Nightmare Boy - Switch

When your pillow turns against you, you know that a) you're in for a tough time and b) you've stumbled into a pretty weird game. Your instincts aren't wrong.

The first thing you do as Billy, the game's protagonist, is get into a boss fight with the aforementioned evil pillow. The second is turn into the mysterious green skinned Rolo the moment you take a hit. The third is take a journey into a world of nightmares. From there on out things don't let up in this metroidvania game on the Switch. It's a sidescroller characterised by tight platforming, twisted level design and frequent (and challenging) boss fights. As you progress you'll take on the occasional physics puzzle, level up your abilities and probably get killed more than a couple of times.

Visually, the game is a mix of cartoonish design and classic 2D pixel art. It's somewhat reminiscent of the golden age of arcade games, with some extremely weird and wonderful character and baddie designs for good measure.

Developer The Vanir Project has thrown in some novel ideas. One example is the cute little native creatures you'll spot in the background which you discover you can kill. That might come back to haunt you, though...

Dreams can come true, but so can nightmares! more