Nintendo Adds Three New Games To The Switch Online NES Library This Month

Three games a month is such a sad trickle. They need to up the ante.

I have been wanting to play “The lost levels” for a long time. The first NES online game that I am excited for.

What cool game will Japan be getting exclusively?

I hope this is the last Mario game for a while. I like them obviously but let’s get some diversity!

How many NES games do they have left? I'm anxious for them to run out so we can hopefully get some SNES games.

Where's Bubble Bobble? It's really the only NES game I want.

Super pumped for punch-out!! but they really are running out to games, and a lot of the good third parties are either licensed or on other collections. Hopefully SNES comes soon.

@JackTako They announced the same 3 this time. Which is boring, because I usually play the Japanese ones too. Joy Mech Fight was an amazing surprise a few months ago.

@justin233 Counting third party games? Hundreds. If they continue drip feeding 2-3 at a time, they could do NES games for years.

@NintendoFan4Lyf

I feel like it wouldn't hurt Nintendo Life to remind people more frequently that they can download the cross-region "exclusives"

What a good month!!! But im curious as to how long they are going to keep this up. I love the 1st party stuff but 3rd party NES games are just as important. And really big titles still haven't shown up. The likes of Mega Man, Castlevania, Contra, Bomberman 2, Bubble Bobble, Final Fantasy and even the Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) series. I know some or even most of these are on other collections but gettimg them for free and having to ability to play online is what makes them worth!

2 awesome game! And 1 that I've never played (hopefully I enjoy it)

@MotionMan I would LOVE Bubble Bobble

Semi excited for these games. I can’t wait to see what kind of spin @Charlie_Girl will put on this though.

Between this 3-2 NES games a month and the online lag, I don't think many people will subscribe to this service, which is sad because they could have done better but for the sake of not copying the others they refused.

I mean, not bad but... SNES, Game Boy, GBA, N64? When?

I know alot of people would prefer SNES games, myself included but I won't complain at all about getting these! Finally get my chance to master Punch Out!

@gloom There aren’t any NES Mario games left, are there? The original trilogy plus Lost Levels, Dr. Mario, and the first Mario Golf game (NES Open Tournament Golf, that is) are all available on NSO.

How much could it really cost to pay Mike Tyson to have him back in his own game? I want the wii game ported with Mike added in.

@sixrings The way his finances are, I suppose a burger and a soda would be enough lol

I hope we get Earthbound Zero some time soon.

@imgrowinglegs Yeah, but I don't see the vast majority of third-party games making their way to NSO.

If they were able to give us Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels then they should be able to give us EarthBound Beginnings as well.

Only one word to say: Boring.

@justin233 It all comes down to how Nintendo handles remaining region exclusives like Startropics II and Fire Emblem Gaiden. I'd guess SNES would start in September.

Wow. This is... super. And by super, I mean painfully mediocre at best.

@Grumblevolcano I hope so. There are some SNES games that interest me but I rather have them to be in the e-shop, so I could play play them everywhere without needing internet.

SUPAH MARIO BRUDDAS 2 BABBYYYYYYY

Never played Punch-Out, so i'm excited for that!

Eh more eh this month. Why did I sign up for 12 months again, I don't even play games online. Post Purchase regret.

Solid lineup I suppose but man, I just don't care much for NES games still. Fingers crossed we get SNES games announced soon.

@SamusLv7 My online gaming does not have lag. Which means that there is something wrong with your internet speed or your wi-fi or your console.

Meh...they could have done something cooler while we wait for the Holidays for the next big games. Just give us the full lineup. It's weird and hard to get excited about games being released based on some unknown factor.

Alright punch out! now I can test the lag input. If I can beat sodapopinski then switch has less lag input then wii u, because that's as far as I get in wii u virtual console. I have no problem getting up to Tyson on my nes/crt.

Kinda excited to try smb2 LL and punch out. Gotta be honest though the one featuring Mr dream always seemed harder on the classic edition than the original game with Mike Tyson. I used to be able to get to Tyson no problem back in the ( even as a little kid) but playing the Mr dream version I think i only got to soda popinski at the most. Couldn't get passed him and he was always one of the easy ones for me

@saturn_hero wierd I just said the same thing without even seeing your post

I’m thinking they will likely announce SNES games for the Nintendo E3 Direct. 3-4 months should be enough time to get any NES stragglers on the service.

Now that I know Konami is releasing that classics collection, I’m not so interested in any remaining NES games.

Punch-Out is a great choice though. The first Punch-Out is still the best one. Seeing Little Mac running in his pink hoodie, with the Statue of Liberty in the distance, gets me pumped every time.

Not a bad selection of games this month, but it seems like they're slowly running out of NES games to throw into NSO. If I worked at Nintendo, I would've at least put in SNES, Game Boy, and GBA games to beef up NSO's retro game catalog. From my understanding, they shouldn't be too hard to emulate, especially when you take Virtual Console into consideration.

@NotTelevision Yeah, it doesn't seem like Konami's NES games would be coming. I don't even think any Mega Man games would be available either, since Legacy Collection is a thing on Switch.

That would be a nice surprise if they did announce SNES games for Switch Online, not gonna lie. It may not necessarily take the world by storm, but it would certainly make the service a bit better. Wouldn't it be nice if they included SNES games alongside NES when Switch Online came out, though?

@NintendoByNature
Funny. Its not because the one with mr. Dream is harder, I have both versions on NES and can consistently make it up to mr. Dream or Tyson on a CRT tv. Its because of the infamous input lag from HDTV's. Makes Punchout impossible to complete.

What is the SP game going to be?
The Lost Levels?

I think there was a time-attack version of Star Soldier, but I think people in the preservation scene were trying to determine the origin: if it was an official game or a ROM hack.

@justin233 Lets do the math Well, at least a VERY rough estimate.
There are 715 licensed NES games.
Let's go by 3 games a month.
That would be ~238 months, so ~20 years.

So yeah...you need a little more patience :3

Why wait to snap your Switch in half with Cuphead when you can wait to snap your Switch in half with The Lost Levels?

@MarioLover92 I don’t think Nintendo has much of a choice at this point. Contra and Castlevania will come via the Konami collections. Some classics like Batman, Ducktails, and TMNT won’t make it due to licensing issues. There are some great ones left (Double Dragon 2, Rygar...) but very few headliner titles.

SNES games are inevitable.

Some of those Neo Geo baseball games look cool & all but part of me is still holding out for Bad News Baseball to show up.

3 new games and none of them is particularly good...but yes Super Mario Bros. 2 is worth trying

Is it the first time we can play The Lost Levels without the revamped graphics of the SNES version?

@Moroboshi876 The FDS version was rereleased on Wii, 3DS, and Wii U through Virtual Console.

@Galarian_Lassie Yeah, but this is the first time we have a NES version, right?

Wait now were back to three games a month

@Moroboshi876 The Lost Levels was released on the Wii Virtual Console in every region listed as a Japan Import.

Three great titles.

@gloom There are no many more NES Mario games not yet realeased....

@Moroboshi876 I don’t think Nintendo would make a new NES version for the Online Service. And I believe the Famicom and NES applications both use the same emulator, so the FDS version should run natively on it.
@Zequio There’s still Wrecking Crew (which I’m pretty sure counts as a Mario spinoff), there’s also Golf, DK Jr., DK 3, Pinball, and Yoshi’s Cookie (which I think Nintendo may not be able to rerelease anymore), which all feature Mario in a notable manner.

I have 62 NES games on my Wii U. I don’t need this service.

@Galarian_Lassie @Porky I know, I have it on Wii U's VC, just thought maybe this time it was a true western version. Just ignore my comment.

Speaking of poison mushrooms I am hoping we get those in Mario Maker 2.

Star Soldier! The predecessor to some excellent Turbo-Grafx shmups. Cool to see a game from a forgotten publisher like Taxan join the fray (maybe the excellent Low G Man or Burai Fighter will come too?)

Ya'll are a bunch of sourpusses about this service. Three games a month... it gives you time to appreciate these games. And if you don't like em, I'm sure your gaming backlog is beckoning. Besides, if you got 20 NES games a month, how many would you actually play more than once? Shoot, when I got Punch-Out for my NES as a kid, that game alone kept me going for months.

@DTMOF84 There's no reason to drag other users into a conversation just because you don't like them.

While I roll my eyes at the trickle of NES games, I am still extremely happy to have Punch Out!!! that's for dang sure. Lost Levels will be...fun to try again too.

@Moroboshi876 I had the 'NES' version on the Wii Virtual Console. Super Mario Deluxe for Gameboy Color also had NES graphics for the Lost Levels, but obviously revamped for the GB screen.

Yay..... said no-one.

At least Punch-Out!! is fun.

With three games a month the ambassador is really spoiling us.

Not often I get to quote an 80s Chocolate advert!

Back to three games and still seems not enough. I’d take three game spread over three different console types.

@AlienigenX Really? Lost Levels is easily the weakest mainline Mario game on the system. Or possibly ever. The only one close in my opinion is the original Mario Land.

@thesilverbrick
I can't believe five people downvoted your comment.

We need SNES, N64, etc. games too.

Never heard of Star Soldier before. I guess we’re closing up on the SNES games, then. My guess is we’ll get SNES games this fall.

It's not the same without Tyson's ugly mug.

hey Star soldier, I have such nostalgia with this one, the Level 1 music is stuck to m y head now as I type lol

Will we ever get Mike Tyson's Punch out ever again?

@Luffymcduck Agree with you. They should put SNES, N64 and Game Cube games on Switch Online and also on the e-shop for the people that want to play them on the go without using internet.

SNES, N64 and Gamecube games please Nintendo, we'll all be dead by the time there is a decent library on this service. Look at Gamepass for crying out loud, they add games weekly at this point and they don't even own them. With Konami releasing their own compilations plus Capcom doing the same with Megaman/Disney games (elsewhere at least) there isn't much potential left for NES as most are licensed

SNES won't come until they want us to renew our 1 year subscription.

And Mike Tyson?

I don't have Nintendo Online so I wanted to ask. Do games disappear as new games are added? Or, do you get to keep all the games that have been released?

@carlos82 won't it just be the same licensing problems with the SNES and N64 games? The bundles often span several generations and platforms.

I have yet to play Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream, or specifically, fight Mr. Dream as I've only fought Mike Tyson. In fact, that clip above is the only time I've ever SEEN him. That smile! That face! Time to punch it!

Slightly off-topic, but I can't hang in Arcade Archives Punch-Out!! for jack lol.

I'm glad we're getting all three games this time. I wish Nintendo would release the obscure Japanese only games on our NES online app.

Interested to see the first Soldier game on NES. I really liked the ones on TG-16 that I picked up.

Localize Famicom Wars!

@Nintendofan83 it would but there are still plenty of Nintendo owned games from those consoles and given Microsoft's current relationship with Nintendo, they could do a deal to get Rare games from those times

@Nintendofan83 You don't keep anything. It is a subscription service like Netflix (or PS+). As long as you are subscribed you get access to the games, but once you unsubscribe you are locked out of the app.

But to answer your question, no so far nothing has been removed.

3 potential winners this month. Punchout!! is easily in my top 10 NES games ever. Lost Levels is amusing. Star Soldier looks fun, but never played originally.
Due to licensing and Capcom/Konami putting out their own collections, only other fun games I see coming to the NES service is Double Dragon II, Star Tropics II, and Wrecking Crew.(that last one is more interesting than fun.)
Would like to have all the TMNT games, but there's no way they could clear the licensing and make all the various holders happy.

I want Doki Doki Panic!

@Cosats same here. People just like to complain and repeat what they hear, which is usually negative.

Sure this isn't a late April Fools, i mean we're all getting 3 games. Usually we get 2, and Japan gets 3.

Star Soldier is quite notable because Takahashi Meijin, a former Hudson Soft executive, was able to fire 16 shots per second in that game.

Why these games aren't there better NES games out there? How many Mario NES games or NES games that are unheard of do we need?

Lost levels baby! Almost got to the end on 3DS but then a friend of mine saved over my save state at the final boss...

@Galarian_Lassie Thats a very lose interpretation of what is a "Mario Game", Punch Out and Tetris are Mario Games too then?

Maybe, if we behave, we can play GC classics when the Switch will only be, like, 10 years old...

Star Soldier is new to me. I'm terrible at space shooters.

@MotionMan could be the license issues with those third party games. Nintendo may not want to pay up.

meh meh meh, after getting nintendo online subscription for free with twitch prime I've only did a couple quick moments in NES games even though I had a NES back in the day they just don't interest me that much nowadays, i'm always more nostalgic for SNES games, though there are a few NES games I'd be more interested in, but they release mostly a lot of the same ones or ones I'm just not interested in. At least Tetris 99 is pretty fun, it's the only reason I've used nintendo online for at this point.

three excellent additions

What about Europe? I'd love to play some Super Mario lost levels (again)

@Luffymcduck Yeah, I can’t see the downvotes, but it doesn’t surprise me. Some people can’t handle even a valid and gentle critique of Nintendo. It’s like they’re insecure and they tie it to their own self worth.

@sixrings Meth and hookers don't come cheap.

God, the western cover arts for punch out and star soldier are terrible.

I bought the Switch day one and have huge support for the Switch overall (bought way more games on Switch then other systems) but their payed online service really needs to step up their game in more ways then one in order for me to subscribe again.

Just paying money (even at its current price) to play online with so little benefit is crazy when you compare all the things you get with PSN Plus (AAA free games, discount on third party services like food delivery and Spotify), discount on games in the psn store and the list goes on and on. Step up your game Nintendo!

@BlackenedHalo All three of those games are great.

I wonder if they will do 3rd party games like the NES Classic Edition such as Castlevania, Final Fantasy, and Mega Man 2.

It looks like the Japanese Punch Out is the gold cart prize version that ends with Super Macho Man. No dream match or Another World Circuit in that version.

For a system sold on it's multiplayer capabilities, and the ability to play NES games online, it's surprising how few actual multiplayer games they've put out on the NES app, I feel they should focus on more simultaneous multiplayer titles, maybe even dip into 3rd party games that supported 4-player like Gauntlet 2 or Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road

Well, at least we're getting all three games this month.

Cant wait for the SP version of Punch Out where you fight Mike Tyson right away.

Oh, good, time for me to go through this again..

These 3 NES games released on my Everdrive N8 years ago

@justin233
There’s no reason to have to wait for them to run out of NES releases to put other retro system games on Switch Online. They should put SNES, N64, and GBA on it now and release 2 games for each system per month. At this rate we are lucky to get half of what we got on the VC and the Switch Online is supposedly the successor to the VZc.

@Don Well, theoretically, sure... but this is Nintendo.

I am looking forward to Punch out but the lack of Mike Tyson is a bad idea. Star soldier seems like Contra so that will be cool. I do have to admit I am liking Star Tropics from last month. I never got to play this one when it came out because the rental store was always out when I tried to get it.

@Heavyarms55 That's why I went ahead and bought a pre-owned Wii U. Got tired of waiting for Paper Mario on the Switch, so now I'm playing it on the Wii U.

Meh. Once SNES and N64 games start coming to this, then I’ll care.

Did not realise till I read this thread that you also have access to the Japanese games if you had set up a Japanese account. It took literally 2 minutes from reading that to downloading the Japanese online - which takes seconds - to having access to the games! Japanese boxart is awesome. Only problem is the horific organisation. Been carefully curating the UK site when games released with certain groups of games given their own line. Man does this service need Wii U style folders (and Wii U style manuals natch). Weird how the Wii U homepage looks more modern, is easier to access, and much more comprehensive than the Switch counterpart.

@thesilverbrick you get that or less from any other platform.

@Dirty0814 Not true at all. The games included with Sony’s subscription services are of far greater quality. We’re talking 30 year old games here. What they lack in quality they should make up for in quantity.

@Leej07 I can't take my Wii U on the train or with my when I travel. The signal to the game pad is so short range I cannot even take it to another room in the same apartment. :/

Really? Almost all games sony gives are crap games or are games that are a decade old. Age has no difference in this case anyways. If a game is fun its fun quality isn't about how new the games are. If you believe that then you are mistaken. As far as that goes sony charges you 60 bucks a year for the crap games they give you when Nintendo charges 20.
My comment stands no other platform gives you anything better or more.

I just got the online service this week. Opened up this app.... woof. It's basically the NES Classic and a few other games. Why bother? Not worth the money so far it feels like. Tecmo Bowl is the only thing I've really messed with, and even that was only 1 game for nostalgia sake.

I personally love Punch Out but that was the last really notable NES game I wanted to play. Still waiting on SNES games for this to stop feeling like a gyp. At least Twitch Prime is covering my next year.

Decent lineup for the month, although there's a lot of better shooters than Star Soldier on the system. I know they've already added Gradius to the list, but Gradius II (only released on the Famicom) is a far better game, and it even surpasses Salamander/Life Force.

Also, there's Parodius, Gun Mac and Crisis Force. Star Soldier is just... bland.

Punch-Out is great, but input lag may be a big no-no. Mario 2 is cool, I used to like it a lot when I played All-Stars back in the day. Always felt like it was better than the original SMB (which I'm not a big fan, to be honest), but it's nothing stellar either.

It's a shame that the best Taxan game (GI-Joe: A Real American Hero) won't ever be re-released because licensing, just like we'll never see a TMNT game being added to the NES Online program.

@XCWarrior Tecmo Bowl is great, but Super Tecmo Bowl is a lot better (but it won't be available because licensing). The thing is, it's a great multiplayer game, but gets boring to play alone.

A lot of people on the Tecmo Bowl community (the guys who update the game every year) thought about playing TB online on the Switch, but the NSO doesn't even have a proper matchmaking system, so it's a little annoying to have to add a lot of people manually to try and setup a few games.

@Gravitron there's no need for it: you can input a password to go straight to the last fight.

Like most people my first experience of The Lost Levels was on Super Mario All-stars in the early 90's on the SNES

Obviously that game had a lick of shiny paint compared to the original so I find it hard to go back and play the NES version

I feel bad for people who don't use emulators.

They're going to have to considerably increase their output to make this worth 25 bucks a year.

The ability to access peer to peer quality online multiplayer in a small handful of titles without proper voice and social features isn't even a selling feature in 2019.

All the value of the subscription is placed entirely on this emulator and it's slow trickle is asinine. We should be playing gamecube and 3ds games from our old libraries. Not being nickel and dimed to access them again.

I won't be renewing. Already turned off auto renewal. Waste of money and an amateur paltry offering compared to the competition.

It becomes even less of a value knowing that they will take them away. So they can sell them to us again next gen.

@SamusLv7 I only pay for the Cloud saves honestly. The game selection for someone who has had Nintendo system for years is not good. I have so many of these on our WiiU, 3DS, etc. so until they get Gamecube I think a lot of fans will just ignore these. Great if you haven't played them, but I think there are a lot more of us who have played these dozens of time and are ready to move on.

@8bitforever I see were you are coming from. My reason of wanting these games are because I skipped the Wii U and didn't have Internet during the Wii days, so I haven't played SNES and N64 games in a long time. Another reason I want them (if possible, on the e-shop), is to play them on the go (especially N64 GCN games).

And I thought us PS+ guys got shafted.

@DTMOF84 😘