don't think I'll be using better eShop, since a much more useful Deku Deals already exists. Sorry. Also, be careful with the branding, it's kinda close to Nintendo's official eShop. 😅 Using actual Nintendo music is bold.

@PineappleLake Wow, that's low. Your game doesn't even come up in Search with the default filters on. I'll stick to Deku Deals for now.

This is rad! It's super slick and it lets me literally disable shovelware lol

Minor feedback:

• It needs screenshots for each game
• The music hates when I press back

You have to be super careful when creating a filter called 'Shovelware' that the games you're tagging as such do actually come under that bracket. On the very first page of the filter you ave an unreleased title called Marron's Day which in no way looks like a shovelware title but the tag looks to have been stuck onto it, and I'd imagine a number of others are caught in the same umbrella from the 6000+ games in that filter.

I'm guessing once all the filters are set we'll only see Hollow Knight, Hades, Fortnight and Witcher 3?

Your "Better eShop" incorrectly labeled 3 Bit Trip games and dozens of other highly rated indie games on Steam as "shovelware", immediately robbing them of the visibility they desperately need on the storefront. Either fix it or take the website offline before you keep hurting more devs.

@SilentBluntman Which review was this? I would be curious to read it myself.

Nice of you to give a shoutout to your competition. I finally broke and started using Deku Deals a year or two ago, so I don't think I need to spread the unwieldy bulk of my wishlist across a third platform quite yet, but I'll try to keep you guys in mind if you keep updating it. My first worry doing this kind of thing would be an influx of fake user reviews now that you're treating yourselves like an actual storefront. I really don't know how you guard against that kind of thing without being able to verify purchases.

"better eShop" I feel that Nintendo is going to have some issues with that name. You might want to change it before their ninja lawyers arrive

Edit: Looking at your "better eShop" site, seeing that you put a lot of good games in the "Shovelware" category. It's very clear that you don't know what you guys are doing. Like at all. So a "better eShop" it ain't.

when does the 'Sponsored Ads' higher placement grift begins?

@antdickens Nour, a game featured in a Sony State of Play and published by Panic (who published Untitled Goose Game and Thanks Goodness You're Here on the eShop, as well as making their own handheld console) is apparently Shovelware. https://www.nintendolife.com/eshop/nour_play_with_your_food

Hell, games from Devolver have been given that tag - Reigns Beyond, Dropsy, Not a Hero, McPixel 3 and a bunch of others

I appreciate the idea to filter Shovelware out but I don't think much care has gone into what games that refers to outside of a cursory glance at the eshop image. What's criteria was used to give games that tag?

I would be happy if the eshop loaded anywhere near that speed

@antdickens To avoid the situation @PineappleLake is in (having developed/published an indie game that has positive reviews on Steam and even one review on Metacritic), you need to add a filter for single game publishers and/or self-published games, and leave that filter “off” by default.

@doodlewhizz Yikes! The situation is even worse. Not good at all. Better moderation for the shovelware tag is needed.

@PineappleLake will try out your game next time it's on sale!

@canaryfarmer yeah I don't think I can ever go back after using it for so long. Maybe Nintendo should just implement the website now

Cool site! Definitely gonna use this alongside Deku Deals. There’s still a few AI generated shovelware games seeping through the cracks, but that’s nothing a few updates can’t fix. Also I’m not sure if there’s more music than the Wii Shop Channel music as that’s all I’ve heard, and if that’s the case, I’d love some Wii U/3DS era music.

@canaryfarmer I use "GG Deals" for all systems including Switch.

That site can scan your owned library on Nintendo, Xbox, PS and any launcher on PC (Steam, Epic, GOG, EA, UBI, Prime +++).
You can also block games on any store, so they don't show up.

When they list sales for example, you can hide all owned and blocked games.

@Waluigilicious The game is on sale on Steam right now (unless you prefer playing on Switch)

@PineappleLake Just bought your game on Steam. Hopefully NL fixes their filters sooner rather than later

I sadly fully expect Nintendo to do nothing to the Eshop and for us to continue to drown in utter crap and shovelware.

I think this is a really cool idea, love the music, and kudos to NLife for the effort, but reading the comments above, I think we could all do with some transparency about how games get classified as Shovelware

@antdickens Why would you start out liberal and block games from view by default, and not make sure the tag actually only covers game that could be classed as 'Shovelware'? A lot of games have poor labelling as a result of this.

Relying on the community to fix your (multitude of) errors for something launched in a poor state is incredibly lazy.

As much as the wish list is the only way to see if the games you have some interest in are on offer. I agree the steam and mobile ports just swamp the eshop and to be able to cut these out would be great. Tho I’m not sure it’s really possible. As no Dev is gonna tick that filter previously mobile or shovelware.

Reading some of these comments, I better understand why Nintendo hasn’t bothered to do anything with it. People will always be unhappy, no matter the proposed solution.

I was surprised that all the filters were on by default; the very first game I searched for (Lake) wasn't found because it contains romance. Seems like filters should be opt-in rather than opt-out?

What in the Dickens is this sorcery?!

@antdickens Sounds reasonable. Not perfect, but as long as you’re committed to improving it, it’ll be good. Thanks for the response 👍

In terms of functionality, the eShop is the best storefront. Steam, PS, and Xbox all strain under loading.

Cant beat deku deals for price tracking, wishlisting, custom lists and comparing prices to PlayStation and Xbox, sale updates, links to reviews and howlongtobeat, and to directly buy from the eshop... Not sure this site doesn't promote it, while complaining every year about the eshop , as its the best way to search and shop... Long live Dekudeals

This is solid. Couple things:

• put software name in a readable font? Many store pages have unreadable names until you've selected them.
• metacritic scores if user/NL scores aren't plentiful enough?

@antdickens This is really handy!
A few suggestions:

• Have you considered linking to the better eshop page for a game from its review?
• The music appears to stutter for a second as you switch pages.

A great idea, nice one Nintendo Life, will be using this for certain. I also really like the user review option, will be good for some of those smaller titles that have possibly slipped under the radar. I may even post one or two.

@SilentBluntman Is it the couch potatoes line? That's the only thing I found that seemed ableism related. If so, you and I have very different definitions of ableism.

This is cool, I like having the reviews incoporated into the store. Just curious how the shovelware filter works? I've noticed a few decent-looking indie games that have been flagged as shovelware, and I see some other people have brought this up too.

@SilentBluntman It's okay, I can disagree with more than one person. It's not offensive. In fact, I find your actions to be the more offensive. As someone who is physically disabled, it's incredibly annoying when people throw the term ableism at everything. It actively devalues the term. Save your outrage for something or someone that actually deserves it. Trust me, there's a lot worse out there.

Why won’t Nintendo give us basic features? Like being able to message other players .

Oh no, now Anti-Matter can artificially inflate the review scores of his favorite games!
(for real though, i actually think this is really good)

I left my amazon review for hollow knight. It's a neat e shop. Definitely improved a lot.

This is cool! Thanks for this!

Bold move to build a competitor to Deku Deals but I respect the effort that’s gone into this! More the merrier I say, because Nintendo certainly aren’t improving the actual eShop anytime soon. I’ll be sure to check it out.

Better wait for a Better better eShop.
When you feature a review system, why not being able to filter on the score? Current problem is that little diamonds don't flow to the surface.

Crazy, you guys actually went ahead and built something! If this is a real thing with real purchases, is there any chance it could get more regions? The Australian eShop, for example.
Also the idea of filtering out shovelware is kind of neat but I find that some kinds of shovelware bring joy just to see existing (and yes, occasionally purchase for a couple of bucks if I'm in a spendthrift mood). Keyword-bingo titles, low-effort ripoffs, cheap meme games etc are all hilarious in their own way. It's the dodgy mobile-style "kebab tycoons" and "big-eyed kid or animal looks directly into the camera" or 200x "this month's edition" version of the same games which I'd love to make disappear.

@PineappleLake You've brought your game to my attention and I'm going to grab it, thanks. One of my my favourite games (ultimate racing 2d 2) has stupidly been labeled as shovelware so I wouldn't take it too personally. This "better eshop" is pure garbage. So many site out there do a better job, at the top of the list as everyone is saying is dekudeals, backloggd is good too.

Not sure about an eShop from a site that censors its comment section. Your 'shovelware' filter can most likely be used to censor games you don't like - Hogwarts Legacy, for example.

That said, the intentions in creating this are far more good than bad, I think, so props to you guys for doing this.

3DS had the best eShop layout!

Personally, I rely on deals notification sites (dekudeals and psprices) to keep track of my wishlist, notify me of price drops, and link me to games. Bonus that these sites also work for PlayStation and Xbox, and support both physical and digital sales.

Discovery is mostly through announcements, trailers, reviews/articles, online.

Under no circumstances do I browse the eShop on my Switch, let alone on a web browser, except via direct link to the individual game listing.

@Kalcheus
What Honey thing?

@antdickens

Idea: Add youtube-trailers for games.

AAwwww sweet! But I want "Hellloooo there! Lovely Peeeeeeple" every time I open the Store PLZZZZZZ

Here I am now browsing the 'shovelware' section looking for hidden gems 😂😂😂

A filter idea:

Available for Physical
Available for Physical/Retail Download code only

Unless I'm missing it, I was hoping for a genre filter?
Plus a filter for physical/download only

Just out of interest, how do you get access to all the games and prices on the eShop to be able to do your own website? Is the backend data provided publicly, or is it literally just taken from the eShop website and repackaged here?

@nhSnork It's not just a mockup - They've actually added a new tab on the site. It's sort of a nice NL addition with their touch, I think!

@NINTELDRITCH ah, I see it now. I probably won't use it myself (not that I use much of this site at all), but hopefully all that effort will prove helpful to someone here.

Pretty sure Nintendo didn't give you the rights to use their music for your competitor shop front, just sayin'...

I’ve been saying for years the switch eshop is a horrible navigational mess! The most important thing Nintendo needs to address with Switch 2 is the eshop! Hell even the Wii U eshop is better!

It's currently listing Indivisible as on sale for $7.50 (https://i.imgur.com/4YwoW93.png), which I was a bit excited about until I went to the actual eShop and saw that no, it's at its normal price of $30 (https://i.imgur.com/Pf67ENE.png).

So that's kind of a bummer.

@Spider-Kev https://www.theverge.com/24343913/paypal-honey-megalag-coupon-scam-affiliate-fees

@Kalcheus thanks

@Kalcheus
I'll be uninstalling that tomorrow!
I'll also write a script so that when I am doing my online shopping, it'll redirect as coming from me so I get credit for my purchases!

I'm sorry but releasing it in this state with hundreds of legitimate indie games tagged as "shovelware" and hidden by default based on unknown criteria (vibes? AI?) is irresponsible at best and actively harmful to those devs who are struggling the most with eshop visibility issues. Relying on the community to fix your mistakes is really not going to solve the problem at this kind of scale and down the line will undoubtedly lead to abuse and endless disputes over what does and doesn't qualify. Frankly I don't think you should have the tag at all unless you can lay out some clear and objective standards for what counts as "shovelware" and what doesn't.

really cool! the only problem i have is that it doesnt say the file size of each game, which is something i usually look for in the eshop

The eshop is just a sea of shovelware whenever I check on it. Looking over new releases is like "spot the game that isn't some mobile phone/shovelware game."

All awesome, and I hope those and more happen next go around.

@antdickens Wait, BlueSky tweets are called "skeets"?? I don't know, I'm just dying laughing right now. Asking for a friend...

Bring back that late 80's & early 90's colourful whacky in-your face presentation, energy, sound & bombastic flare. No laggy eShop scroll hiccups, and some funky optional Ninten-tunes.

As is, the boring stupidly minimal sterile white & orange wallpaper, extreme lag/stuttering, lack of optional music, topped with a cesspool of garbage shovel ware that nobody cares about make it feel like one big annoying-whatever. Although, I still think it's much nicer and more up beat than the PS5's UI, which is basically a black depressing abyss.

I believe Nintendo purposely make the Switch eShop sucks cause nobody was there when the Wii U eShop was awesome. When you have a great eShop and nobody was there to support it but now you give them a crappy eShop and all of a sudden everyone cry about how crappy it was. Boo hoo hoo, we got what we deserve, let's just wait for Switch 2 and hope the eShop gets better. Our punishment for not supporting the Wii U eShop will be lifted next gen hopefully.

@Con89 Cause that feature is outdated. Also because Nintendo is not a phone company. PictoChat is the only time something like that happen and at that time it was made only as a feature just to sell the Nintendo DS.

Now obviously the music will be different but this is what the Switch 2’s eShop needs to be, as well as having improved performance. Just add a filter for games available physically and digitally or digitally only and there you go.

@Serpenterror communication is outdated ?

@JJtheTexan @Ironcore @Waluigilicious @Impossibilium @SilentBluntman @xmkbest
Thanks for your support!

@antdickens Thanks for listening to our feedback!

I don't like it simply because the community is labeling games as shovelware when they aren't. Savant - Ascent, 20 Minutes Till Dawn, Gunlocked are all shovelware? This is disrespectable to these devs. Having a community in charge of metadata like this is a disaster. It's like on Steam where no one knows what a shoot'em up is suppose to be or mark tons of things as a "character action game."

I'm sorry but no, putting games into clear-cut categories like "shovelware" doesn't make any sense to me and gives big censorship vibes.

I'd quite like a personal filter where you can permanently stop individual games from showing up for you at all, so anything you're 100% sure isn't of interest for whatever reason can just be gone and your eshop view becomes slowly but surely streamlined. Something you could review, adjust, turn on and off that would let you be completely subjective and judgemental, but just as an individual user. No idea if it'd be practical and have thought it through very little indeed, but I could personally scour a food few hundred things I don't give a monkeys about from my eshop in a matter of minutes.

@SleepyAnimal Indeed, and also to filter out certain publishers. For example I don't want any EA or Ubisoft games. Let me filter t hem.

It's insane that a multibillion company, like Nintendo, can't fix their damn eshop. Once again fans does a much better job.
Nintendo should hire them.

And I wish that shovelware would be banned from the eshop.

I like the screenshots and videos on the eshop, this isn’t useful to me with it because you don’t have reviews for most games

Sounds nice.
How do I acces this improved Eshop ?

@antdickens

The reviews are in:

The Better eshop has reached the news.

Softonic.com
"If you think the Nintendo eShop is bad, the proposal from Nintendo Life confirms that it's not easy to improve on Nintendo"
https://en.softonic.com/articles/if-you-think-the-nintendo-eshop-is-bad-the-proposal-from-nintendo-life-confirms-that-its-not-easy-to-improve-on-nintendo

They seems to think that a filter that removes the romance games by default is the end of the world.

Ok.

UPDATE:

Eurogamer.net is more positive to the better eShop:
"Switch 2 eShop needs improvements - though these fans have built a better storefront already
And yes, it does have Wii Shop Channel music."
https://www.eurogamer.net/switch-2-eshop-needs-improvements-though-these-fans-have-built-a-better-storefront-already

Techradar.com likes it as well:
'Better eShop' launches as an improved alternative to the Nintendo Switch store with better browsing and discoverability
https://www.techradar.com/gaming/gaming-industry/better-eshop-launches-as-an-improved-alternative-to-the-nintendo-switch-store-with-better-browsing-and-discoverability

Gamereactor.eu
A newer, better version of the Switch eShop has been released
https://www.gamereactor.eu/a-newer-better-version-of-the-switch-eshop-has-been-released-1482613/

Retroshell.com
Better eShop: A Fresh Alternative to Nintendo’s Online Store
https://www.retroshell.com/2025/01/16/better-eshop-a-fresh-alternative-to-nintendos-online-store/

Videogameschronicle.com
‘Better eShop’ launched as an alternative to Nintendo’s online store
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/better-eshop-launched-as-an-alternative-to-nintendos-online-store/

Reddit.com
"Better eShop" launched as an alternative to Nintendo's online store
https://www.reddit.com/r/nintendo/comments/1i2a0bg/better_eshop_launched_as_an_alternative_to/?rdt=53373

@Firefox02

"Sounds nice.
How do I acces this improved Eshop ?"

https://www.bettereshop.com

@Lofoten

Thank you

Looks great. I will be using this when i buy Switch 2.
Would be even greater if you could block publishers.

This will actually make me buy more eshop titles, and Nintendo are a bunch of idiots for not improving their own eshop experience. Thanks so much for launching this!

@sanderev @JohnnyMind exactly, individual user customisation all the way!

Well, after using this site for a bit, it’s uh… well it’s not bad, but it’s a bit of a fixer upper right now. The labelling thing is a bit overboard, so much not-shovelware is marked as such. I feel there should be a separate tag for games with AI art in them as well instead of lumping everything into the shovelware department. The music also barely works on mobile. Solid effort but I think I’m gonna just use Deku from now on.

@Suzushiiro Just checked those pages, and now they have NO Filter at all.

This is REALLY impressive: the technical ability to pull it off and the integrity to even link to what is now a competitor in the article. I love that I can filter games for NL review score and user rating.

Switch now has more games than any other console in history, and the rate of release has been increasing, so this is quite a bit to commit to, especially as this appears to be manual curation. Since NL will be officially demarcating some games now as shovelware, perhaps the weekly release articles will have justification to omit certain ones.

If there was automatic keyword blocking in the next official Nintendo eshop, I could see the SEO-aimed titles being effectively countered. They could come back with misspellings or leet letters, but Nintendo could program it such that blocking "simulator" also behind the scenes blocks "simulat0r" and "s1mulator", etc.

@antdickens It says only 2 games are currently M-rated. Is that an error?

It seems copyright laws are a bit different in the UK, with y'all being able to keep Nintendo in your name as opposed to Nintendo Force magazine in the US. But hopefully they don't C&D y'all for the Wii shop music. I suppose at that point, you could license the vocal version from that Youtuber, although that would be a less soothing experience, haha.

@Suzushiiro Yeah, I definitely have to agree with you in that, the labeling of LEGITIMATE titles as shovelware definitely went too far on that front. And that’s not even getting into the OTHER problems this whole thing currently has. Overall, yeah, it definitely needs a LOT of work, and I’m gonna just stick with Deku Deals and PSPrices, kthnx.

I have a suggestion, You guys should have the option to switch between the unused nintendo switch eshops theme and the wii shop theme, so more people can learn about the unused eshop theme

Thank you so much!
Augh, the Switch 2 eshop better look like this!

A Good Gardener isn't shovelware. I played it on itch and while it's short, it's not just some garbage.

That awkward moment when a Nintendo fan makes a better eShop than Nintendo themselves...

Anyways, this is already a massive improvement over the Switch eShop we have now. I would maybe add to the "filters" feature by letting us filter out publishers/developers (there are a few publishers I no longer want to support, namely Digerati).

Either way, Dickens does what Nintendon't...

Dusting off this old account to say I am unbeliveably appalled beyond belief by the sheer carelessness on display placed under the guise of such an arrogant name. I've counted dozens of games I know for a fact I'd never label as shovelware, and way WAY more that even if I haven't experienced myself, I'd have been hard-pressed to look at it and go "Yea, there's zero effort put into this game"

I would be LIVID if I were a developer that worked long and hard on their game only to see NintendoLife declaring it shovelware. Guess it's a good thing I haven't found a way to put my games on Switch yet...

And on what criteria? Was there a human behind this? I don't see how any living individual could mark PUZZLE BOBBLE as shovelware.

Not that you can find that Puzzle Bobble game on this "better" eShop otherwise, because the search function is nearly nonfunctional.

i gotta dust off my account too because, having seen the justification for the inclusion of the romance tag (there's a lot of low-quality ones on the eshop, is the reason given), i'm still baffled why you decided to specifically go for that, catching umpteen quality games (including romance of the three kingdoms, come on) in the crossfire. there's a lot of 'low quality' games of basically any genre on there, but you decided to single out one in particular to go alongside the vaguely-defined 'shovelware' ilter (which mostly seems to have served to upset indie devs) which is just bizarre. relying on the community to sort it out seems like an incredibly bad idea too. i really don't think you should've released it in this state to just leave it for other people to sort out.

First off, I appreciate the effort in doing this, and I realize it's still a work in progress. Here are a few suggestions:

The simulator tag is a bit heavy-handed IMO. A few things I noted, were games such as Totally Accurate Battle Sim, Potion Craft, Lawn Mowning Sim, etc. These are well-reviewed on other platforms and not what I'd call cheap sims by any means.

Admittedly, while there are a lot of cheap sims out there, I can't help but feel like this tag is another blow to simulation gamers. We seem to be the butt of most jokes online about genres, so nothing new there...

As for the shovelware filter, I didn't notice as many issues, but there were a few small indie games of quality thrown in the mix.

I get it's sort of subjective and hard to manage, that's why I'm not sure Nintendo themselves can do much about the shovelware issue. If we're not careful, it'll just be a way to bury small indie games further.

Lastly, I recommend adding some sort of genre feature to the "Discover" section. (Unless there is one and I missed it...) As it stands, what's mostly there is just the big games that everyone has already heard of. But I do like the "Reviewed by Nintendo Life" section, it has pretty nice variety to it.

@PineappleLake DUDE OMG Juiced is genuinely one of my fav 2d indie platformers like I have SO many good memories playing it back in high school on my switch and all the constant wacky boss battles and stuff, the fact the ppl at this site consider it “shovelware” is genuinely insulting and does your game a HUGE disservice imo.

@PineappleLake I bought your game on Steam (Mainly because you actually support my Intel Mac)

@PinballBuzzbro Wow thanks man, that means a lot to me! You really made my day!
@h3s Thanks! Hope it still works on the current models, it's been a while since the last update

Going through the """"shovelware"""" section and aside from the obvious ai mobile game slop there are a LOOOOT of genuinely passionately made games on here that werent pumped out for a cheap buck. The Squidlit games, Panic Porcupine, Murtop, Pixel Game maker series, Tomomi, it goes on and on. I'd highly recommend either scrapping or reworking this filter thing cause this could genuinely qualify for a false advertising lawsuit, or at the very least is a seriously dishonest and slimy way of going about an eshop.

If there was a way to remove the types of posts I consider spammy from the main Nintendolife site I might subscribe. Feels like we get 10 posts when 1 would have been fine. (Time Extension doesn’t have this problem).

Some of the recent posts here are spot on, 100%. This was horribly mismanaged, crunches up a bunch of indies into a blender and just presumably throws games not covered by NL or not known by NL into a shovelware category. Not "uncategorized" or "unknown", but shovelware.

And as nice as ant was talking to me on bluesky, I still feel more confident in the recent hours that this is not a project made fully out of care. I see the eShop card affiliate links. I see the potential for popular games to get highlighted while the many obscure indies (and believe me, on Switch there are a LOT) get forever buried, pretty much like the real eShop! And none of this feels in good faith. I've seen some games undone from the filters due to backlash, but having since my last, horrid cringe post on this site (seriously, my bio is not at all who i am today, that's how long it has been since I posted here), I literally made my own review website, reviewed hundreds of obscure indie games, and still wouldn't feel confident in having the perfect discretion to blanket brand a bunch of games in the same way this shop does. Me. With ten years of writing experience. You expect a community to maintain consistent QC and not sabotage it in the way steam tags can sometimes become memes?

I'm sorry but this just makes me think even less of Nintendolife and Hookshot as a whole. This site used to cover all the obscurities on Wii U/3DS back in the day and helped me find some great gems. Phillip Reed was a masterful reviewer who I miss dearly. But I guess rather than continue that, shifting to a tabloid style is more popular and making a "better eShop" that somehow buries obscurities more than Nintendo's own store is quite the feat.

@TheDreamingHawk i think this nails it. i didn't even realise the eshop card affiliate links were there, whoof. i just have to know the process behind the shovelware tag, like did they actually just throw everything they didn't know into that tag and hope everyone else would sort it out for them? it's kind-of a fascinating mess

I'd love to have the language option to be entirely separate from the country, or at least let us select English regardless of what country because the Swedish one isn't even 10% Swedish.

I'd love to help translate everything properly if you need it, wouldn't be bad for me since I want to build up a portfolio for translation work.

@TheDreamingHawk Oh dang u made ur own review site for indie games? Is it still up and running? Cause as a heavy indie game afficianado I'd kill to see what you've covered!

You’re bringing yourself in hot water by using Nintendo’s music on your own site.

A bit late (seeing as Switch 2 will be released this year) but nice nonetheless. Hopefully Switch 2 continues the current eshop, making your better shop also usefull for the future. How acurate are you guys with the European deals? I switched (hah) to a dutch site for the deals since you guys didn't give the full lists for a long time now (and sometimes even skipping weeks). Now I must say that dutch site is also pretty late nowadays and sometimes also skips a week. If you guys can manage a full list every week and on time, I can see myself using your site often. It does look handy!

One little advice: Maybe a tag for genres? I couldn't find a Metroidvania tag for example and that's one of my favorite genres.

On a sidenote: You Nintendolife guys made this better shop to get some eshop-cards revenue, right. Well, its okay. As long as the shop works fine.