Topic: How would you improve the NSO Online service?

Where would you want the games, @Link-Hero ....? If it's Steam, they have sales all the time, so you could put them on your wishlist?

Oh, yeah, it's still handy for that, @Link-Hero .... When I had GamePass, I never purchased anything in their store for my PC! I did try a few I'd never have tried otherwise that way, although I didn't end up buying those

I would like some alterations to existing games such as removing a license to be able to release the game with the skin of another franchise.

So take NES Popeye. Simply replace the licensed characters with Mario, Pauline and Donkey Kong and call it Donkey Kong 2. The game would still play exactly the same as it did before. It can’t be that hard to draw NES sprites and insert them into the game replacing the original sprites.

Another thing I would like is on screen guides to help players. They would be overlays to show at specific points during gameplay.

The guide wouldn’t alter gameplay, just tell you what experienced players would know already and more

So the guide would point out where to find secrets, how to make progress as well as showing enemy life bars.

For Super Mario Bros., it would tell you the location of hidden power-ups, lives, coin blocks, warp pipes, how to reach the top of the flag with six fireworks, how to make tricky jumps, when a podoboo will reappear, the correct path through the maze castles, the correct timing to pass by fire bars, how to avoid Bloopers, how to defeat Lakitu and when it will return, when to kick a shell into enemies for an extra life, safe places to avoid thrown hammers, and how many hits remain to kill Bowser with fireballs.

For Mega Man it would tell you which stage to play next, what weapon to use, what items a regular enemy will drop and the exact timing of when you need to jump for the disappearing and reappearing blocks.

You can of course turn it off if you don’t need to use it with a simple button press

Nintendo Online should actually not cost anything. if you are like most people you are all ready paying for your own internet service. Nintendo Online as it stands right now is just a extra charge that is not needed.

Yeah, they should make the basic online play for games you already own free.

Also, either cloud backups should be free or they should allow backups to SD card or a PC via the USB port.

Everything else becomes a tiered subscription service featuring games and DLC that you can also buy individually if you want them.

They almost certainly won't do any of that, but it's what I think it should be.

@Matt_Barber The problem with that is we're unfortunately in a gaming society where people have been conditioned to pay for some sort of Online subscription. Xbox has done it for 20 years. Sony has done it for 12. It's no wonder that Nintendo would have no problem doing it.

As for what NSO should ad, there's no excuse that any old DLC shouldn't be added already. They've done Octo Expansion in the build-up to Splatoon 3. Add the BOTW DLC and Three Houses DLC as appetizers to the new games in their respective series.

@ElRoberico Yes, it's become the norm for consoles. You still usually don't have to pay for online play on PC though. I suppose that's the difference you get when you've got multiple storefronts to choose from; it's much more difficult for any one of them to do something blatantly anti-consumer when people can take their business elsewhere. Ah well, I did say that they wouldn't do it.

Sticking all the old DLC on the Expansion Pack would be a nice sweetener. Maybe give everything a three year window and then it gets added. It's not like the base games tend to go down in price that much, so I'd suspect that Nintendo would still do very nicely out of that arrangement.

Adding an option to buy games virtual console style without a subscription.

These are the most immediately correct choices. I will admit that finally, FINALLY, it sounds like Nintendo's trying to improve its own longtime online issues so this paid service isn't literally the same as the Wii U era free service but pretending it isn't by throwing NES/SNES games at you (the core of my entire issue with NSO), but that bit of improvement is the only genuine opinion I have to counter this. (even then I'd probably say Nintendo is finally doing the bare minimum in that regard)

But yeah, NSO to me has never fully escaped the initial launch that purely makes itself look awful (both NSO and Expansion Pass had truly embarrassing starts, it needs to be said). There's no way to look at the day 1 of the service and not think that that is simultaneously limiting how one can legally own their retro titles going forward while also using those games as a way to get around that they made people pay for a service that used to be free, rather than actually providing an online service worth paying for. It's a better deal...now, but these changes would be better and Nintendo would still be incredibly successful and profitable (and its arguable that this would even hurt the specific profit of NSO that drastically anyway (and if VC makes up for that, who cares?))

also I can feel that all of this is true while preferring NSO going forward than VC, but I'm not interested in taking VC away from people because Nintendo is scared people wouldn't be into it

it barely qualifies as an online service. Apart from being able to play online it really offers nothing. Not even the absolute bog standard basics like messaging people or parties (don't come at me telling me to download an app in order to do that, I shouldn't have to). No free monthly games, no extras, nothing.

It allows you to play online with strangers and that's about it. When i want to play Smash Bros with friends I have to set up a group call on whatsapp and either have it on loudspeaker or put my headphones in and then I still need to keep the phone close to my mouth, it's so stupid

they should do some more of those 99 games because they can be a fun waste of ten minutes,
they've got tetris and pacman… space invaders and breakout could work quite well in the same kind of format

Add GB games (to the base subscription!) and bring back Super Mario Bros. 35.

Also, it would be nice to add new features to the NES/SNES games, e.g. a Zelda randomizer.

@chipia I don't get why GB/GBC/GBA games aren't already on the service. It seems like a no-brainer given the Switch being a hybrid console/handheld...

I bought my Switch just last month so I'm extremely late to the game. But I've always been on PlayStation and I think Nintendo's online service blows Sony's out of the water. I've enjoyed it way more than I ever enjoyed Sony's. The only thing I wish I could do is buy the NES, SNES, N64, and Genesis games to play offline even when I'm not subscribed.

I was thinking about Nintendo and the GB/GBC/GBA situation with NSO, and it dawned on me. Nintendo has the bare minimum right now in the base subscription with NES and SNES games. What if they've held off on adding the previous handhelds until after the 3DS and Wii U eShops close? It feels slightly cynical, but I could absolutely see it happening.

Just bring back Virtual Console period. And I am not talking about the VC like the Wii U, I am talking about the VC like the Wii.

@Tasuki Are you referring to the variety of first- and third-party titles/consoles?

For the cost I don't have any real issues with NSO, it's a bargain in my opinion. The release schedule doesn't bother me at all with the amount there is to play already. The addition of the N64 and Mario Kart courses was a huge plus for me personally. Even tho I own pretty much all the N64 titles being release I will still replay these on Switch. I don't pay for any other subscription services other than PlayStation online, so a couple of pounds a month for this much content is a no brainer.

@GameOtaku It costs me £35 a year for expansion pass.

It would cost me £10 for each N64 game, £8 for each SNES game and £5 for each NES game if they were to sell them individually.

Going back to buying them individually is just not worth it.