Switch 2 brought with it something we'd dreamt about on the original Switch: GameCube games on NSO.
With the new GC controller giving Wind Waker, F-Zero GX, and SoulCalibur II that authentic feeling (while also adding wireless without a WaveBird and sneaking in some gyro and other neat features, too), we've been having a great time with the four available games. Some emulation teething issues aside, we haven't run into anything like the problems of the N64 app at launch, and we're dead excited for the upcoming lineup. Have you seen the secondhand price of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance these days!?
However, with the Switch 1 libraries we've accumulated over eight years, plus the larger sizes of Switch 2 games (Cyberpunk is 59.4GB, for instance) and a paucity of 'proper' physical game card releases, storage space is at a premium - even if you've added more to the internal 256GB with a micro SD Express card.
Even with a pricey 1TB card, though, I couldn't get all my games on the system. Having to pick and choose what I take with me is a necessity now. Now, compared to a monster like Cyberpunk (or the upcoming WWE 2K25, which will apparently weigh in at 73.2GB), the 6GB that the GameCube app currently asks for is small potatoes. The addition of Super Mario Strikers this week bumped the overall download up from 5.1GB, so the situation isn't dire just yet.
The GameCube's cute little discs could hold nearly 1.5GB of data, so even accounting for any jiggery-pokery from Nintendo or repackaging of the ROMs, individual games aren't likely to be larger than that (most, like Strikers, will be much smaller).
But on a handheld console where every gigabyte counts, the option to pick and choose the ISOs we want to take with us would be appreciated. As the library grows (it's currently at four, with six further games announced), so too will that app. And while the quality of the games so far is impressive, as with the other NSO retro apps, there are some games that you're just not going to play, for whatever reason. When the entire Game Boy offering takes up just 134MB, that's fine, but we could be saving valuable gigabytes with these GameCube games.
There's something to be said for having the entire library with you. There's always a chance you might discover a game you wouldn't have given the time of day otherwise, and having instant access to the lot is fantastic. But when my menu screen is filled with download bars flashing a little 'X' in the middle, something's got to give. It ain't gonna be F-Zero GX, but the memory cost of having that with me at all times is going to increase every month.
And if we dare to dream that Wii games might one day get their own Nintendo Classics app, the sizes are only going to get bigger. Whether there's a genuine chance of Wii games ever coming to Switch 2 is a topic for another day, but the fact is that some of us would love to have a little more control over exactly what's on our systems.
What do you think? Would you like to be able to leave Wind Waker on the virtual shelf to make space for Wave Race (which surely must be coming, right?!)? Download an extra copy of F-Zero, perhaps - just in case? Let's get a handle on it in the poll below.
