We study the existence of semi-classical bound states of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation\begin{linenomath}$$ -\varepsilon^2\Delta u+V(x)u=f(u),\quad x\in {\bf R}^N,$$\end{linenomath} where N ≥ 3;, ϵ is a positive parameter; V:RN → [0, ∞) satisfies some suitable assumptions. We study two cases: if f is asymptotically linear, i.e., if lim|t| → ∞f(t)/t=constant, then we get positive solutions. If f is superlinear and f(u)=|u|p−2u+|u|q−2u, 2* > p > q > 2, we obtain the existence of multiple sign-changing semi-classical bound states with information on the estimates of the energies, the Morse indices and the number of nodal domains. For this purpose, we establish a mountain cliff theorem without the compactness condition and apply a new sign-changing critical point theorem.