Nintendo Expands Switch Online's Game Boy Library With Three More Classics

Super Mario Land, as I live and breathe? Well, better late than never!

MARIO LAND 1 FINALLY

Woohoo let’s go SML! I have to try that Mario shmup action again. 😁

Ayyyy! It's about time we finally got Super Mario Land! It's crazy we complained for over a year about a game we're going to have beaten and moved on from in like 30 minutes

Finally Super Mario Land is here!

Japan also got Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (aka The Frog For Whom The Bell Tolls) which I would highly recommend playing any way you can since it's one of the best Game Boy games and frankly feels like a predecessor to Link's Awakening in a lot of ways.

About time on Super Mario Land. No clue what the holdup was.

Alleyway's also pretty decent.

What's that song used in the intro? Sounds like it'd be for a baseball game, but I don't think it relates to the one here...

Do they usually have different songs for NSO trailer intros?

Keen to play alleyway again, think it's the first game I ever finished.

Finally Super Mario Land. I’ve been wanting to replay that 1 hour adventure.

Glad to see Super Mario Land, was a really weird omission from the original batch of NSO games.

Considering the extra game Japan got, all the Direct NSO announcements now are 100% completed (Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru was in the Japan version of the February 2023 Direct). Which suggests the June Direct will have another roadmap.

@StarryCiel Thanks for the tip-off! I'll definitely check it out.

Still no Mole Mania smh

Finally, now Switch owners can experience the Mario game that's just kind of okay

Still waiting on Super Mario Land 3.....

The legality of Alleyway will always confuse me

All three were launch day games for the Game Boy. Interesting take on an update. Regardless, glad to revisit all three, which I got back in 1989.

Took them long enough with Super Mario Land. Oh well, it was a nice little 20 minute wind down before bed.

Took them long enough. Geez...

@MagicEmperor I haven’t played it myself yet, but I have heard a lot of good things about this one. So just another reminder for me to check it out. Glad to see you two discussing it here.

That’s one thing I love about Nintendo random surprises

Mole Mania still on the table <.<

I will always be waiting for Extra innings snes, you could absolutely crush the ball in that game. Maybe even tecmo basketball/football...

That's fine.... I guess....

Happy Happy Joy Joy! 😊

Just a few hours ago while I was taking a shower, I was wondering which Mario games were missing on NES, SNES and N64. I was also pondering that whenever we get Diddy Kong Racing and Donkey Kong 64, we'll probably get both at the same time.

I come out of my shower and boom! New Game Boy additions. I'll try them later, right now I'm on my Teacher's Day party at the school where I work.

@DestructoDisk Thanks for your comment! Well, your mileage may vary. In my opinion, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins is definitely the better game, but I think the first Super Mario Land is worth a play, mostly for the historical value... and for its catchy soundtrack!

Nice to finally see Super Mario Land 1 though it's too bad there's no actual Super Mario Land 3 starring Mario as that game is just Wario Land 1.

It's funny that it took Nintendo so long to add the first Super Mario Land.

Huzzah, I can now play Mario Land on something that isn't a calculator!

@MagicEmperor It's hard to even compare the two, considering Super Mario Land was a launch day game. If there was even any comparable earlier hardware, it'd be pretty dang obscure. (Was there even a portable hardware system earlier than the original Game Boy with programmable video and sound hardware? I think before that there was only Game & Watch type hardware that was only capable of displaying graphics physically embedded into the screen or Pong. I feel like Vectrex might've been the most "video" game portable before that, but I hear that like the Virtual Boy it was debatable how "portable" it was.)
So I guess Super Mario Land would be pretty remarkable in its historical context, yes. And SML2 showed how three years later they had advanced GB quality to games closer to home console content.

Sweet! Never played any of them so I have new games to play!

@KingMike You're right, they're not even comparable. The only reason I even mentioned the two very different games in the same breath is, admittedly, the brentalfloss songs which pitted the two games together. Heh.

Edit: I guess what I meant to say is, I love both Super Mario Land games dearly as nostalgic classics and personal favorites from the GameBoy library, but if I were to personally recommend one or the other to a modern Mario gamer, I'd personally recommend the second game over the first. But I'm just some guy!

I’ve been waiting for Super Mario Land ever since the Game Boy expansion for NSO launched!

At least personally I'd rather play the first Super Mario Land over the second one but they're really wildly different games anyway. The first one is kind of a weird experimental thing that mostly closely resembles the first SMB but has all kinds of stuff unique to it, like its bizarrely gigantic levels, various weird enemies, and the Superball, the second one while still having its own unique eccentricities feels more conventional by comparison and probably is most comparable to like a stripped down Super Mario World. They're both good but they're very different beasts.

Jeremy Parish published his first two remakes of Game Boy Works over the course of 2 weeks, and 3 of those games just got released as part of this week's NSO Game Boy lineup.
What a funny coincidence.

Anyways, Super Mario Land is quite a weird and fun romp, albeit done in under an hour and with less satisfying physics from what I've played from its 3DS Virtual Console incarnation.

The only reasonable explanation for why it took so long is that the internet spent a lot time convincing people Super Mario Land isn't great so they didn't want to try to sell this service with it. I just want to say, those people are wrong. It isn't as good as Kirby's Dream Land but it does scratch that same "I wanna beat a game in less than an hour" itch that few games even attempt to do, especially nowadays and it is pretty great at that.

Well. Yep. I've already beaten the game, lol.

I've gotta say, though--it's honestly better than I remembered. In my memories, this was a game that felt unfairly difficult due to janky controls that didn't hold up well at all. But upon replaying it, I guess I just really sucked when I first played this on the 3DS Virtual Console as a kid. The controls don't feel quite as refined as Super Mario 3 or Super Mario World, but it's a heck of a lot better than the NES Super Mario Bros. In some ways, this game feels more like a direct sequel to that and The Lost Levels than anything else.

The controls were precise enough that I only wound up dying twice in my playthrough. The level design was a lot more enjoyable than I remembered. I think kid me was also too dumb to realize that the coins placed out of reach were so you could try to ricochet your shots with the Super Ball to collect them. I thought they were either just placed there arbitrarily or there was some obscure secret pipe or something I was missing. I had a good time trying to collect them all and rack up as high of a score as I could.

The soundtrack is nothing but bangers, which I always knew even back on the 3DS. Like, holy cow, the music in this game is a bop. It makes it all the more strange they replaced the Starman theme with... the Can-Can, of all things, but that's a pretty small nitpick.

One aspect where the game doesn't hold up all that well, though, is the visuals. The character sprites and backgrounds and everything are all honestly pretty ugly to look at. It's kind of embarrassing to compare this game's graphics with its sequel which looks like it had the visual leap of a whole hardware generation.

The game is also far too short. Only 12 levels is a pretty laughable amount of content. I guess the graphics and the short length can be blamed largely on Nintendo being hot off the heels of the Game & Watch line. They hadn't yet found their footing for Game Boy games and were probably just trying to create little bite-sized time wasters you could play in the car, rather than trying to actually recreate a full console experience in the palm of your hands. While the game was probably overpriced when it came out given the lackluster amount of content, I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo spent far more time and money into the R&D game compared to the sequel, by which time they would have already had a good grasp on how to program for the little portable device.

I--and probably many others--have always viewed Super Mario Land as a rather underwhelming and forgettable Mario title that is outclassed in every way by its successor. But upon replaying it, I really think if the game had at least 8 worlds, this entry in the 2D Mario series would be held in much higher regard as a certified classic. In terms of enjoyability, I think it's actually more fun than NES Super Mario Bros. It's just a shame there's such little content on offer, and while it doesn't have any of the iconic enemies from past Mario games, I appreciate them for trying something weird and different. And, it introduced us to Daisy, of course.

I would probably give this game a solid 8/10 for what it is. I really enjoyed myself more than I thought I would. It might not knock your socks off, but if nothing else, it's worth playing at least once for the historical value.

Ah, Mario Land final comes. I might just mess with it. Still no Sega Genesis games 🤷🏾‍♂️

Aye, Alleyway was a favorite time waster of mine on the 3DS

@JCnator It's plays and feels weird cause the game was not made by Shigeru Miyamoto, it was made by Nintendo's original janitor, Gunpei Yokoi, the creator of the Game Boy and Metroid and had that Yokoi feel to it.

Nintendo is stupid for holding Mario Land back. They could have added this immediately but they spread out their content to keep consumers interested in their products. Your loyalty means nothing to them, other than a fixed income.

Still waiting for DK64

@MagicEmperor Oh, I was referencing The Frog for whom the Bell Tolls. But all the Mario games are good too

@PinderSchloss How is that stupid though? Their plan did work did it? It will only become stupid if it didn't work.

I was wondering when SML would arrive on NSO. That’s pretty cool. Although hopefully the GB version of baseball doesn’t have an AI that blatantly cheats like the NES game.

I have never completed mario land 1 and with the nso rewind function, now I will.

Got tired of waiting for Nintendo to drip feed titles like SML and Pokémon, so I got an Analogue to play my games on a modern screen. Can't recommend it enough. I'll keep my subscription for the games I'm trying to find the time finish (mainly Fire Emblem) and for the N64 library, but for Gameboy I prefer the experience of the pocket. Also nice to pick up my old saves.

Super Mario Land finally lol, what took you so long!

Not that there were that many people rushing to play it, but it was just weird that it was absent so long.

Not bad. I'll probably play thru SML over the weekend just for kicks.

YES!! PRAISE BE!!

Well, I know what I'll be playing today: Super Mario Land! I'll be going for that Game A/Game B double-completion. 😌👍

Got to play some Alleyway, too. I'd really like to get a bit better at that one. 😅

The Super Ball is one of my favorite power ups in Mario Maker 2. 😊

I even made an Alleyway level with it. “Super Mario Alleyway 2.0”: DDR-2L5-2VG.

If they ever surprise drop Donkey Kong 1994 you'll be able to hear me for miles around

@Everythingnotsaved right there with you! I had to double-take because I could have left the exact comment!

@ikki5

and Diddy Kong Racing

Greatluigi here. And yep gameboy baseball’s COM cheats. Don’t play either nes or GB baseball in single player mode.

Finally, hope you're all happy now. The past few months everytime a game dropped the comments were flooded with: "we're getting this and not super Mario land?!!" And before that it was 1080• , and before that it was Mario party 3!

What's the new one we want?! I'm going with: where's Banjo Tooie?!!! Because it's my favourite game I only got to see being played at a friends house!

@PikminMarioKirby I believe they always use this one, sounds Grand doesn't it!

I picked up the cartridge for Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru a month or two ago and was enjoying it. Nice to have the option to get it on Switch now too.

I could never beat Mario Land as a kid. I don't know why as I hear everyone says it can be done in 30 mins. I am just not very good! Will finally get a chance to beat it now

Booyah!

Too late for me. I've already got all of these games on my Pocket.

Nintendo missed a trick not doing their own retro hardware and whilst I personally don't mind the slow rate of release on NSO, I do mind the huge lack of variety and 3rd party games. Pocket is a much better solution than NSO for me.

Cool, I never played Super Mario Land. Time to catch up.

@ikki5 dk64 is not on gameboy this is about gameboy

With ads entering the gaming space, perhaps NSO can wrangle up McKids, Yo Noid, and Cool Spot.

It's good, but it's no Jelly Boy.

I kid, I kid. Super Mario Land is one of my earliest gaming memories and I'm stoked to be able to revisit it today.

I would love seeing GameCube games on the online expansion pass.

BUT obviously Nintendo will make a lot of money releasing them again with better graphics.

@Mana_Knight I played SML so much as a kid (like probably 10,000 times, lol) when it came out that I still can’t go back to it. The only game I burned up even all nostalgia for it

Finally my childhood nostalgia can be relived on the switch!! No idea why it took so long and even more baffled by the randomness of how games are added!

Super Mario Land woooooo

@Patendo less profitable to have the ‘Online’ subscriber base finish all the titles too fast then cancel

Lovely stuff. Less lovely is the comment section still complaining while they probably barely touch what's on offer to begin with.

Finally! Super Mario Land is one of my favouites, so very glad to see it added. 35 years though, I still remember seeing a 'real' game on a handheld was so impressive at the time, after only having played LCD portable games prior to this.

@Total_Weirdo They'll milk this as much as they can first, do a bunch of full priced remakes for the Super Switch, once the first SS hype has passed and maybe the inevitable update too, they'll release Gamecube as the next big thing. Of course only a few of the good ones and mainly fillers. Sounds like a good strategy.

I WILL go wild for the Gamecube controllers though. My hands are grown to that shape.

Even though SML is like, the weakest Mario game ever, I'm still glad to see it added to the collection. I mean, it was all we had as a kid on the Game Boy in the early years. It just baffles me that games like Gargoyle's Quest were also released in the first year of the Game Boy and look so much better, lol.

Super Mario Land and Tetris were the two games I got bundled with my OG GameBoy - my first Nintendo console I got when I was 11 - I still have those cartridges these days. Though the GameBoy is long gone.

I do curreently have a 'modded' GameBoy Color with an IPS screen and backlight and a new shell. And I do still play these games on it regurally.

For anyone happening to wonder about (miniscule) file size, these three new additions appear to weight in at around a combined 7 megabytes.

I literally downloaded the app last night and was shocked to find no Super Mario Land. Can't believe they've only just added what was surely a day one.

@Mana_Knight I was the same but got it on 3ds and flew through it though in fairness there were other factors back as a kid beside me getting better at games in general.
1- with no save feature it had to be done in one sitting which on og gameboy could strain the eyeballs, wasnt always allowed the hour i needed to finish it in a sitting and also finding batteries were an issue for me as a kid.
2- I just never released how close I was at times to beating it so I'd often stop.
3- wasn't a big fan of the shooting levels.
4- had and completed Warioland as well and that was my go to gameboy game until pokemon arrived later on. Still never beat Metroid 2 though

I'm really curious if the switch online libraries will be moved over to the new console with all the games that are added now. Or if they do a Nintendo and start from scratch again.

SML used to scare me as a kid, I had a bad dream about it once. It wasn't like the Mario's I played before and I freaked out.

I'm an adult now, think I can handle it.

@Not_Soos Now we're gonna have to start complaining about Super Mario Land 3 and the rest of the Wario Land games.

Good news.

Hoping to get Donkey Kong 64 one day, not that interested in the main game, I just want to play Rambi's Arena again.

@Roibeard64 Those are some good points. I forget just how hard it was to see those old GB screens at times!

With mario land it finally feels like it is a properlibrary which sort of represents the different phases… and nice of them to celebrate 35 years of game boy with launch year… that’s a good excuse for not launching it earlier… we can have a little celvration (you should put it in the article @damo since they pit it in the press release..

Always loved sml 1. Playedyed ut a lot but didn’t have it myself.. my little brother got it on a 16 in one cartridge a few years later i think.. prefer the flow to sml2,. Bought it finally when i got my analogue pocket last year

Still japan gets the best game… for whom the frog is an amazing game.. i actually find it funny.. if you are able to play a translated copy. . It’s ine of the top gb games… a more consise links awakening… (remake time nintnedo)

@KingMike i’ve got a vectrex… a lovely little vector machine, but to call it portable? Sure you can eadily move it around your house, (and since it has a built in screen you have too), and out it opinyour car or something,…size is like an old mac se 30… love thr thing though … recently made this video about it since it is now on the pocket too https://youtu.be/Mf2rXOUeVM0?si=mWTdjQf-9ACG1ntr

Hot take, but I still enjoy the first SML even more than the whole NES trilogy AND World (Yoshi's Island is probably the next in release chronology of my personal franchise highlights as the game that introduced more extensive and leisurely exploration to it), so it sure feels overdue to have it on board. Alleyway and Baseball are also neat additions despite me having the former long beaten even by the time I got it on 3DS. And Kaeru could be THE headturner of the batch here... if I knew remotely enough Japanese to play actventures in it.😅 But hey, seeing all the other (if obviously less text-heavy) games NSO has seen finally debut in the west over the years... who knows?

@sd7232 One wonders what that 7MB is taken up by - the roms are 32kb for Alleyway and 64kb for the other two!

Did we not get The Frog For Whom the Bell Tolls on something before?

Alleyway, and Super Mario Land?

Yes please.

I didn’t have a game boy growing up and really wanted one, so super Mario land will always hold a powerful allure for me. I remember poring over Nintendo powers’ coverage of the game. I almost don’t want to play it - how good it is in my nine-year-old head can never be matched, better to leave it back there

Japan gets the best game of the 4, easily

@StarryCiel that’s because Link’s Awakening actually used the same game engine as For the Frog the Bell Tolls!

The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls is a little heavier in text than one might think, so I’d recommend using a translation guide. A lot of the charm is in the dialogue. I don’t think the gameplay alone makes the game worth playing.

Hallelujah! Finally! Keep em coming. Hope we get Tennis, Golf, Solar Striker, Balloon Kid and Kid Icarus soon!

@KingMike There was the microvision in 1979 which mostly fits your criteria. Sound was through a beeper and it didn't have a CPU, those were included on the cartridges so the console was effectively just the LCD and controls. As you can probably guess it didn't do too well.

Wikipedia has a list of all handhelds and there were 6 before the Gameboy none of them really had much going for them. None of them released more than 10-15 games.

@talllennart And? Maybe they can end the drip feeding.

Strange that it took this long to get the first handheld Mario game onto NSO, but as others have said, better late than never.

Can't wait to see new players complain about the janky controls lol

Wow, never thought I'd see the day when Super Mario Land 1 launches on the service like almost two years after SML2.

Now I need SMB Deluxe to play all the portable reissues of the nes games

I was actually really excited to get "For Whom the Frog Bell Tolls" but I see it's locked to the Japanese NSO. I feel like that game especially deserves a Western release, wonder if Nintendo will ever make the effort?

I just realised prince Richard in Link's Awakening is a cameo from The Frog For Whom The Bell Tolls. There are even frogs jumping around in the house.

Link's Awakening is one of my favourite games, please Nintendo, make a localised version of The Frog For Whom The Bell Tolls.
A remake would also be very much appreciated.

I remember my parents getting upset playing Baseball in the car because a fly ball sounded like a police siren.

I still have the original cartridge for Alleyway. I wonder if it's worth anything.

People keep mentioning Super Mario Land’s bad controls? What? It plays like Super Mario Bros, it controls great. I have never heard anyone complain about bad controls, and now people are mentioning in like it’s generally accepted that the controls are bad.

So THIS is why they were holding SML, the cheeky so and so's! Finally... FINALLY SML. I was starting to think Nintendo had a thing against it. I never played Alleyway though I'm familiar with it and enjoy brick breakers. And I see why Gameboy Baseball seems to get more love than the NES version so I'll give that a play too.

RetroArch means not waiting for Nintendo's stupid drip-feeding.

@tektite_captain It plays like if SMB controlled like garbage. You may be used to it but it still feels bad. 6 Golden Coins is a huge improvement.

@guamyankee Nah Alleyway carts go for about £5

@HammerGalladeBro I want DK64 on switch so bad

Literally should have been there day one, but I'll take what I can get.

So crazy that I remember borrowing Alleyway from a neighborhood friend back in the day. Never thought of that game again till now. I believe I put some time into that game.

I'm still waiting for Kirby's Pinball Land. Give it to me, you cowards!

finally alleyway!

I like saving my state just so I can keep my high score on these old GB games. 😊

@Ironcore A blind kid could beat Mario Land…..you’re not trying hard enough. No need for rewind on the easiest ever Mario platformer.

P.s. it’s short, but perfectly formed. The jump mechanics are weighted beautifully and it shows far more playfield than the sequel.

Do you guys really think Nintendo has ever checked a NintendoLife comment section even one time?

...

PLEASE NINTENDO ADD POKEMON ALREADY PLEASEEE

@Arcata Me too, as much as people say it can be tedious (myself included) compared to Banjo-Kazooie, I enjoyed my time with it in 2021 when I 100% it thrice almost simultaneously on the Wii U Virtual Console and the American and Japanese N64 versions.

I'd rather 100% it a fourth time than trying to 100% Yooka-Laylee once, that's all I'm going to say.

@InnerSound They have had Yakuman since the launch of the GB NSO app. So now the launch lineup is complete.

@X68000 Ok so, I’ve not played this for 25+ years and it’s way easier than I remember lol.

@InnerSound Oh well...it was a fun game and it's nice to still have a piece of gameboy nostalgia.

Is it too much to ask them to put them on a "cart"???

@StarryCiel is it text heavy tho?

Oh my goodness, this is a fantastic post. I discovered that the information you provided was incredibly helpful and informative. Never stop telling others about the good news run 3. As a result of the several helpful articles that I discovered on your website, I have bookmarked it.

I really like the convenience of this and also the quality of emulation. Simple. Functional. Great.
Now if I just could get the games I want individually, like in the virtual console... that'd be great. Nintendo is leaving so much money on the road it's baffling.

I gladly would have spent the money that went to emulation handhelds like the Miyoo mini and Anbernic devices towards a virtual console kind of thing.

I'm curious how Switch successor will handle things.

@Not_Soos I was pretty young when the Game Boy and SML launched in the UK. The overwhelming attitude of the time was ‘portable Mario? Awesome!’. At the time SMW hadn’t been released yet, so we only had the NES titles to compare it to. As such, the graphics were looked upon as perfectly acceptable for the limits of the system (in four shades of blurry green and grey!). The game was short, but many early GB games were. They were the natural transition from the very limited Game and Watch series and initially were designed to fill that niche of quick pick up and play titles for kids and commutes. Once the GB became the success it was developers really pushed the ancient hardware, keeping it relevant for 10 years (well into the era of the Playstation). So later games with much more scope and depth such as Pokemon and Link’s Awakening do make early games like SML, Alleyway, Double Dragon and Castlevania Adventure look quite short and quaint. However, at the time they were released they were perfect. The GB was the first truly portable system with interchangeable cartridges, which was a phenomenon at the time.

@Scollurio It's baffling to me. Companies are so enamoured with the idea of subscriptions but I can't help but think that if they let people buy the games outright (and had a much larger library on offer) they'd make way more money. Hell, they could have their cake and eat it too by selling the games and having a smaller library like we have now on rotation with the subscription.

That said they've done both ways on a few very successful systems now so they have the numbers, maybe they know better.

I'm glad I don't have to deal with this drip-feed of retro titles from Nintendo when I can just use my handheld emulation device and play thousands of games I install myself on-demand.

@Total_Weirdo let's hope they do it to the GCN racing games. I just got Kirby Air Ride, and while it's worth the hype, it desperately needs a rerelease with sharper visuals and more complicated controls.

@Blue_Dread emulation isn't real gaming.

and now i have the "completed game" music from mario land in my head.. Awesome music - if you can remember it note by note 30+ years later..

Shame i dont have a subscription (and have no real motivation to get one on switch), as I cant imagine what mario land looks like on a 82" LG tv ...

Speaking of which - Do GBoy games on Switch have any enhancements?

Like do they have ability to set colour palette/borders (like when using the snes addon), etc?

@batmanbud2 every retro game Nintendo puts on it's online service is being emulated on the Switch. By your logic, none of the NES, SNES, N64, GB, GBC, and GBA titles are "real gaming" then.

@Clammy yes

@Blue_Dread nonofficial emulation.

If I ever emulated a game on something other than an actual console, I would feel guilty and never forgive myself. Evidently, I take gaming more seriously than you do.

@batmanbud2 this is how I used to think before, but there is really not much of a difference between emulating on something like a 3DS compared to a dedicated emulation device. At the end of the day, both have a CPU, memory, a motherboard, external storage, and a shell to cover it all together. The difference is one is made by Nintendo and one isn't.

The reason why I enjoy using mine is because I want to play all my favorite retro games without having to either wait for it to release on the Nintendo Switch online service or dig out my old console and play it on there. With my emulation device, I have the convenience of playing all everything from NES to N64, GB to DS, and playstation 1 to PSP all on a single device. No more purchasing carts or discs for a single game, no more reason to have dozens of consoles to play different games. Everything you will ever want is on a single $50 device.

@MetalGear_Yoshi The subscription model works best, if the provider is continually adding value to the service. It is debatable (and subjective) if Nintendo is adding enough content. In this case, the Switch is over 7 years old and they only just recently added these GB titles.

For me, the World Championships game seems like it would have been a great NSO title to add value to the subscription service. However, they opted to have a fixed price for it.

@axelhander As a comparison point, how well Super Mario Bros. DX controls depends on how well acquainted you are with the NES original.
It might be a playable and enjoyable video game if you don't have that frame of reference but if you are accustomed to NES Mario, DX Mario is going to really disappoint and upset you.
From what I remember the major complaint the Nintendo Game Boy Player's Guide mentioned was that Mario had much higher gravity (faster dropping) in SML.

@batmanbud2 Unofficial emulation is usually done much better than official emulation, with more features and higher emulation quality.
Ultimately, official emulation is only as good as what Nintendo is willing to pay its developers to make.
(as just one example of how far behind Nintendo can be... Wii VC didn't even have button remapping. People in those days would've argued SNES platformers were only playable with a GameCube controller in the technical sense! That was such a basic feature that all but the absolute worst of unofficial emulators supported.)
If GBC games such as Zelda Oracles do not support running the game in "GBA Mode" (such as unlocking the extra Rings or whatever content), it is because Nintendo cannot be bothered to make a menu option that alters a single byte of RAM to make it work!
"Real Gaming" is not shunning others because you choose to only play gaming with The Nintendo Official Seal.

@Ulysses Pokemon games are not coming to the NSO cause they would need to remove cloud saves and save states. It's either coming as a separate app or each game sold separately on the eShop.

@MetalGear_Yoshi It would also switch up that whole pirating and emulation debate. If you offer a convenient and reasonably priced way to enjoy your old games, people wouldn't have to resort to other ways of playing them.

Recently I watched some hidden gems videos on the WII and discovered plenty of games I never played back when I had a WII. So, what now? Getting a pre-owned WII again and paying ridiculous prices to scalpers. That's your model?

Ugh.

I'd even be for reruns of actual physical hardware of older systems, maybe with a few technical tweaks here and there. Can you imagine a freshly released Mega Drive with HDMI out and CRT filters?

Oh yes I know about Analogue, but even their "Mega Drive" is out of production. Ugh.

@DwaynesGames As a customer I'd love to have a choice. I have no control over what is being added to the service. Or when. I'm pretty sure if you multiply their subscription fee by 6 years (as long as I am subscribed) it doesn't amount to the sum of money I'd have put into a proper VC implementation.

I'd even go all in on the e-shop if I had a) some way to permanently "own" and archive my purchases and b) prices of digital media are at least 10% lower than physical media, like it should be.

All of this is a mess.

@Scollurio Totally agree. I never understood why digital 1st party games were not permanently cheaper. You can’t loan them to friends and you can’t resell them.

The first Puyo Puyo Tetris game was cheaper digitally, but the physical game included a keychain.

I would buy more Arcade Archive games, if I knew that they would transfer to the next console.

@KingMike Oh, for sure. Same applies to, say, subtle differences between how each Mega Man game controls.

SML isn't bad because it controls differently. SML is bad because it controls poorly.

6 Golden Coins also feels different from the TV console Marios, but doesn't feel bad.

Subjectivity, of course.

@DwaynesGames Agreed on both points. When I saw the early talk of the NWC game I thought it would have been a no brainer for the top tier of NSO.

@Zeebor15 Genuine question: Why? Because it’s similar to Break-Out? There have been so many Break-Out clones at the time, so why would this one’s existence confuse you?

@KeeperBvK because is it was so late after the clone-boom. Nintendo had long sense established themselves and had no need to copy Atari at the time.

@Serpenterror And Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 is one of the best Gameboy games ever made, so I fail to see the issue!

@Zeebor15 I‘d argue that by that point it had long since simply become its own genre (paddle and ball game), and Breakout was even a copy of an earlier game itself. So yeah, I think Alleyway was perfectly ok.

@Zeebor15 By that point, Arkanoid had already been out and had been getting ported like crazy. It was something Nintendo could easily put together to fill a launch game lineup, so why not? (especially since those launch carts only had a 32KB ROM to work with, so they needed to start out fairly basic. Shortly after they got carts with mappers that allowed them to go bigger and better with their games.)