Summary
Zombies have been chewing their way through video games for decades now, but somehow, watching the undead stumble, screech, and swarm never gets old. Whether it’s a grim survival story, a chaotic co-op shooter, or a twisted road trip filled with pixelated gore and dark humor, the Nintendo Switch has quietly built up a solid roster of zombie-infested titles.
And while the platform isn’t exactly known for its horror-heavy library, it still packs plenty of punch for players who like their gameplay sprinkled with guts and groans.
While most zombie shooters are content with a dozen enemies on screen,World War Ztakes that number and turns it into a tidal wave. Inspired more by the film than the book, it’s designed around the idea that if the horde doesn’t overwhelm players by sheer numbers, it’s not doing its job right.
Four-player co-op, barricade building, class-based loadouts, and hundreds of zombies pouring down rooftops like liquid death—it’s all here. The Switch version, surprisingly, holds its own even when the screen fills with swarming bodies. Saber Interactive pulled off some real technical wizardry to get this running smoothly on a handheld.
There’s not much subtlety in its approach. Players gear up, stick together, and try not to get buried alive under a pile of screaming bodies. And honestly, that’s exactly what makes it work.
There’s no point in trying to predict how a run throughDeath Road to Canadawill go. One minute, the party’s raiding a grocery store with a frying pan and a mop. The next, a talking dog with a shotgun joins the team and half the crew dies in a zombie-infested mall.
This top-down roguelike throws togetherOregon Trail-style decision-making with randomly generated cities, unpredictable characters, and absolute chaos. It’s not aboutbig story arcsor emotional beats—it’s about adapting to the weirdness and trying to get to Canada before everyone dies from something stupid.
There’s permadeath, party management, looting, and real-time combat against swarms of zombies that can fill the screen like a tidal wave. It’s bizarre, brutal, and weirdly hilarious. And no matter how many times players reach the border, there’s always another ridiculous run waiting to go horribly wrong.
This one doesn’t do dread, tension, or horror; it does exploding chili beans, disco zombies, and pea-shooting plant commandos in a suburbia at war.Battle for Neighborvilleturns the iconictower defense seriesinto a full-blown third-person multiplayer shooter where teams of plants and zombies fight it out in absurdly colorful arenas.
There are classes, abilities, customizable loadouts, and bizarrely detailed PvE zones. The Complete Edition on Switch brings all the content, unlockables, and events from the original release, but bundles it into a surprisingly smooth portable experience.
It’s the kind of game where a giant oak tree and a space cadet zombie can go toe-to-toe while a sunflower heals teammates in the background. It’s nonsense, but it’s tight, polished nonsense. And sometimes, that’s all players need when they want a break from the grim and gritty side of zombie outbreaks.
For all the shootouts and saloon brawls thatRed Dead Redemptionwas known for,Undead Nightmaresomehow managed to outdo them with a full-on supernatural spin. It’s a standalone story where the American frontier gets overrun by zombies, mythical beasts, and cursed towns.
John Marston returns, armed with holy water bullets and a lot less patience, as he tries to figure out why the dead won’t stay buried. The tone is a strange blend of spaghetti western and B-movie horror, complete with burning horses, graveyard exorcisms, and cryptic Aztec artifacts.
On Switch, it’s bundled in with the fullRed Dead Redemptionpackage, making it one of the few chances players have to explore Rockstar’s Wild West sandbox on handheld. And while the core mechanics remain grounded in classic third-person shooting, everything about this version of the frontier feels off in the best possible way.
Not All Apocalypse Stories Are Loud
There’s not much inThe Walking Deadthat’s flashy or fast. No massive hordes, no combo meters, and no explosive set pieces. But that’s exactly what made Telltale’s take on the zombie genre hit harder than most. It was never about how many zombies got killed—it was about who survived, what it cost, and how long before everything fell apart again.
The first season follows Lee Everett, a convicted man who ends up becoming a reluctant father figure to a little girl named Clementine. The infected are always lurking, but it’s the human choices that hurt more. Who gets saved, who gets left behind, and which decisions will come back to bite harder than any walker ever could?
There’s something oddly comforting about revisiting the Spencer Mansion. Maybe it’s the slow, echoing footsteps on marble floors. Maybe it’s thefixed camera anglesthat never show quite enough. Or maybe it’s the knowledge that every hallway probably has something horrible waiting just out of frame.
Resident Evil HD Remasterbrings the 2002 GameCube remake of the originalResident Evilto Switch, with all the visual upgrades and mechanical polish that turned a clunky classic into one of the best survival horror experiences ever made. The zombies here aren’t just cannon fodder—they’re slow, deliberate threats, especially the Crimson Heads, which come back stronger and faster if players don’t burn their bodies.
Inventory management, limited saves, and tight ammo counts force players to think ahead. Every decision feels like it matters. It’s not about mowing down hordes—it’s about surviving long enough to make it to the next typewriter.
There’s a very specific kind of dread that creeps in when the sun starts to set inDying Light, and players realize they’re nowhere near shelter. By day, it’s anopen-world parkourplayground where the infected are sluggish and manageable. But at night, the slow creepers get replaced by Night Walkers that hunt in packs, climb faster than most players can, and absolutely do not miss.
Set in the quarantined city of Harran,Dying Lightmixes first-person melee combat with vertical movement in a way most zombie games don’t even attempt. The Platinum Edition on Switch comes with all the DLCs, includingThe Following, which adds a massive countryside map and a customizable buggy that turns zombies into hood ornaments.
