Switch Online Members Can Save 30% On Wireless NES Controllers (North America)

Okay they finally got me. I’ll bite and get them...

I'd honestly care more if Nintendo actually made buying a subscription worth it by ACTUALLY improving their online infrastructure and adding game libraries to the NSO that people actually care about i.e N64, GBA and Gamecube instead of drip-feeding us SNES and NES titles that we've been getting since wii that no one cares about.

These controllers are absolutely not worth the money. Just go buy an 8BitDo Pro 2. I have one and it's one of the best controllers I have ever used. Plus, you can use it with your PC and phone as well.

I need NES controllers for my NES. Waiting for 8bitdo to restock..

@SeantheDon29

Who cares?

It's only $20 a year and I mostly got it to play Smash Ultimate online.

Everything else that they add is all gravy with that yearly price.

I wish they'd do a bundle with one NES and one SNES controller.

@JuiceMan_V Who cares? Many, actually.

If you play Smash Ultimate as much as you say, than I know for a fact that you've noticed the input-lag and frame-skips which makes the game unplayable for us who play the game competitively and should be absolutely unacceptable for a paid subscription, no matter what the cost for the service is.

@SeantheDon29

The value is proportionate to the price IMO.

You're paying $20 a year, but you want a PSN or XBL type experience lol!

Don't get it twisted, when NSO gets better (and it will) the price will jump and you'll be complaining about that too.

As for Smash Ultimate, the online play is serviceable and works most of the time.

Playing fighting games online competitively (for money) sucks in general no matter what game it is.

@JuiceMan_V So you're saying we shouldn't expect a better value for a paid online service because it's cheaper? And for the record, PSN and XBL were both around the same price as NSO on PS3 and XBOX360 at launch and still provided better value, not just with better netcode, but the UI for those consoles gave users customizable menus and avatar customization ,on 360; something people have been asking from Nintendo for Switch for the past four years.

And what proof do you have that NSO will get better besides wishful thinking? When exactly has the service gotten better? Don't you think four years should be more than enough time for NSO to get better, or, and this is a hunch, maybe Nintendo is complacent in not doing anything to improve the service because they know people are going to purchase the subscription regardless of any improvements because they know it's the only way for us to play their games online and are doing this to hold the consumer hostage?

Lastly, people don't just play fighting games competitively for money; many people play competitive for fun as anyone who has played street fighter or COD for that matter will tell you and having your input be behind or screen stuttering in a fighting game, even by a milisecond because of lag can ruin the whole match.

Look, if you think NSO is worth the money, fine, you do you; But don't assume everyone is going to tolerate this sort of service for the price, especially the competitive community.

I’ve already got these and I love them. REALLY wish I could grab that SNES controller for its actual price someday. Thanks scalpers.

Noice. May be time to pick up a set.

I miss when downvotes meant something on this site.

@SeantheDon29

That was a wall of text, bro. I guess I gotta respond with a wall too.

Anyway, for $20 you get online service that does what you're paying for, by getting to play games online. As I said, you want what MS and Sony is offering currently, but at $20....okay, keep on complaining.

How do I know NSO will get better? They changed the NSO UI a few months ago to facilitate a timeline of classic games meaning all that old stuff like GameCube and N64 will eventually make it's way into the platform. Furthermore, my point is bolstered by the emulators used in Mario 3D All-Stars points to Nintendo having something in place to run those games when the time comes. BTW, y'all was whining about getting SNES games on NSO, now it's here, it's "no one cares about it" lol!

Street Fighter, Tekken, name any fighter you can think of all have issues online with lag, input delay, ect and some worse than others. It's not just relegated to Smash Ultimate, but y'all sure like to be dramatic and act like it does.

Does anyone know what use these have beyond the NES app? If at all, I guess? At this point, I only open that app to play Dr. Mario like once a month, but I'd pick these up if they could be used elsewhere.

I would buy one of these for the novelty if you could buy just one like you can for the SNES controller. But having to pay double for a two-pack is just annoying.

@SwitchVogel I'm pretty confident GameXplain did a video on this back when they first released. I know people might not want to support their content anymore, but it may be worth the watch. I'm fairly certain they are compatible with pretty much any game, though the lack of several buttons like L, R, X, and Y makes them impractical for most games. I seem to recall them testing games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and they worked just fine, except you couldn't drift or use items. You might could work around that now that the Switch has button mapping. I don't own them for myself though, so I can't say any this definitively.

@JuiceMan_V I pride myself on my walls, thank you~

Like I said, Juice, if you like the service, that’s fine, but there’s plenty of us that expect more from a company like Nintendo and those criticisms shouldn’t be ignored just because these problems don’t personally affect you. Peace. ✌️

@JuiceMan_V I find it fascinating that people still defend a poor service like NSO just because its cheap.

Let's put it into perspective. NSO is £3.99 a month and I pay £5 a month for Game Pass Ultimate (£20 for 4 months).
For the same price as a double cheeseburger a month, I get access to over 300 games (on console, PC and Mobile), a selection of new games on Day 1 and a solid feature packed online experience over what is Provided on Nintendo's subscription service.

@Mr-Fuggles777

You're paying £80 a year to rent games on GamePass (When you be owning them) while I'm dropping money for NSO, not having to worry about anything else until the following year, whatever retro games Nintendo wants to put on the thing, and special games like Tetris 99 or Pac Man 99 all for a measley $20 (or lunch and dinner for a day).

Now you see why I'm not complaining.

I really don't like the idea of having to pay extra to play online, regardless of how good the online play is in different games. I still pay of course, because there is no alternative and it's not much money to me. But I understand there are people who can't afford it. When it comes to the NES and SNES games, I think it's a cool thing to have, but if they would have added GBA and/or N64 games it would have been worth the online price just for the retro games.

@SeantheDon29 actually many people care about the snes and nes titles. Just because you don’t doesn’t mean there isn’t people wanting them. I mean they actually have a good base of subs compared to the number of consoles sold and compared to when ps plus and now came out and live and game pass. Just hold your britches I am sure they will get to the other systems.

@Mr-Fuggles777 actually your paying more. To have online play you need Xbox live as well. Also game pass is $7.99 for console. We are not talking about pc here which adds up to much more than your claiming. 5 a month for live and 8 for game pass makes it 11 more a month than NSO. Just because you aren’t happy because their not adding the games you want (because we know it’s all about you of course ) doesn’t make it a bad program. It is actually a great program for what’s provided.

@Dirty0814

Bruh, just a few years back when it was only NES games on NSO, everyone was begging for SNES games.

Now that it's here, it means nothing to them and it's on to the next request (GBA, GameCube, ect which will obviously get representation at some point).

People are so phony sometimes lol!

@The_New_Butler I actually have a charging dock that the fit in perfectly fine. I have one set of those and two pro controllers and a set of joy cons plugged into it. I might actually buy another set for collector reasons though and they actually work with a handful of new games and all themes games on nso so actually quite a few games.

@JuiceMan_V you are only renting the snes and nes games on Switch - its exactly the same thing as Gamepass but with less variety. You also get the Keep the 360 games given away with Gold even if you cancel your sub!

@Dirty0814 nope, I pay £20 for 4 months Gamepass ultimate which includes GamePass, Xbox Gold and EA play and I can access the content on My consoles, Laptop and Mobile. You just need to look around for offers on the vouchers.
Saying that you can get NSO for peanuts by splitting a family plan, but as a subscriber of PS+, NSO & GPU, Nintendo's definitely feels bare bones and poor value, even for the low price point.

@Mr-Fuggles777

There's a key distinction. Those RETRO games stay on the service and doesn't disappear at any moment like all third party games eventually do on GamePass.

So in a sense, you're paying for a service that isn't really all that consistent outside of MS titles while NSO offerings are completely supplementary (and consistent) to someone who's not really a collector of old school games on a particular Nintendo platform.

@JuiceMan_V you also don't really get new games added to the NSO library either - in fact I can't actually remembering the last time I even opened the app.

I agree that you do lose games from GP, but you also get new ones added each month. I'm currently playing Rain on my Parade which dropped Day 1, will I be sad of it gets removed from GP at a later date - not at all, as I doubt I would ever play it again once I've completed it. That game alone has effectively paid for 2 months of my Gamepass.

Sony gave me the new Oddworld game this month and FF7R last month (amongst other games) and what did Nintendo add to NSO in the same time period?

I had NSO for one year. The only online games I played was splatoon 2 and Tetris 99. With so few games that are online oriented and without native voice chat I didn’t think the service was worth it. So no online over here.

I no longer have an Xbox but never felt ripped off paying for its service when I had it for the five or so years.

@Mr-Fuggles777 also to add to that you do get a discount on Gamepass games if you wish to buy them before they are taken down. Combine that with the decent sales on many games on the store and you are onto a winner.

The Switch online is half-arsed at best; you pay to play online and Smash is a good example of how bad it really is. It is unplayable (and I have a really good internet connection). You also cannot compare getting a bunch of 20-30 year old games (as much as I love them) to Gamepass. I can’t see Nintendo letting you play a brand new game for peanuts day one like I was able to do with Doom Eternal. I played it, completed it, uninstalled it and waited for it to go on sale. Got it for £5 new on Amazon yesterday.

When online was free on Wii and Wii U there was no point complaining; it was perfectly serviceable and understandably not as good as Xbox live. It was free so it was fine, plus we could choose which games we wanted to buy and keep for a huge selection of consoles.

And anyone who is saying ‘well, Gamepass is just borrowing, you don’t get to keep the games’ is missing the point. The NES and SNES games on Switch will disappear one day too. There is also no evidence that N64 or GameCube games will arrive; N64 games showed up very late in the Wii U’s life I’ll grant you, but all the rumours of GameCube games never amounted to anything.

I have the Switch online because I got the first year free with the console in a deal from Nintendo and the second year with the physical copy of Tetris 99. Unless I see it for a really good discount I won’t be bothering with a third year. It isn’t worth the money tbh (and I’m still hunting down a good deal on Gamepass too, I’m not paying full price if I can avoid it).

@SeantheDon29 most people who play on a professional level do not take online seriously.

the free NSO games are nice bonuses but i hope the service can move on from NES and SNES being their only nostalgia grabber. like others i feel much closer to the N64/GC/wii era and would like to seem them brought back, but not just as separate $60 hd versions

Even if it is tempting to those original Controllers, it makes much more Sense to get the 8Bitdo ones and use them on more Devices.

Unless Nintendo fixes the compatibility issues and actually bring in real compatibility to Switch games, I'm still not buying these.

No, thank you. I got an 8bitdo controller for Christmas and I'm quite content with it.

Nothing special. But the SNES controllers would be interesting!

Say is it possible to use the NES and SNES controllers for the Konami Contra or Castlevania collection games?

Ya ordered my because of this. Can't wait to play classic ninja Gaiden again with these. Those lovely corner imprints in the palm of my hands. So excited. Just need to get the SNES one now.

For some reason they wont take my credit cards. Oh well it was probably a bad impulse purchase on my part, I dont use the nes snes apps anyway

I'm good, I'll stick to a controller that has more than two buttons lol

I paid waaay too much to import the Famicom controller set. I don't regret it a bit.

@JuiceMan_V that’s my point exactly. It is never good enough for them. Me I own all the nes games that are on NSO and most the snes games as well but I still play them on my switch religiously

@The_New_Butler that’s fine. But for someone who only cares for the online function it seems a bit like a rip off. If it was $10 for online and a separate $10 for retro that would work for me. But I’m pretty sure not very many people would pay extra for the retro games.

@Dirty0814 you can simplify things and say that those who are whining can’t be pleased. On the other hand maybe there is a middle ground. To me just the fact that so few Nintendo games have an online component makes me question the value for the service. Especially when there’s no native voice chat.

It's a no buy for me. They did not implement a wired cable.

I tried a lot of games at NSO (even if it's only for some minutes) but really played these: Metroid, Kid Icarus, Zelda, Zelda II, Super Mario, Super Mario 2, Super Mario 3 and Lost Levels. That's enough for me. I could play TMNT 2 (the remake is coming to Switch) and TMNT 3 or try a little bit Yo! Noid and Terminator 2, but I don't believe any of these will ever came to NSO (maybe Yo!Noid)

But anyway I would buy these controllera at thia price, but Nintendo don't delivery in Brazil. The SNES Controllers I would pay full price if it come here

@Scrubicius Yep, the SNES one works like a charm with Contra Anniversary, and basically any retro collection for that matter — even all the Hamster Arcade Archives/Neo Geo games. I've been playing the redone Ninja Warriors game with it lately. I've also hooked up the controller that comes with the SNES Classic using the 8BitDo GBros. adapter, but then you're missing the zl and zr buttons.

The NSO is a decent value in my opinion but not when compared to the Wii/Wii U system. I think comparing to MS/Sony is a mistake because they are different animals. These programs all are like Steam though, which is horrible from my perspective, because you never own the games, only the right to rent them while available.
The only reason I keep it is to play games that are unavailable otherwise and they have been emulated already.

They don't ship to my country. Well, I at least still have the 8bitdo adapter to use my NES Classic controllers.

I kinda want these to collect. Idk if I would actually use them. I have 4 of the SNES controllers still unused mostly because I've got 2 8bitdo Pro + and Pro 2 controllers I can use instead which I love even more than the Switch Pro controller. With the gamecube controller adapter I can use my Wavebird controllers with the Switch. So many different controller options for the console. I would like to have a few wireless N64 controllers to use with the Switch also Nintendo haha.

Still not worth the money, they are so overpriced.

I really like those NES controllers, I play the NES games quite a bit ut it's also fun seeing what other games they work with and I actually use them regularly for Mario Kart 8

I'm tempted if linking them up to a PC is as straight forward as it ought to be.

@B_Lindz Those 8 bit do's have bad d-pads, whereas the d-pad in the SNES and NES controllers works perfect. In the controller diagnostics area you can test your controllers by rocking the pad left and right really fast, and the NES and SNES controllers were fine, but the Pro controller, and the 8-bit do SN30, show random up and down inputs. Which makes it hard to do things like the Mario Maker 2 3D World long jump, and you get stuck to vines when you run past them because it often senses an up movement when running. But still, I don't think the NES controller is all that good, just because it doesn't have enough buttons for a lot of games, such as Mario Maker 2, but the SNES controller is awesome.

@B_Lindz
I completely agree.

Tempting but I'd really rather a restock of the snes controllers. At least those work for more games.