
Yesterday saw the launch of a major system update for Nintendo Switch which, among other things, added a brand new Switch Online app to the console's home screen.
As it happens, it turns out that this new and improved app now comes with some additional release date trivia if your birthday happens to coincide with the release of specific games.
As spotted by Go Nintendo, if you head to the NES and SNES games within the app, you might spot a little birthday cake appear on certain games. Clicking on that will reveal a little message like this one below:
For any of you hip 'n happenin' young'uns reading this, your birthday likely won't align with any of the NES and SNES games on offer, but it's a nice little touch for those who happen to have been born in the '80s and '90s.
Hopefully this little addition will go down better with Switch owners than the app's new icon, huh?
[source gonintendo.com]
Comments (27)
There’s aren’t any that released the year I was born, but there are several that released in my birth month of later years.
ETA: in the currently-set region of my Nintendo account, I am older than the NES. That explains it. Would be different if I changed the region to Japan, but clearly the new app keys off ‘region of Nintendo account’ (which is currently set to US) rather than ‘region and language of console’ (which is currently set to Europe and UK English, respectively); most games (SSBU, BotW, etc.) respect the latter in lieu of the former, but this app clearly respects the former: there is a game called ‘Star Fox’.
It looks like the release dates provided are based on the North American launches, not on the region matching your account/system.
The launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Mario Bros. in North America was October 18th 1985 for example, which was roughly 2 years after Japan's Famicom, and roughly a year before Europe.
Yep, it displays if you were born in the same month as release...doesn’t need to be the same year as the article indicates.
@RupeeClock, I just edited that into my comment above. It looks like you’re correct. Unless people with European Nintendo accounts are also getting the NA dates and titles?
ETA: it’s definitely not matching the system settings, but I think it’s matching the Nintendo account settings. Either that or everyone’s just getting NA dates and titles regardless?
That's pretty neat. I saw a screenshot of this feature on Twitter the other night but had no context as to what it was or how to find it in the OS.
Tennis released in Japan the same day/month/year I was born! Nice!
I was born in between Sonic Adventure 2 (GC) and Doshin The Giant- I don’t think this app will work for me!
@Munchlax
It will, it'll just say that games were released a given number of years before you were born.
Too bad my "birthday" is that of my 3DS's previous owner as far as Nintendo is concerned.😅
@Munchlax born in sonics glory days... Before the date ful year of 2006
Don't think there was any titles release in 1970 ha ha ha
That alone is worth the cost!
None came out when I was born but I share a birthday with double dragon 2
I already feel like an old fart I don't want my switch reminding me I am one.
Pretty cool little addition! I love little details like that. Also, the icon doesn't bug me.
Thanks for reminding me of the good times when I wasn’t alive, Nintendo!
@Bizaster It's not like you can't go back and play some of these games in the modern day...
@Tourtus ...I’ve played classic games. What I was saying is that since I was born after these games came out, for every one, it would say “this game released [amount of years] before you were born!”
Now I honestly want them to release N64 games on NSO just so I can have a chance to say “man, I’m a boomer”
And then there's me, an old fart first-generation-gamer born several years before the release of the NES. If they included the Nintendo releases on Colecovision or arcades, then I might have something.
Kdl 3 was released -6 years before I was born
cool
my birthday was in nov 26th tho
I saw that. Kirby's something or other was released on my birthday, Sept 20th.
@Northwind it's just the month/day, as i was born before NES released & still had the bday cake shown on a title released on my birth month/day.
@PeterAndCompany it's month/day, not year.
@Bizaster it uses month/day, not year.
@SilentHunter382 it's month/day.
Maybe someone should point this out in the story, since so many don't seem to understand that.
@twztid13, oh, I’m aware of that. But in theory I could have got some that stated they were released the year I was born if the list were going off the Japanese release dates. Going off the NA release dates, everything released after I was born, even the system itself.
EDIT for clarity: I do see some that state, for example, that they released in the month I was turning 2 years old.
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