Death Howl Brings a Tactical Challenge Worth Tackling to Nintendo Switch (Review)

Soulslike deckbuilder Death Howl originally launched for PC in December 2025. Since hitting Steam, the game has earned its fair share of positive reviews for the game’s emotional storytelling and challenging tactical combat. And now, Death Howl has arrived on PS5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series X|S with its brand-new console port. With all those positive reviews from PC gamers, I had to seize the chance to check this one out on Nintendo Switch.

Death Howl comes from small indie developer The Outer Zone and publisher 11-bit studios. It uses a unique color palette to bring its dark spirit world to life in stunning pixel art form. With a combination of deck-building and tactical grid-based combat, Death Howl will challenge your strategic skills as you explore 4 different realms of the spirit world on Ro’s quest to save her son. Though the grind can admittedly get a bit frustrating, Death Howl is an engaging blend of strategic gameplay and emotional storytelling. It feels right at home on Nintendo Switch.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Pros	Cons
Challenging combat that combines deckbuilding and grid-based tactics	Progression can feel frustratingly slow at times
Emotionally-driven and engaging narrative	Dark colors used in the art style can make it hard to see certain elements
Unique, eye-catching minimalist pixel art style
Console controls feel intuitive and easy to learn

Death Howl Translates Smoothly to Console, Especially Nintendo Switch

I don’t know what it is about pixel art, but it always makes me want to pick up my Switch and settle in for some handheld gaming. To that end, Death Howl‘s console port feels especially suited to the Nintendo Switch. Its detailed pixel art translates well to a small screen, while still looking sharp when the console is docked. My only complaint would be that the darker color palette, while thematic, can sometimes make it a bit hard to see when playing on a small Nintendo Switch LCD screen.

With the gameplay’s blend of world exploration, grid-based combat, and deckbuilding, there’s always a concern that the move to console could muddy the waters. But the controls for Death Howl on Switch felt intuitive and easy to learn. The game mostly just throws you right into the action, without much of a tutorial, but on-screen prompts make it easy to pick up the basics.

Thanks to its pixel graphics and turn-based grid-and-card battles, the game doesn’t run into any technical issues even on the older Switch model. I played on the original Switch for this review, but it does appear that the game has now been verified to run on Switch 2, as well. With the Switch being arguably the least powerful console among the bunch for Death Howl’s multi-platform launch, my experience suggests console gamers shouldn’t run across any performance issues with this one.

Death Howl‘s Roguelike Combat Will Test Your Skills (And Occasionally, Your Patience)

In terms of overall gameplay, Death Howl offers a compelling blend of popular genres. The game is narrative-driven, and it doesn’t waste time throwing you right into the story. From there, you’ll explore a vast and ever-expanding map to uncover new quests that let the story unfold as you progress. Ro is determined to save her son from the Spirit World, and your journey brings you across many strange creatures. Some, you’ll battle, and others, you’ll help to gain additional boons.

Overall, Death Howl feels like a nice blend of deckbuilding and tactical grid combat, with a splash of roguelike elements. Exploring the world, you gather ingredients to craft new cards and slowly build your deck. Along the way, you’ll run across grids full of enemies to battle using said cards. These battles are no joke, with tough combat that will require ever-changing strategies. At times, they felt a bit too punishing. Progression can be a little slow, and I ran into a few battles that I just couldn’t crack with my current set of cards. This could be a bit frustrating, but it was always satisfying once I finally managed to craft new cards and defeat those tough opponents.

The game is much longer than you might expect for its $20 pricetag. At first, the map seems relatively small, but it opens up to several new realms for Ro to explore. Thanks to fast travel, you can navigate pretty quickly if you need to backtrack to collect more items, but even so, it’s going to take a while to explore the world of Death Howl. And for the most part, it feels like time well spent. Alongside your main quest, there are optional side quests scattered along the way. In all, it’s likely going to take you at least 25 hours to beat the game, or more if you struggle with some of those battles like I did.

Death Howl is available now for PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series X|S. The game is typically priced at $19.99 USD and is a day-one Xbox Game Pass release. A Nintendo Switch code for Death Howl was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.

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