E-Shop is very feature poor compared to Steam. I use Deku Deals to get notified when something I want goes on sale. They offer a pricing history as well to gauge how often a title has price cuts.

Nintendo’s exclusives are where the Switch really shines. Unfortunately, they’re expensive. I’ll echo the DekuDeals recommendation for finding sales.

Other Nintendo titles that are worthwhile, aside from the obvious Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom and depending on your tastes:

• Super Mario Odyssey
• Mario Kart 8
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
• Animal Crossing New Horizons
• Splatoon 3 (2 is good too, but 3 is an improvement and more active)
• Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze
• Pikmin (the whole series)
• Metroid Dread
• Metroid Prime Remastered
• Fire Emblem Three Houses
• Pokemon Legends Arceus

There are also tons of great indie games that play well on Switch (especially handheld):

• Hades
• Dead Cells
• Hollow Knight
• Slay the Spire
• Into the Breach
• Shovel Knight

Nintendo first party titles are very stingy with sales. Many third party titles however, go on some pretty good sales with decent regularity. You might also want to make a Japan/Hong Kong/Singapore account to grab Asia-exclusive games sometimes, if those interest you.
As for the games I own and would recommend, there's:
-BOTW
-Metroid Dread -Dead Cells
-Hollow Knight
-Crimzon Clover: World EXplosion
-Burnout Paradise
-Fast RMX
-Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (or Rise)
-Atelier Ryza (or Sophie)
-Mario Kart
Just some general, off the top of my head recommendations. If you want recommendations of specific genres, I might be able to recommend further.

You can never go wrong with Stardew Valley!

Used physical copies for older flagship titles (SM Odyssey, BoTW, etc.) can sometimes be found for cheap online! I bought most of my favorite games this way, even if I owned the digital copy.

At most you're gonna get like $10-15 off on most 1st-part titles. Better off going physical and buying used, if you want to save money.

As for games, Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Luigi's Mansion 3 are great. Link's Awakening, also. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are good too, but overrated imo.

My most played games are Breath of the Wild, Animal Crossing New Horizons, Pokemon Violet, and now Tears of the Kingdom. And Mario Kart 8 Deluxe but I feel like that one's more of a multiplayer experience. Nothing else comes close to those on the Switch for me and I can recommend all of them.

It might help if you give some examples of games you like. I’ve been playing Dead Cells and love it. It’s a side scrolling rouge like. Some others I would recommend are Metroid Dread, both of the Ori games, and Hades.

A lot of people will disagree but I did not care for BotW to the point that I didn’t bother with TotK. Not saying you won’t enjoy them but that’s a lot of money to spend on something you may not like. Nintendo does not do refunds after all.

Do you have a PC?

If you do, obviously most of Nintendo's titles are worth having. Zelda games are an easy recommend, but also Splatoon is pretty great.

If not, there's tons of games that are good that aren't Nintendo games that I think are worth having.

• Octopath Traveler is awesome. I haven't played 2 yet, but I can recommend 1 if you like JRPGs
• All legacy FF games are on the platform to some capacity
• Ace Attorney game collections are great if you like visual novels
• Basically every indie is on the platform at this point. Hollow Knight, Shovel Knight, Axiom Verge, probably a lot of others but those are some big names that come to mind.
• Otherwise, I would avoid ports that haven't gotten good reviews. Also, make sure that the games aren't "cloud only" unless you're comfortable with that.

I had a surprising amount of fun with the Dragon Quest games, DQ Builder I/II and Treasure Hunters. Squeaky clean polish and very focused, nearly arcade-like gameplay. Don't forget the various Marios and Kirby Forgotten Land.

Cadence of Hyrule is a bit of a weird departure but very fun and replayable with a kickass track. You can get the Binding of Isaac physically, as well as the Ori collection which is incredible and Stardew Valley. Moonligher is a bit repetitive but that can be good comfort. Celeste, if you've never played it, is potentially life changing if you struggle with perfectionism and/or anxiety.

For a very obscure digital game, Chasm was an amazing randomized full-length metroidvania.

Spaltoon 3 if you get switch online and totk is a masterpiece

The first party nintendo series are worth checking out across the board; Mario Odyssey, Zeld 1&2, Metroid Dread, Smash Ultimate, Fire Emblem 3h, etc. etc. *edit: except pokemon, those ones are trash. Play Casette Beasts instead.

Indie titles like Hollow Knight, Stardew Valley, Celeste, and Gungeon I end up liking more than their PC versions since you can lounge in bed and play them.

Skyrim, Dark Souls really don't need me to sell them, pick em up if you haven't played them before, or just want to play them again. Wondeful 101, Astral Chain and Bayonetta 1 & 2 are fun.

I like Warframe, so I'll plug that too, even though you're probably not going to want to play it undocked since it's an online thing.

My personal favourites on the Switch are Metroid Dread and Mario Odyssey, so I'd definitely recommend those. Another game I love that I don't see mentioned very often is Cadence of Hyrule, it's a crossover between Crypt of the Necrodancer (a rhythm roguelike) and Zelda. With Zelda soundtrack of course! If you like 2D Mario you'll probably want to get Mario Maker 2, but be aware that it's not worth it if you don't want to pay for a Switch Online subscription since wouldn't be able to play other people's levels.

Mario Kart 8 and Smash Ultimate are both really good, but I'd only recommend them if you intend to play multiplayer. Especially local multiplayer is fun, but online works too of course (again, needs a subscription).

The Switch also has some cool remasters and remakes of games you might have missed, like Zelda: Link's Awakening, Metroid Prime, Zelda: Skyward Sword, or the first three Pikmin games (the fourth one comes out this week and I'd be surprised if you needed knowledge of any previous games to play it). Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl were a bit lacklustre, but if you like classic Pokémon games they might still be worth it. Just don't expect a lot of new stuff if you've played the originals.

I've played them on PC, but Stardew Valley and Celeste are some of my favourite games. If you haven't played them on another platform already check them out as well!

Everyone has different tastes. My switch almost only has strategy games with Fire Emblem Engage/Three houses, Triangle Strategy and Wargrove. If you like games like that i would either start with Fire Engage if you like character focused games or if you like to do decision on a story then play Tiangle Strategy

Honestly, check out some of the smaller games as well. Botw and Totk and other Nintendo-based games are amazing, but I've found a lot of indie games fun (e.g., Cult of the Lamb, Hollow Knight, Oxenfree, Spiritfarer, Gris, etc.). The smaller games also get deals the most.

Nintendo tax is so real — was a big factor in my deciding to buy a Steam Deck despite having a Switch (a gift).

Anyone know if there’s typically any change there when Nintendo announces a new console?

You can get Mario + Rabbids very cheaply from time to time, it's one of the few exclusive Switch games you'll get a good price on.

Some games get on sale every other month usually the indies. First party games are rarely on sale and usually with not much discount. Smash gone one or twice on sale MK11 went like 20 times already. Is not a bad console to hack up and as it's nearing it's support end, it wouldn't be a bad option since it's not completely confirmed the library you brought will carry. Although many think it will do cause ps and xbox did.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions! I'll be checking these all out

If you like Harvest Moon, the new games are trash but the Story of Seasons games are really good for scratching that itch.

Metroid Dread and the Metroid Prime Remaster are both excellent.

In spite of their technical limitations and lazy graphical fidelity, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are legitimately fun games.

DioField Chronicle and Triangle Strategy if you like strategy games.

Octopath Traveller 1 and 2, Bravely Default II (the first game was a 3DS title), and the Xenogears games if you like story heavy RPGs.

There are decent multi-platform ports like The Witcher 3 and Persona 5 Royal if you missed them, as well.

Smash

I recommend Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

It's a tactical role playing game which means you have a bunch of characters that you level up in and outside of tactical battles.

Maybe you like it.

Deku Deals is your friend. Any game you have in mind just throw it on a waitlist there and you can get notified when price drops!

If you have someone to play with, definitely get sniperclips. One of the best coop experiences on the switch. This is one of those couch coop games you can play even with people that usually don’t play video games

If you have someone to play with, definitely get sniperclips. One of the best coop experiences on the switch. This is one of those couch coop games you can play even with people that usually don’t play video games

Do you own a PC or other console?

Nintendo Switch is great for 1st party games and some exclusives, but frame rate / resolution might not be able to compete with other consoles, plus the MSRP of many games on e-shop can be 1 - 3 bucks more expensive compared to, say PSN.

If this is your only gaming device, then maybe consider Crisis Core, Hollow Knight, Octopath Traveler 2, Live a Live. If it's not, then stick to 1st party games, exclusives, and graphically less taxing games.

Also maybe consider getting 3rd party controllers

As for discounts, I use DekuDeals to keep track of the price drops. Most 1st party Nintendo games only have discount up to 33%, and those discounts happen like 2 - 3 times a year. While 3rd party games... I swear to god I've seen games that are on sale every month or so.