Palworld developer Pocketpair releases Overdungeon on Nintendo Switch

In an unexpected move, Palworld developer Pocketpair suddenly released Overdungeon on the Nintendo Switch store on January 9. Combining semi real-time card game with roguelike tower defense elements, Overdungeon originally launched on PC (Steam), where it has a Mostly Positive rating.  

Unlike many card-based video games, the cards in Overdungeon do not have a cost when you play them. Instead, players play cards to influence the battle between their character and the enemy until they have only 2 cards left and their turn ends. As well as Attack, Spell, Trap and Defense cards, there are also Build cards, which construct various contraptions on the field, and Animal cards, which summon all manner of creatures to your aid. You gain victory in battle by destroying the enemy leader. 

The big goal is to conquer the dungeon. As you move up through the dungeon you must encounter and beat enemies in the aforementioned semi real-time card game battles, switching up your dynamic deck as you go and earning relics that alter gameplay à la Slay the Spire. Flashy gameplay is also a big draw for this title, as depending upon how you build your deck, you can pull off all sorts of crazy actions like summoning infinite Alpacas in battle. 

Overdungeon first launched on Steam in early access back in 2018, before getting a full release in 2019. After an update hiatus due to a contract-related issue with publisher Leiting Games, Pocket Pair acquired all rights to Overdungeon. 

As of today, Overdungeon is now available on the Nintendo Switch, making it both the game’s first console release and Pocketpair’s first Switch release. Surprisingly, there was no prior announcement. 

As the developer and publisher of popular open world survival game Palworld, Pocketpair hit headlines late last year due to a copyright infringement lawsuit brought against them by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company. At the time of writing, it is believed that this lawsuit is still ongoing. 

Overdungeon is available on PC and macOS (Steam) and Nintendo Switch. At the time of this article’s publication (perhaps due to time differences), it is only on Japan’s Nintendo Store but is playable in English, Japanese and Chinese. 

Written by Verity Townsend based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2025-01-09 08:57 JST)