Bloober Team’s Switch 2 Exclusive Onyx: The Dark Grip Leans Hard Into Console-Specific Gimmicks

Bloober Team’s upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive Onyx: The Dark Grip is shaping up as one of the most console-specific games announced for the platform, relying heavily on gesture controls, microphone input, and touch mechanics that echo the Wii and DS era.

Revealed during a recent Nintendo Direct, the 2.5D dark adventure from Bloober subsidiary Broken Mirror Games launches sometime in 2027. After a 20-minute hands-on, the game’s commitment to leveraging Switch 2’s hardware features became clear: you’ll use dual-thumb screen touches to conduct electricity through a generator, blow into the microphone to warm up the protagonist, swipe away moths obscuring the screen during mental distress, and manipulate the game world using god-like powers to guide the possessed character Holden through an isolated Polish winter town.

Why It Matters for Switch 2’s Library

Onyx: The Dark Grip represents a directional statement for how third-party studios might approach Nintendo’s new hardware. Rather than simply port existing PC or console experiences, Bloober is designing the game from the ground up around Switch 2’s unique input options—a strategy Broken Mirror Games’ parent company says made the title impossible to create otherwise.

Bloober Team CEO Piotr Babieno has a 15-20 year history with Nintendo in Poland, where he sold Nintendo games at a local shop and organized the country’s first Nintendo fan convention during the GameCube era. That history informs the studio’s approach: according to senior brand manager Dawid Podgorski, “we’ve always had an idea to make something specifically for Nintendo.”

The Game’s Dual-Character Hook

Onyx pitches itself with the tagline “Survive as the Vessel, Intervene as the Player.” You control Holden, a regular person unaware he’s possessed, exploring the town while solving puzzles and engaging in melee and ranged combat. As the god-like entity inhabiting him, you wield reality-warping powers: moving objects in Holden’s environment, reading NPC minds to plant thoughts, communing with corpses for plot information, and throwing fireballs via screen swipes.

Podgorski describes it as a “dark adventure” rather than a full horror game, though the reveal trailer suggests a spooky tone. The town setting draws inspiration from Bieruń, a real Polish location.

Broken Mirror Games—Bloober’s in-house subsidiary used for projects the main studio cannot pursue alone—has spent three years developing Onyx. The team consists of Bloober specialists and external developers; the studio is also behind the asymmetrical horror title Saw: Genesis.