Nintendo Expands The Switch Online SNES And NES Service With Six Classic Games

They are nice and all, just wish we'd get more faster.

People have the right to voice their criticisms of NSO.

However, in my personal opinion, calling this "bad/awful" when it's only 20 dollars per year is a bit overkill. Yeah we want to see it get better, but I don't see it as terrible. Again, my opinion. If you disagree, that's fine. But that's what I think.

That being said, I'm excited to try out Star Fox 2 and Kirby Super Star.

Awesome! Love that they aren't stopping with the NES games either. I have an SNES classic, but I play my switch more, so I might actually play more Star Fox 2 than before.

I wonder what next year's 6 games will be.

JP famicom app is getting Famicom Wars (the first game in the Advance Wars series)

Super Punch Out is a really fun game.

Are you joking me?

I'm glad they're adding more games, however I probably won't touch any of these at all. Hopefully the next drop isn't another 3 months from now :/

Nintendo life posts an article about the lack of Nes/Snes online service update. A few hours later this happens.

The time apart between game releases was a bit longer than we anticipated.

But if we get more games like Journey to Silius and Star fox 2(?!) with this schedule then there's no complaints. To me at least.

No junk in the next wave Nintendo!

Awesome! Journey to Silius & Crystalis! Two of my all time favorites!

Six games that are instant classic, that's awesome. Nice to see Breath of Fire II and Crystalis there even though Crystalis is already on the SNK collection. Glad to have Journey to Silius there too, the game that could had never being re-released had it become a license Terminator game. Also to those who miss out on Star Fox 2 due to not being able to get a Super NES Classic Edition, now's your chance to play it.

While the game selection itself is fine, this feels really lackluster. I totally understood when they said they would start releasing games in batches irregularly instead of 3 each month, every month but for said batch to be only 2 months worth of games after a 3 month wait is even worse than what we had before.

You should at the very least match the amount of games the old monthly system would've gave (9 games), not give us even less than we would've got if you never changed the system.

Well uh...I guess my SNES classic is useless now...

Very solid titles. Most happy about super punch out, and the two nes games actually. I didn't play either so I'm excited to try em out. This is the type of release that should happen monthly, if not, bi-monthly.

We'll never get the best Final Fantasy games or Earthbound at this rate.

It's been 69 years...

Dang, a lot of whiners in here. I’m stoked.

For 30 bucks I may bite on those NES controllers, always kinda wanted those but never wanted to pay 60 dollars for them

It's hard to complain about getting more games. The more the merrier! And it's a pretty good selection this time, too. Still though, 6 games is about 2 months worth of updates, and we waited 3 months to get it. And who knows when the next one will come. Unless there's some reason we don't know about for holding back games and slowly drip feeding them, I think they should be trying to pick up the pace, not slow down.

I know they won't give it to us but I want Earthbound.

Awesome! I'll take it! Never got to play SF2 on my mini before I gave it away.

Oof, fantastic choices for SNES especially since I haven’t played Star Fox 2 before. Never heard of the NES games but I’ll give them a shot.

@personauser93 I wouldn't expect Final Fantasies here at all given Squeenix's been reselling their old games themselves. I do wish Square would port over more of their SNES back catalogue myself.

Now these are good games. More so the NES lineup for once imo. If only they picked up the slack elsewhere. But this is good news all around

Edit: The 50% off price of the NES controllers should be the regular asking price just sayin

@PBandSmelly just hack it

@fafonio
Nah, I use my products the way the devs intended. Yes, I know Im gonna get downvotes for saying that. Emulation isnt a smart thing to do imo

@PBandSmelly you are still using the hardware as intended. What you’re doing is just adding new games. And you already paid Nintendo. If there is no other way to play, let’s say, Chip n’ Dale or Aladdin, with the intended controller that it was meant for... then you get no other choice. This example applies to the other 100 games that will never come to NSO because of Nintendo or licensing rights.

The same day as the Game Awards? Could this be a hint that Nintendo has really good things for the Game Awards? Nintendo likes to give little hints in many different ways.

Kirby Super Star was all I needed to be happy. (Okay, Terranigma too, but that's a pipe dream.) And I'm honestly much happier with this than the forced filler games and "special edition" screen clog the NES got.

@fafonio
I just dont feel comfortable with that. I have no real need to since I own all the games I want on the original carts or snes online now

This is great! I've had a really strong urge to play Breath of Fire 2 lately, and the NES games they chose are excellent!

Solid choices for both systems. Nice!

They need to bring Virtual Console/NSO to mobile as an added service. I would kill countless hours playing SNES games on the go!

@personauser93
(Laughs in cheap goodwill finds)

Star fox 2 is a terrible game so whilst its exiting to play from a "never released" point of view that excitement wont last long once you play it. I'd take or leave kirby, never played BOF but the star of the show for me is Super punch out. What an amazing little game. "Gabby Jay, yaaay"

Crystalis is basically "What if Zelda 2 actually felt like a Zelda game" in the best ways possible.

Solid offerings all around. Never played journey to Silius, but it looks like something I'd enjoy.

@PBandSmelly defenately hack it. I felt the same as you. Was a bit worried to do it to be fair but there are plenty of step by step guides on you tube and it took 20 mins to have about 60 top tier snes games on there. Not to mention mega drive, game boy, GBA, game gear etc. It was so easy to do that my 14 year old then went and done his. I'd reccomend it to anyone that had even thought about doing it.

Wasn’t it just yesterday people were freaking out that it hadn’t been updated in a while?

Glad Nintendo read the complaints on this website about not having new games in NSO service. Glad Nintendo learned their lesson.

@BrandonGiesing @Klinki what are you talking about? They gave us a large head start with 20 games at once?

I want Gimmick! and Ufouria: The Saga on the NES service.

Finally! Never had the SNES mini so excited to try star fox 2

I did the free trial of switch online, and played it about 10 minutes one day, and maybe 5 minutes another day. It was just awful. And the games they offer are a joke. Even if the service was free I still wouldn’t use it. I was extremely disappointed in it.

Wow 6 games after 3 months, how generous!

Looks like a nice update. There will probably be some special versions of games as well which I wish I could just throw in a folder or something seen as I don't play those.

@Manah I would love to see a game like
Terranigma on here as well, heard it's great but never played it. I've played Illusions of Gaia though and I wouldn't mind seeing that one show up as well, hopefully it's not just a pipe dream. May as well throw soulblazer in there as well.

HELL YES, WE GETTING KIRBY SUPER STAR. That's what I needed most and now Switch is my main console 4 life.

So, I'm guessing Nintendo's going with a quarterly release schedule?

Calling it right now: the next set of games will go up in March.

Still no Donkey Kong country. its 25th anniversary and why wasn’t it there on SNES online

Just in time for the Game Awards and this could also lead into a December Nintendo Direct.

And what games! Wow!

i understand some people want to see more nes and snes games added to the switch online service but you have to understand nintendo has to go through channels to add games that 3rd party devs made for nes and snes which takes time wen some of those devs in the past no longer exist or merge with bigger game companies.

@Anri02 Whiners will whine. (Some of them are still at it, even. Sad.)

@graysoncharles
I respect your opinion. I don't agree, but I respect your feelings. I find value in it. If you don't, that's fine. We don't have to feel the same way.

@Kiyata was it really a joke and awful?

Or just not for you?

The NES games are the interesting ones. Looking forward to play them. The others have I played so many times, but still great additions to the library.

At least there's no shovelware on there. Mostly classics and cult classics

@klingki
What game is your avatar?

@Kidfunkadelic83
I get where your coming from, I know its legal, easy, and cool...but I just dont feel right about it? It doesnt seem like the right thing even though its ok...yeah I know Im wierd😜

In the time it took Nintendo to release a few 30-year-old ROMs I've been able to play The Last of Us and Nioh (and more) with PS-plus. Yeah, I won't be coming back to Nintendo Online.

The service is garbage even for $20. That being said if they do plan on using this as a way to eventually introduce gamecube, gba, and ds games then I'll probably end up loving it. But knowing how greedy companies are, I can see ninty raising the price the moment they do give those games out.

I loved Silius as a kid!!! Awesome addition. Can't wait to try Star Fox 2

@Judal27 It's cheap as hell. I'd pay it if it was only for online. Anyone I see complaining about the service being 'garbage' or not up to their lofty standard seems like such a brat to me. The Switch online services allow me to play my games online, and I have access to a giant pile of games I have either already played, get to play for the 1st time, or probably don't even have time to play. I could nitpick the games I personally would like to see, but I already have dozens of games to play. Everyone is so spoiled for choice these days. $20 a year is garbage? I fart out $20 in the wink of an eye.

I'm just glad that they're six GOOD games, and not games that are absolute crap

Wake me up when we get any of the following:

Chrono Trigger
Earthbound
FF 4-6
Seiken Densetstu
Super Mario RPG

This is a great update! I'm happy more people will get to play Star Fox 2!

Heck yes! And most of those games, I have genuinely wanted to play!

@Friendly yes it really is awful. I didn’t like anything about it. I’d rather just play my games solo than deal with the shoddy internet connection they offer, and the SNES/NES game selection they have is a joke for sure. I have far better SNES/NES games in my own collection that I’ve had for decades, and can play anytime on my original NES, Super Nintendo, or SupaBoy S, which offers a significantly better gaming experience than the Nintendo Switch Online does. I really expected more from Nintendo, perhaps because their brand had far better offerings all around in years past. 🤷🏻‍♀️

With Crystalis on this and the SNK collection, I wonder if other publishers will start putting games on these services, even if they are part of collections already on Switch.

YES!!!!! I couldn't be much happier than this SNES lineup! Super Punch Out, Kirby Super Star, and STAR FOX 2!! Were some of my most wanted games for the lineup. After we Mario All Stars, Earthbound, and the DKC trilogy I'll be golden.

@brandonbwii It's called Roof Rage. It's on the eShop, definitely worth a look!

@Friendly They also dropped a bunch of NES games at the start too, then added around 3 per month after that. SNES got the initial dump of 20, but then no updates. If they still added games monthly, we probably would've been getting our 7th, 8th, and 9th new SNES games this month, but instead we're just getting our first 4. It's no biggie to me, I don't have enough time to play them all anyway, but I think it would be cool in general to have a more comprehensive library.

Super Punch Out, yes, I'm there!

Super punch out! Yes was waiting for that one.

Aged. Badly.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.

@Kidfunkadelic83 I have 4 of them modded now with around 7500 games each with a slew of systems with complete libraries! Nes, Snes, N64, Genesis, Master System, Sega CD, 32X, Neo Geo, Amiga 500, Atari 2600/5200/7800/800, GB, GBC, GBA, DS, PSP, psone, Intellivision, Colecovision, Wonderswan, Turbographx 16, pc engine/cd, 600+original MAME Arcade games!!! It’s absolutely unbelievably incredible and the best retro money I’ve ever spent!! This absolutely solves the licensing issues many many games have & will therefore never see the legit light of day! No guilt here as I have and continue to spend a small fortune on Video games!

Journey to silius? Okay you have my attention Nintendo! Funny story about that game. I hear it was originally planned to be a terminator game but they lost the rights or something and had to make changes. Still it's one of the best shmups on Nes and quite the hidden gem as well! Not alot of people know about it.

Also every one of these games is largely considered great so no complaints from me! Still, six games in what 4 months? Come on Nintendo I'm in my 40's for gods sake! Can't wait around forever!

I have always wanted to play Crystalis. Now’s my chance.

@Tandy255
Crystalis is a very nice game! It's like Zelda only more science fictiony!

Didn't expect Journey to Silius to be on this list.

@Tandy255 Crystalis is also in the SNK Collection.

@redd214 You want them to add more games but you don’t want to play them? All of these new additions are excellent; you should not miss out on Crystalis, Star Fox 2 and Kirby Super Star

@Zeldafan79 It’s more like Ys than Zelda, but yeah not too far off. It’s much faster paced action wise but does get bogged down by grind in the first half.

@Antraxx777
Okay yeah probably a better comparison. I haven't played Crystalis in like 100 years. I just remember it being a good time.

@Kidfunkadelic83 It’s only weakness is its brevity, otherwise the action is awesome and it runs way, way better than the first game.

@Captain_Toad I think the talking point and this post were two days apart or so but I get your point. Funny how things like this happen.

Fun fact: These controllers cannot be charged by the Switch Lite, nor do they have an alternate method of charging. They require a Nintendo Switch console to charge.

It’s neat that they can connect to the side of the Switch for convenient charging, but considering that limitation, Nintendo probably should have had they be standalone controllers with their own USB-C charging port like the SNES variant. Oh well.

@Zeldafan79 I guess I’ll have to look up the instruction manual online. I wish they had the QR codes for instruction manual links, like the mini consoles.

I only want Donkey Kong Country trilogy on Switch!

Super Punch out !! <3

@graysoncharles I don't see why a significantly cheaper service (or free with Amazon Prime) should offer the same as more expensive alternatives. It's simply how services work.

Thanks Nintendo you just made my day , awesome update keep em comming !!!

Star fox 2 is the game that zero wanted to be....the graphics are horrible, but the walker is so much fun and adds a lot!

The Nes games sound so cool!

These are bottom of the barrel games for snes. What a joke lol

Kinda bummed that I got a Mini SNES, since is kinda seems like all of the games are heading to Switch, but whatever... This way it'll be easier to play them.

The NES games look fun! Never played Silius or Crystalis before, they look awesome!

@Daniel36 @PBandSmelly my thought too, although the SNES Mini doesn’t require you to login regularly to a paid subscription service that may eventually be shut down. 40 years from now, Starfox 2 will still be legally playable on the Mini, but Switch Online might be ancient history.

@fafonio “if you want to play these games, it’s the only way”.

Firstly, not entirely true - there’s always the actual original hardware. May be expensive, might not work well with modern TVs without modding or additional hardware, but it’s an option.

Secondly, you paid Nintendo for hardware with X games included. You’re not paying for the ROMs you download, so you don’t legally own those ROMSs, and you’re not paying the people who worked to develop them.

Thirdly, you don’t NEED to play those games, you’re exercising a desire to play them. You’re making a choice that you could easily live without. No-one owes you the ability to play them on that Mini console in the way you want to, just because the controller is the right shape. You sound entitled.

While I still despise the dumb service for replacing Virtual Console entirely I do admit that those are some fine additions.

@gaga64 I suppose that's true. Didn't think about that.

I have a lot of these on original cartridge (and more!) but my life just doesn’t allow me to spend a day trying to complete them, so there’s something to be said for save states and playing on my Switch, otherwise I’m doomed to play the first few levels of these games for eternity! 😂. So I’m thankful for NSO even though it’s criminally under-utilised by Nintendo 😉.

@gamerjo probably the same reason we don’t see a lot of other 3rd party classics, licensing can be tricky, time consuming and expensive.

FAIR PLAY, THOSE ARE SIX OUT AND OUT BANGERS.

@Anri02 @Dr_Corndog Yep it’s sad to see, isn’t it? I wonder if Nintendo realises how much emotional distress it’s putting these poor people through. Some people have only bought these games 3-4 times but don’t have them plugged in.

@Antraxx777 yes, them adding more games is a good thing but I realize not everything they add I will be a fan of. I've played Starfox 2 and Kirby, not really my cup of tea and Crystalis just doesn't look appealing imo. I hope you enjoy them though!

What I do for is the games are 30 or about 30 years old why release them every once and a while. They should just release all titles get it over with. If people can mod the switch in a day and add all these titles that work on the switch Nintendo can too

*dont get dam auto correct

Definitely gonna log back in for Kirby Super Star and at least this is the second official release of Star Fox 2.

"Set in a world where civilization lies in ruins". Good thing we got the Y2K bug fixed, that could've been us!

@Zeldafan79 Rumor is Silius didn't meet the quality standards for the Terminator IP owners. Because clearly Mindscape and Radical Entertainment had a better eye for that on the game that was released in 1992. They remembered the sewers, the burger shop with the wet floors, and especially that final climactic battle between Kyle Reese and the Terminator was captured beautifully in their rendition. JUST LIKE OUT OF THE FILM!

Starfox 2 now that’s more like it 😀😀

On the first day of Christmas, SNES online gave to me...

@Kalmaro because?

@Kiyata so it’s not for you in your situation, with having all cardridges and all.

I really hope the Breath of Fire love is heralding a port of Breath of Fire III.

This is why people should just shut up.

There was a topic whining about the lack of games on NES/SNES online on Tuesday, only for them to look like fools on Wednesday.

😂😂😂

@klingki more games is always better! i agree

But I don’t see why they should’ve releaded 3 each month since releasing 20 in september. That was a massive dump of games in time which contradicts your logic a bit of ‘getting 3 games a month’. Just draw a graph out of it and see what I mean. Nintendo could have also drip feed us snes games every month, with the first 3 games being released in september.

i like the bigger batches, since there now is something in it which caters a bigger bunch of people, instead of a minority so the majority can complain again.

Awesome update, much prefer the 6 games at once approach, I still have to get through the initial SNES launch games, plus Star Fox 2 is worth the price of admission alone.

@JR150 I agree. There is no need to complain about this because of the very low yearly fee.

Anyways. Nice to see Starfox 2 added.

@Friendly,

Not the majority that is complaining though, we always think it is because we are conversing with similar minorities on the internet.

Yes, finally an NES-game with an awesome soundtrack. Journey to Silius!

This will be my first time playing Super Punch Out, can't wait!

@Friendly I'm only basing my logic off of what they did with the NES games. The NES service also launched with them dropping 20 games at once, same as with the SNES games. But then they immediately started releasing 3 NES games per month after that, something that did NOT happen with the SNES. So again, it's not like I'm demanding something more, I was just expecting them to do exactly the same thing they were already doing, not less.

TL;DR version:
NES = 20 at launch + 3 per month for 1 year
SNES = 20 at launch + nothing for 3 months + 4 in Dec.

@KingMike
Oh god don't remind me! Those actual terminator games were awful!
Ever played Total recall on Nes? Talk about garbage!

People didn't mind the online when it was free, but paying for a service lacking the basic features like voice and parties and janky servers will certainly wind people up.

With that said, having Starfox 2 on the app is a good choice. However it's making the SNES mini less appealing now, personally i'd have put Donkey Kong Country on as it was it's 25th anniversary the other day.

@johnvboy minorities? We aren't a minority at all, the service is simply unexisting, and they still try to keep people paying by releasing old games with an eyedropper, it's a fact.
But it'd still suck even if I was the only one saying that, it really feels like they're treating customers like fools. Quit being a fanboy for goodness sake.

I agree. Another thing you should need to pay to play games 30 years or older just saying

@Daniel36 it wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the need to check in online regularly to keep the app running. It makes sense, to stop people getting 1 month’s subscription just to download the SNES/NES games then cancelling the sub. It’s just annoying, knowing that eventually Switch Online will be no more and those games will be locked away again.

Unless Nintendo eventually change their stance to allow us to buy those ROMs (a la Virtual Console) or remove the check-in requirement when NSO inevitably gets shut down. And that’s a fair way off now anyways.

There are still some NES games I'd like to see like Baseball Stars, Faxanadu, Rygar... but there are a lot more SNES games I'd like to see

It's too bad Konami, Capcom and Square release all their old titles themselves now...

Great choices but months later in the new system we get less than the lacklustre old system. 😂 only at nintendo only at nintendo

@Cartridgemaster,

You keep telling yourself that, then hope Nintendo listens to you and upgrades the online service, or gives it for free, just do not hold your breath.

It should be free there's only a handful of content that is good to play online. They know that and that's why it's so cheap. Most people just signed up for the retro content.

Which again should not need to be online to play them.

@johnvboy dude, I don't want a free service, I just don't want to pay for NOTHING.

That's what I'm saying I dont care that I pay but honestly just did it for the classic content.

Nice! I rarely play (S)NES games on the Switch, accept for Super Mario World. I still love that one. I’m a bit excited about Super Punch Out because I loved that one back in the day.

NSO costs like € 19,99, that’s not very much. I just bought The Touryst. Lovely game, but not very long. It costs the same as NSO for a whole year.Everytime they announce new games, the same poo happens. To expensive, not enough games ect.ect… I just don’t get it. Maybe because I don’t consider (S)NES games as THE reason for buying NSO. I played like a hundred hours of Tetris onine. That game alone is worth every single penny for me..

First people screaming for SNES games. Now we got a bunch. Now they should give us SNES games every single month...

Tetris is for snes to if they would release it

It kinda invalidates the argument of relying on collection compilations when Crystalis is already on the SNK collection.

Ideally this is how I'd like to see the service put to better use especially for those of us who aren't online all the time. Go to the eshop, go to the apps, purchase or transfer games purchased previously from your account, go to the service, option for online members and offline play, select offline, only games you purchased or transferred will show up. Everyone will be happy. No one is left out. Everyone can play!

Yay, Sunsoft NES games! journey of Silius is the game that started out as a Terminator game.

Face it you based the online on one game. I pay the playstation online regularly because there is 100s of games worth playing online. Not just tetris

@GameOtaku unfortunately they'll never do it.
They're too scared you'll crack their games if they let you play them offline.

Nothing in that for me, but to be fair none of the games I like ever get added to retro collections. It’s good to see it get expanded even more tho.

@Cartridgemaster
The only thing cracked is Nintendo. You have to admit my ideal service would be fair to everyone. I don't have constant access to online services so last time I had a month sub I only got to play the games for only 2 weeks since the check in locked me out (so really less than 2 since you know life).

@Bernard

If your talking to me, I never said that Tetris is the one game I base NSO on. Because it isn't. To me, 100 hours for € 20,00 is not very much. I do play online a lot (Mario Kart & Splatoon) and the price for an one year subscription is pretty low.

I also own a PS4 and I got PS+. It would be a dream if Nintendo would ever do it like Sony does. But they will never do that. It is Nintendo keeping their games worthy....

@PBandSmelly O just had the same thought Still if that means a (real) flood of other SNES-games for next year, i'm all for it.

I was just reading a comment can some one explain to me how the snes and nes is free on the switch. If that was true turn off your internet and tell me how them free games work for ya lol

NOW we're talking. Those're some pretty boss games!

And I suppose it makes sense to have Starfox2 out for everone as well, now that Nintendo loudly declared they wouldn't make any more SNES Clasic Minis. ^^

@Bernard
Meh. Requiring access to the internett is not what makes them NOT free. Having to pay for Nintendo Online is.

No game system would work if you were to shut off the main circuit breaker in your home either, but we're pretty used to requiring electricity by now.

Nothing too exciting as I already have a snes mini but still nice to get some new games all the same

I didn't say all power just internet which would include the online service lol

Dont get me wrong they got good games
which keep me occupied. But really why not just release them all. No one would be having this discussion rite now.

@Cartridgemaster,

You are not paying for nothing you have online play, cloud saves, NES and SNES games, and a few exclusives now and again, all for $1.58 per month, if you do not think this offers any value do not subscribe simple.

@Joriss Because what?

@Cartridgemaster Good news! You're not paying for nothing. Right now there are about 60 games on the service, and six more coming next week. Just check out the top of this page!

Oh, and I feel confident that most people have better things to complain about than the number of essentially free games Nintendo is giving them. So yes, you are in the minority.

I think NSO and Nintendo's handling of their legacy content kind of get lumped together into one issue since Nintendo decided to tie them together, but I think it's kind of two different arguments.

For $20 a year, NSO is an excellent value IMO. Even if they only gave us 20 NES and 20 SNES and then stopped, that would still be worth it. Honestly it's probably worth it just for the online play and cloud saves.

But I think a lot of frustration comes from the fact that Nintendo is just sitting on a treasure trove of awesome legacy content and not giving us any legitimate way to access it. Seeing your favorite games getting trickled out over months and years is just torture. I don't think anyone is claiming we should get Nintendo's entire back catalogue for free (or at least I hope not). Most of us just want a way to play these games on our Switches, even if it costs more (buying individual games or a beefed up subscription service).

@Kalmaro Why does Nintendo need to give us more games faster?

@Joriss Not sure what you mean, I never said they needed more games.

I do wish there were more games to play though. I like having more options.

These are free and everyone is moaning. I think it is a great collection for Nintendo fans. Looking forward to finally trying Star Fox 2.

I was gifted Crystalis long ago on NES and enjoyed it. It will be good to finally be able to go back and play it without paying for a bunch of games I don't care about.

Man, people were whining when the games weren’t coming, and.....they’re whining when they do? Sorry, but what has been released is well worth the $20 investment.

@Cartune uhhh...that’s what a Switch is for

@Kalmaro tbh looking at the selection of title(and I certainly didn't expect crystal is since it's part of the paid SNK collection) I suspect they dropped the monthly releases because they'd become nothing more than filler and are now going with irregular schedules so they can focus on more notable titles and specifically deliver them -once- the rights to them are negotiated.

Considering Crystalis is currently being -sold- alongside the collection it's part of by whichever owns the right to that collection, something tells me getting the rights to get that one on the NES Online app was perhaps not easy since we don't know how Nintendo may or may not renumerate the rightholders to these games(for example service like Netflix pay royalties to the owner of shows/etc by the minutes watched iirc. Same for music subscription services iirc).

@Supadav03 Switch doesn’t have a 4G/LTE connection, now does it?

Happy to have Super Punchout, Kirby Superstar, Star Fox 2, and Journey to Silius. Breath of Fire and Crysalis aren't my cup of tea, but I'm sure many others will enjoy them. Hope to get the Donkey Kong Country trilogy, Super Mario RPG, Super Mario All-Stars, Earthbound, and Star Tropics II over 2020. I'd be especially happy if they could get Illusion of Gaia too. (Or SquareEnix could release that themselves and I'd buy it!) Ultimate dream games would be TMNT I, II, III, and IV, but that ain't gonna happen.

@BrandonGiesing I dunno.

Under the monthly system there was a LOT of filler I never ever touched and in fact even wished I could hide from the display.

So out of the 9 games released under 3 months on the NES app... there might be only one I could be curious enough to boot up at all once.

If i was lucky.

Right now there's "only" 6 games but roughly 4-5 of the entire selection are all stuff i'm not only curious to try out but may even play extensively in some cases.

Crystallis alone may well lead me to redownload the NES app at all after uninstalling it months ago.

@gokev13
The whole trilogy would be great. Terranigma is the only one I own, and I've played a little of Illusion on a friend's copy. No idea if Soul Blazer was even released in Europe. America didn't get Terranigma as far as I know, would be cool if everyone got easy official access to it. It's one of my most replayed games even if it suffered from the same moysification as other German SNES games.

@Cartune why do you need a 4G/LTE internet connection? These games can be played offline just fine.

@Dr_Corndog
Not free. $20.

@PBandSmelly As if NSO isn't emulation?

@Crono1973
I mean unauthorized emulation

@BanjoPickles Some of this lot will cry at the drop of a hat...

@Ludovsky They aren't releasing them like this to weed out the crap games.

@Ludovsky That's probably what's going on. Shame it's taking so long though.

@Manah
If there is already an English translation for a game it shouldn't be a problem to release it to the American audience even if it wasn't released initially so I still hope and dream. I am a little confused how they make some of the decisions though, like Puyo Puyo is released in NA with no translation and then a game like The adventures of Lolo 2 is only on Japan's NES online even though there was an American release. Kind of weird in my opinion.

Of course my list of games I want to see on SNES Online is getting rather long.

Wow. Six whole games after September's release of the SNES app. You're too generous Nintendo.

@Dr_Corndog oh really? Since when NSO is free? I just discovered that thanks to you scientist!

@GameOtaku I said "essentially free." Don't skim when you read.

@Cartridgemaster Thankfully, you don't even need a scientist like me to learn how to read! Just seek out a local elementary school teacher. Good luck!

No Donkey Kong Country? Why Nintendo why?

@Branovices That would be excellent. Probably my favourite game of all time.

It is funny that once again whiners are complaining about lack of games or about that the price is not worth it. I guess nobody complains about the price for ps plus or xbox live. I also guess that nobody complains that the games are only free if you maintain the subscription with the exception of xbox 360 games which are truly free. I also guess nobody complains that once the month is gone, and if you don't download them, the games are gone, unlike Nintendo that just adds the game to the collection that stays. We know that NSO is not perfect, but it is like people are expecting the moon and the stars from Nintendo right now. But I guess that nobody complains on what ps plus and xbox live offers.

@ekwcll
Yes you still can download them on PSN (not sure about Xbox). You can just buy it on psn if you liked it and decided to cancel your subscription for whatever reason. I can't even play the games because of the checkin requirement and I want to buy and own them rather than rent.

Yeah ok this is good.

@GameOtaku yeah but with how many free games you get, that's what.. 70 pence per game? Some of them are not great, but at such a low cost, its decent no matter how you look at it.

Nothing's for certain but if we get say another 24 more games in the next year, that's gonna make this deal even more interesting.

@Cartridgemaster,

Well I do not want them to sell me the same games over and over, so this is a much better idea imho.

@fafonio @fafonio I’ve considered doing that just to have Mickey Mania. You can’t even buy that one on Steam. I would if I could. I do own the original cart, but I dont always feel like digging out my old Nomad to play it. The only thing I worry about is infecting my computer by downloading sketchy software.

@PBandSmelly What? You said:

Nah, I use my products the way the devs intended. Yes, I know Im gonna get downvotes for saying that. Emulation isnt a smart thing to do imo

Well the devs didn't intend these games to be emulated on the Nintendo Switch 25 years into the future. Either you are ok with emulation or you are not.

@Razer
That depends on what you call a great game. If the free game is Madden 2021 or Race Car 2063 you'd lose my interest. That's really the biggest problem with this model compared to VC. Just looking over the list of games that are actually taking up space just how many would you actually play? My gaming preference is different from yours and the next person who comments. VC allowed you to curate and own games you wanted. I don't see why so many are against the idea of having both the rental service and VC. They stand to make money off of individual purchases as well as those who get the games as a bonus while they play online. Accounts allow you to transfer content easily.

@Crono1973
I mean unauthorized emulation not approved by the big N

@John_Deacon yes, it was one of the games that I learned to play the songs from on the piano in the eighties.

Great games, but personally im still waiting for the remaining ninja gaiden and double dragon games.

Disappointed at the lack of any hallmark JRPGs, like Chrono Trigger, SMRPG, FFVI, and Earthbound. Until then, my ROM-injected SNES Mini fills the void.

Kirby Super Star rocks, though.

@arekdougy Sorry not everyone is going to lower their standards so low that they'd let corporates walk all over them. These are decades old games which I can literally download within minutes and have a better experience with on other devices for less than a penny. I'm not gonna praise them for putting a paywall on top of the one I already have just to use my internet lmao especially after they had online free for some months. Which just makes it even more obvious how its just a greedy paywall. I reiterate, this service is garbage even for $20.

I've been kicking myself for not buying a boxed copy of Journey to Silius for $9.99 back in 1994 and for not buying Crystalis on GBC for $19.99 new shortly after its release. Now I can finally play them.

@mereel Strictly speaking, that's not actually true as there are separate charging stations you can purchase.

I'm interested in playing half the games, those being... Breath of Fire II, Crystalis, and Journey to Silius. It's more then enough to keep me busy gaming wise throughout the holiday season, so I'm more then happy.

SF2's digital distribution is definitely a milestone in itself, but getting two additional RPGs across the board is what admittedly excites me more. What I've tried of Journey to Silius before was pretty fun, too - it reportedly started development as a Terminator game before losing the license.

More excited about the NES games this time as the others (except for Breath of Fire 2) are already on the SNES mini.

The NES games look really decent this time so am happy. Really want Star Tropics 2: Zoda's Revenge for NES.

I can't wait until the day when they announce my favorite SNES game........ Donkey Kong Country!

So for those of us who took advantage of the Wii and Wii U Virtual Consoles to get what we wanted when we could, the SNES Classic System is now completely redundant.

@fafonio No, you either buy the original games used or just accept that you won't be able to play them. You are not entitled to free entertainment just because you can't find a reasonably priced legal way to do it.

@klingki You do know that it takes time to get these games on there, right? They can't just dump the ROMs and call it a day. They have to make sure everything works properly with the Switch's architecture, add access to features like restore points or whatever they include now, and probably some additional things behind the scenes as well.

Although, I do agree that the Virtual Consoles were the much better services, since you could just pay a one-time fee for just the games you want, you don't have to connect online to play them, and as long as you keep you data properly backed up, you never have to worry about losing access to them once the service shuts down.

@BulbasaurusRex watch me do it. Watch as I turn my “redundant” mini into the ultimate SNES console

I might renew my subscription just for Star Fox 2. The other games are good, but I already own most of the classics on Wii/Wii U/3DS.

WOW! Journey to Silius? Thats a rare one. It has incredibly fantastic and memorable music, however, the difficulty ramps up to "completely impossible" rather quickly. And when i say impossible, I dont mean by today's standards, i mean by the standards of the time when i was a hardcore diehard super amadeus at NES games (man, we had ALOT of patience back then).
At any rate, its nice that this will give the game some exposure.

Maybe its not impossible that we might see Solar Jetman on there one day. Now that's an underrated classic that is fantastic. I am still waiting for a sequel, but theres nary a game that even comes close to being like that one. The flight system was unique and required finesse, but I really loved it once i got the hang of it. The last level was my only complaint, because heres a game with a unique control mechanic, but then suddenly at the very end, they toss that out the window and it becomes a straight up side-scrolling shooter/shmup for the final boss, just out of the blue, lol.

Fantastic. The quality of these selections is nice enough that it makes the wait worth it. Star Fox 2? Yes please.

I am always surprised by how many 'Nintendo fans' say that they 'finally get to play' these old Nintendo games.

@BulbasaurusRex Well yeah, I’m sure it takes a little bit of time to test and do QA and stuff, but I don’t think it’s a massive undertaking, especially for a big company with the resources of Nintendo, and especially since they’ve already released a lot of these games up to three times previously (Wii, Wii U, 3DS) so they’ve gotten some experience with emulating.

I’ve kind of grown to like the subscription service model though. I already buy a ton of games, so the thought of purchasing individual retro games as well sends my wallet running. It’s pretty nice to just automatically get everything as part of the service, and then you can choose what to play or ignore. The possibility of losing access sucks, but you have to think they’ll continue this service on their next console if it’s successful enough. And the depth of the library is pretty so-so - fine for $20 a year as a perk to NSO, not great for someone looking to have a more comprehensive library akin to what we used to have on Virtual Console.

@BulbasaurusRex
For the record I seen a modded switch with all the games on there took buddy 3 hours to do works great on the switch. So it should be a breeze for them to put them on there

@BulbasaurusRex I guess you’re not much of a media preservationists then? Imagine if all the movies from our childhood were left on a limited number of vhs tapes, and then when those degrade there’re gone for good. I’m not recommending pirating movies or games. But putting media you already own in another format is not only legal, but probably the only way many of these games will ever be seen when those old carts don’t work anymore.

@klingki The Switch has a completely different architecture to the other systems (hence the lack of backwards compatibility), so they have to do everything all over again.

@Bernard Those modders aren't concerned with avoiding emulation bugs nor adding in features like restore points. It takes a lot longer to do everything up to Nintendo's standards.

@Flipbot That's why you preserve them, but you don't play them unless legally entitled to do so. It is perfectly legal to personally dump ROMs of legally purchased titles and even play them personally through emulation. Many retro game preservationists are already doing that very thing. (Downloading and playing other people's ROMs of titles you legally own is a gray area and is either legal or illegal depending on whom you ask. I'm personally in favor of the idea, as not everyone can be expected to be savvy enough to do it themselves, and many old games you once purchased legally may no longer be operational enough to be dumped.)

You just can't sell or give them away to other people without a proper licensing agreement. It's up to the license holders to make their old games legally available to the public for modern re-releases. While this is improbable or even impossible in many cases, that's just unfortunate, but the games are still being properly preserved as often as possible by legal means.

@BulbasaurusRex The Switch does have different architecture, but they do not really need to do everything all over again, nor is it really time consuming. For Wii and Wii U, every VC game you purchased came with an individual emulator. For Switch, the NES and SNES apps each come with one emulator that all the ROMs plug into. I believe it has been confirmed that these Switch emulators are the same ones used on the mini classic consoles. So any games from the mini consoles are already done, and any new games take minimal work and testing, as basically all NES games and most SNES games are simplistic enough that you really can just plug them into an emulator and they will work. Things don’t get dicey until you hit SNES games with special chips or N64 games. Save states, rewind, and all that other stuff is handled at the emulator level, so you do not need to do anything once it’s initially set up. It will work with all games automatically. It’s not like they have to individually port each VC game over from Wii or Wii U. They already have their emulators running on Switch, so the hard work is done. Do you really think in the year 2019 some poor guy at Nintendo was working 8 hours a day for three months just to get Journey to Silius working on Switch?

@klingki No, the hard work is not done. Confirming perfect emulation for each individual game for the Switch's architecture (and then fixing them when problems are found) does indeed take quite a while, even for these old games with pre-existing emulators. You never know what might be a problem when dealing with emulated games, especially when dealing with extra features like restore points that didn't exist in the original games.

You do know that Nintendo's main work is on developing new games and hardware, right? These kinds of things are more of side projects, so nobody is working 8 hours a day every day specifically on getting these games to work.

@BulbasaurusRex Judging from your comments, I'm not sure you understand how emulation works, so I will try to explain. The individual games do not interact with the Switch's architecture at all. The emulator is built for the Switch's architecture, and then the games "plug in" to the emulator. You can think of the emulator as like a digital NES. Nintendo has built the emulator so that it functions as a replica of an NES within the Switch. The games were tested to work with an NES decades ago when they were made, so they will work exactly the same in the emulator, provided that the emulator was built correctly. As the NES and SNES do not have very complex architecture, it goes without saying that the emulators Nintendo have created are fully functioning. They had some problems emulating the Super FX chip a few years back, because that chip was not part of the SNES's architecture, but instead within the games that used them. We've got games like Star Fox now, so obviously they've ironed that out. You keep mentioning restore points, but again, the restore points do not directly interact with the games at all, so there is nothing to check. Once the emulator knows how to use the restore points correctly, the emulator handles it and you are done. They will work for any ROM you stick in the emulator.

You mainly hear about emulation bugs with emulators that are mimicking more complex hardware, like an N64, GameCube, or Wii. The bugs happen because the emulators are not perfect replicas of those systems yet. Developers could make games that used those hardwares in lots of complicated and unique ways, so occasionally you'll get a game that an emulator can't handle because it's trying to do something that the emulator is currently incapable of. So people slowly find these bugs and tweak the emulators until they're perfect and all games work. This process is already done for the NES and SNES emulators since they are not really complicated.

As for my last statement about working 8 hours a day, that was just me being facetious. Of course no one is doing that, because they don't need to! I'm sure Nintendo has their own reasons for why they are holding a lot of games back and releasing them slowly. But it is 100% not because it is some arduous process for them to do it. I really think they are eventually planning to make their own subscription service, either on top of or separate from NSO. They don't want to give it all away for free while they're planning to monetize it later.