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Topic: NSO Game Trials

Posts 1 to 18 of 18

FishyS

A place to talk about the current game trials or opinions on NSO game trials in general. Game Trials seem like an under-utilized part of NSO, but Nintendo does trickle them down to us now and then. Please specify which region a trial is in since the NSO trials don't always seem to overlap region by region.

Recent trials:

NA (April 10 - May 6 2025):

  • Star Wars: Bounty Hunter - 50% off, 6/10 NL review score
  • Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles - 25% off, 6/10

NA (Feb 24 - Mar 2 2025): EA SPORTS FC 25, 60% off, 8/10 NL review score, 31.6 GB

NA (Jan 30 - Feb 5 2025):

  • Moving Out 2 - 60% off, 8/10 NL review score
  • Dead Cells - 50% off, 9/10

NA (Dec 11 - Dec 17 2024) - Cozy Grove. 50% off, 5/10 NL review score.

Europe (Dec 5 - Dec 11) - Wargroove 2. no sale, 9/10 NL review score.

NA + Europe (Oct 23 - Oct 30 2024):

  • A Little to the Left - 40% off, 8/10 NL review score
  • Cursed to Golf - 75% off, 8/10
  • Vampire Survivors (NA only) - 15% off, 9/10
  • Minecraft Dungeons (Europe only) - 50% off, 6/10

NA trial ( August 28 - September 03 2024) - Minecraft Dungeons

  • 38% off
  • 7.3 GB
  • 6/10 review on NL

Europe (Aug 19 - Aug 25 2024):

  • PowerWash Simulator - 30% off, 7/10 NL review
  • Cassette Beasts - 40% off, 8/10
  • Enter the Gungeon - 70% off, 9/10
  • Tetris Effect: Connected - 50% off, 10/10.

NA + Europe ( July 8 - July 14 2024) - Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope

  • 67% off ( $20)
  • 6.0 GB
  • 8/10 review on NL

NA trial ( June 20 - June 26 2024) - Darkest Dungeon

  • 70% off ($7.50)
  • 2.7 GB
  • 8/10 review on NL

Europe (June 6 - June 12 2024) - Hollow Knight

  • 5.2 GB
  • 50% off ($7.50)
  • 9/10 review on NL

NA + Europe trial (May 3 - May 9 2024) - STAR WARS: Knights of the Old Republic

  • 12 GB
  • 50% off ($7.50)
  • 7/10 review on NL

NA trial (April 17 - April 23 2024) - NBA 2K24

  • 58GB
  • 85% off sale ($9)
  • 5/10 review on NL

[Edited by FishyS]

FishyS

Switch Friend Code: SW-2425-4361-0241

FishyS

NA trial (April 17 - April 23 2024) - NBA 2K24

A couple thoughts:

  • Seems like a mediocre game (Nintendo Life rated it 5/10)
  • It is 58GB which just does not work well for game trials.
  • The game is currently on an 85% off sale.
  • I assume the company paid Nintendo to have the game trial because I'm not sure why Nintendo would choose this game otherwise.

I do wonder how Nintendo picks what games to do as trials, especially since they don't do them on any consistent schedule. They seem to have a mix of popular or trending indies, somewhat miscellaneous but reasonable seeming third party games, a rare actual Nintendo game, and games like this week which seem like high profile but subpar games trying to squeeze out a few more sales.

[Edited by FishyS]

FishyS

Switch Friend Code: SW-2425-4361-0241

Dogorilla

I think there have been a few occasions when the game trial is a big RPG or something like that, which seems a bit pointless to me - I'm not gonna download an entire RPG just to play it for a week before having to pay to continue. It works better when it's a more pick-up-and-play game (preferably with a small file size, as you say) like Suika Game or Vampire Survivors (the latter of which I bought because of a game trial, which is the only time I've actually done that).

Thank you Nintendo for giving us Donkey Kong Jr Math on Switch Online

FishyS

@Dogorilla I pretty much treat the trials like demos for games without demos so I don't really mind RPG trials; I'll play for an hour and either delete the trial or wishlist it to buy later... although if it's a zillion gigabytes I might not bother downloading it. I've bought cult of the lamb, Stardew, and Eastward after NSO trials. Although I didn't buy it, I really appreciated the Splatoon trial as well since I had never played Splatoon before. I always hope there will be a trial for series I'm interested in but never have demos such as Bayonetta or Xenoblade.

[Edited by FishyS]

FishyS

Switch Friend Code: SW-2425-4361-0241

Dogorilla

@FishyS Yeah that's fair, I suppose for me it's because I tend to only play one 'big' game at a time so I don't want to start another one from a trial and just make a few hours' progress, as even if I decide to buy the game I probably wouldn't play it all the way through straight away. For RPGs I'd rather have a specially made demo that just lets you play a short section of the game with a quick tutorial rather than going through all the opening fluff, but I appreciate that's a lot more work for the devs.

Thank you Nintendo for giving us Donkey Kong Jr Math on Switch Online

FishyS

NA + Europe trial (May 3 - May 9 2024) - STAR WARS: Knights of the Old Republic

  • 7/10 review on NL
  • 50% off ($7.50)
  • 12 GB

Why do the trials keep being enormous hard to download games?? Also why is this ancient looking game so large. o.o

I'll add this to the first post just so we eventually have them all in one place.

FishyS

Switch Friend Code: SW-2425-4361-0241

Yousef-

Oh wow you’re right these are under utilized cuz I had my switch for 3 years and never bothered with them. I downloaded monster hunter rise but that eventually came to game pass so I’m playing it there now.

How to reach me out:
Discord: yousef. (All lowercase with fullstop at the end)
Or message me in Xbox chat.
You can contact me just to say hi. <3

Switch Friend Code: SW-7391-1388-5607 | My Nintendo: Yousef | Bluesky: yousef7.bsky.social

FishyS

Europe NSO trial (June 6 - 12 2024) - Hollow Knight

50% off sale like often happens during trials.

We seem to be getting 1 NSO trial a month lately in NA and/or Europe (not always both).

[Edited by FishyS]

FishyS

Switch Friend Code: SW-2425-4361-0241

FishyS

NA trial ( 6/20 - 6/26) - Darkest Dungeon

70% off ($7.50)

FishyS

Switch Friend Code: SW-2425-4361-0241

Yousef-

@FishyS I saw you playin the demo for MM11, that’s a pretty cool game. Although incredibly short, and sorta made with replays in mind.

How to reach me out:
Discord: yousef. (All lowercase with fullstop at the end)
Or message me in Xbox chat.
You can contact me just to say hi. <3

Switch Friend Code: SW-7391-1388-5607 | My Nintendo: Yousef | Bluesky: yousef7.bsky.social

FishyS

Minecraft Dungeons is on a NSO trial in NA. I don't think NL made an article mentioning it.

FishyS

Switch Friend Code: SW-2425-4361-0241

Dogorilla

Is that the first time they've repeated a game trial?

Thank you Nintendo for giving us Donkey Kong Jr Math on Switch Online

FishyS

Dogorilla wrote:

Is that the first time they've repeated a game trial?

I think so. There isn't a great master list of previous NSO trials which is partially why I made this thread, but if you restrict to one region (e.g. NA) I don't recall any repeats. Cross-region the same games sometimes have different trial dates but that doesn't really count as a repeat.

The previous Minecraft Dungeons trial was more than 3 years ago. I really wonder what criteria Nintendo uses for these. In this case it was almost certainly Microsoft throwing money at them or part of some type of advertising agreement. Microsoft always seemed kind of upset how poorly this game sold.

FishyS

Switch Friend Code: SW-2425-4361-0241

gcunit

I enjoyed the Tetris Effect game trial. Despite having had the PS4 version for a while, I'd not played it yet (haven't used my PS4 in a long time) so was grateful for the opportunity to try it out during a weekend break last week. Tetrisbis one of the few games my partner has any interest in, so I handed my Switch to them, and now they want their own Switch and a copy of Tetris Effect 😁

You guys had me at blood and semen.

What better way to celebrate than firing something out of the pipe?

Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.

My Nintendo: gcunit

FishyS

The current near-monthly trial for NA is EA SPORTS FC 25.

30 GB is quite a lot to download for a trial.

FishyS

Switch Friend Code: SW-2425-4361-0241

gcunit

FishyS wrote:

The current near-monthly trial for NA is EA SPORTS FC 25.

30 GB is quite a lot to download for a trial.

If anyone does trial FC25, I'm interested to know whether Alex Iwobi's boots are in the right place. In the physical version we've got, his boots are detached from (but moving in sync with) his feet.

You guys had me at blood and semen.

What better way to celebrate than firing something out of the pipe?

Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.

My Nintendo: gcunit

dmcc0

@FishyS Seems like an odd choice. Strange that they don't have EA FC 25 Showcase on Switch - it appears to be available everywhere except Switch. It's essentially a demo version of the game that carries your progress through if you upgrade to the full version.

dmcc0

FishyS

I wonder if Switch 2 is going to have more or less trials. We haven't heard much about NSO on Switch 2 apart from no Switch 2 game vouchers and the new GameCube app.

FishyS

Switch Friend Code: SW-2425-4361-0241

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