Update: I’ve got good news for those eagerly awaiting the arrival of Caves of Qud on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2: a release date has been confirmed today via Kitfox Games.
The short but sweet statement confirms that: “Caves of Qud mutates onto the Nintendo Switch, February 16th!”
Caves of Qud is a traditional turn-based roguelike with oodles of depth and some of the best writing in the business. There’s more detail about it in the original article below, and even more in my review of the PC version of the game.
Original: There wasn’t much in the way of interesting roguelike news during today’s Nintendo Direct, but there was one story that caught my attention.
The headline news for roguelike fans on Nintendo’s platform is that Caves of Qud, one of the finest roguelikes ever made, is heading to the hybrid console at some point during Q4, 2025.
Caves of Qud has been in active development for over fifteen years, though developer Freehold Games finally released the game on PC late last year.
Caves of Qud is a deliciously deep turn-based roguelike set in a rich and brilliantly written science fantasy world. It’s got a retro ASCII-inspired tile-set and the kind of mechanical depth that few games are able to match.
It’s a proper roguelike, with permadeath and proc-gen and all the usual trimmings; however, it should work a treat on Nintendo Switch because Freehold put a lot of work into the Steam Deck version of the game, which is fully verified and simple enough to master.
Wrapping up, the Caves of Qud Switch release date is still up in the air, and I’ll make sure to update you here once I know more. It’s still also only confirmed for the first Nintendo Switch, so we may have to wait for a Switch 2 specific version to arrive.
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Still with us? Of course you are! If you want to keep reading about great hand-picked rogues, the following articles represent a huge collection of the best roguelike games ever made.
Next, there are genre-specific lists that delve into the best roguelike games of all types. I’ve pulled out the best examples from each category, alongside the links to more in-depth articles!
The best turn-based roguelikes: Caves of Qud | There are some seriously incredible turn-based roguelikes out there. Of all the modern games, these are the closest to the original Rogue.
Awesome first-person rogues: Gunfire Reborn | We almost went with Blue Prince for this spot, but most people checking out first-person rogues probably want to wield a gun, you know?!
Cool roguelike deckbuilders: Balatro | Sorry, Slay the Spire fans, but this poker-solitaire deckbuilder has stolen Mike’s heart and won’t give it back.
Exciting roguelike platformers: Spelunky | Now, don’t get us wrong, Dead Cells is an incredible game, especially with all the DLC switched on. But when it comes to impact, you just can’t beat Spelunky.
Amazing action-roguelites: Hades 2 | And finally, let’s wrap things up with our favourite of them all. There’s no beating the original Hades, although Hades 2 comes pretty close!
