If you're like us, by now, you're probably missing Game Boy Advance games. Nintendo made them available during the Wii U generation on the eShop and also gave them to 3DS ambassadors in 2011.
So, what about the Switch Online? Could we perhaps see them on this paid service one day? We're evidently not the only ones who think it's well overdue. A Nintendo fan who goes by the name of TheNCSmaster on Twitter has taken matters into their own hands (well, kind of), with some awesome "mock-ups" of what could be.
Just the thought of being able to boot up classics such as Advance Wars, Mario Kart Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion and Golden Sun (and play them on the go again) have us excited. Although the design of this is the same as the NES and SNES libraries, there's no guarantee a Game Boy Advance service would necessarily look like this, if Nintendo did release it.
Are you eager to see the return of Nintendo's GBA library? What games would you like to see if a GBA library got announced for Switch? Leave a comment down below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 84
Nintendo Life, you know that doing this take a lot of time, since you can't just slap those games onto the Switch. Goes also for the N64 games. Nintendo need to make an emulator for that first.
Please give us something new for nintendo online this year, thats all I ask!
I recently replayed Minish Cap on my 3DS XL, and man would it be great to see that on the Switch.
Too many RPGs and not enough variety. At most i’d put the first game from each series of Advance Wars/Fire Emblem/Golden Sun, not all of them.
Though this is a mock-up, I wouldn't mind this. It's cool I have some GBA games on Wii U, but I always like playing GBA on the go, so it makes sense for me to have this on Switch.
Personally, I'd like to see the Sonic Advance trilogy, Sonic Battle and Puyo Pop on such a service.
@Itachi2099 It balances out the gigantic lack of RPGs on the SNES app.
Needs Dynasty Warriors Advance and I'll be in.
Sniff Sniff I just want to play all of the Mario and Luigi game's, i'm I really asking for that much?
Drill Dozer, It's Mr. Pants, and Kuru Kuru Kururin would be must haves.
...but this isn’t even a good mock-up. The shade of red in the icon is totally off and the icon’s even the wrong size.
@nessisonett The bottom right HUD on the second screenshot is a crime against humanity
Whoever made this mock-up obviously doesn’t realize that the GBA had more than just first party software.
I really do think people will be willing to spend 4 bucks a month if they do this. Especially if they add the localized version of Mother 3 to it
it's sexy and you know it.
I'd like to play Zelda Minish Cap, Mario&Luigi and both Metroid, Fire emblem, Advance Wars and Golden Sun.
I would love to play all Castlevania, Boktai, tatics ogre, FF Tactics and Sword of Mana, but I don't think these games could get the service
My favourite part is that WarioWare: Twisted! is emulated.
@Itachi2099 'too many RPGs and not enough variety' so the nintendo switch then?
@Ulanda
They have emulators for them.
@nessisonett Came here to say this.
Skipping the Gameboy/Gameboy Color?
@Sahnec Pac-Man 99 is new.
Where the problem lies Nintendo?! Why is it so difficult for you to give us GBA games?!
actually, I even do not remember when NES/SNES games were added to the collection for the last time ...it must have been ages ago
Slightly bemused by the Gameboy Advance being squashed in the homescreen app mock up image? I hope Nintendo just use the logo instead of the console anyway.
❗I have 80+ GBA CIB Games so I don't care for having them on Switch.
I would rather see (licensed) GameCube Games instead.
Eager, no, the GBA is probably the console I played the most and it accompanied me a long time during its prime, and then on my PSP via emulations. I used to travel a lot back then. And then there was the ambassador program on 3DS. Good Times.
Would love this just so I could play some Metroid and advance wars again. Especially seeing as Nintendo isn’t interested in giving us anything else from many past fan favourites (MP4 excluded but even that’s probably years away)
@iuli I agree - although this shows the rough concept (which we all had in our minds-eye anyway since it's just a variant on the first two systems) it really is some pretty terrible photoshopping. And no professional design would use that red and purple touching since there is serious colour clashing going on.
It's ok that it's amateur - but it's kinda being presented here as if showing Nintendo how it's to be done, and if Nintendo did it like this they would be rightfully pulled apart for the UI by the internet.
Regarding the topic, I remember announcements by Nintendo in the earlier days of NSO that definitely gave the impression (no I can't find references, so I can't 'prove' it) that basically indicated we could expect a new system to be added each year. We were definitely led to believe that. They've had more than long enough now to expand the offerings.
With the snail's pace at which they're delivering these games to us now, and the games mostly not being too high standard anymore either, I feel like these are mostly just an afterthought now and not something they're really focusing on and sometimes just think "oh right, this still exists too".
As such I don't think this is going to happen. I think we're stuck with just NES and SNES. But I'd love to be proven wrong.
When I see that list of games, despite still having the ones I'm interested in, playable on the most lovely handheld ever (the GB Micro Famicom Edition) and on tv through the GB Player on my Game Cube, and having several of them on my 3DS as well from the ambassador program, I can't help but think "alright, that could finally push me to get that online subscription..."
Add online multiplayer capability, Rogue Spear, Max Payne, Payback, and several other third party games, and Drill Dozer with HD rumble, and GB(C) as well, with it's Zelda games, Cannon Fodder, Alone in the Dark, Perfect Dark,... and I'll take two, one for childhood nostalgia.
It's not going to happen the way I describe it here, but I'd be convinced by slightly less as well.
Looks like a poor photoshop attempt
No thanks, I don't want GBA games on Switch online. Having to verify a subscription kills any enthusiasm and I will never invest meaningful progress or time in a game I can't own. In addition, my original GBAsp and GBMicro are both in better condition than my Switch, due to better design and more robust build quality. These handhelds are ancient, but they do not crack from minor use like my Switch did.
Nintendo will never out Pokémon titles in such a service as it cannibalizes sales of actual new games - we've seen that with the way they offered and priced VC titles on the 3DS.
But getting Advance Wars and Mario titles? Would be jawsome.
Well, this made me realize why we're never getting Advance on CGC. There are no classic controllers to sell along with it!😱
@PBandSmelly Yeah I thought the same and wasn't sure whether to post it. This is like 10-20mins work in Photoshop.
Imagine if this actually happened.... sigh
@Ulanda They would just use someone else's, like they have so far and also with their classic systems.
...or I can just play my original carts.
@GameOtaku They do? How do you know?
@YANDMAN that would be new to me. Fo you have a link about that?
Honestly, four years into Switch, NSO should have Nes, Snes, N64, GB, GBA and DS All started (10 games minimum each) and adding new or alternate tweaked games once a month. They have the budget and it would only "grow" NSO sub count. I cancelled my sub last year, only monster Hunter Rise has made me even consider renewing, but my friends don't sub either yet, so no point.
@Ulanda well I guess they have quite good programmers or can hire one or two with their billions of dollars. I don’t think time or resources is the problem. It’s the will. They don’t want to do it, that’s why it ain’t happening.
@Ulanda I think you're right, perhaps the Wii U emulators could not be ported so Nintendo used one of their development branches (NERD) to make a completely new emulator. Then again the FE1 release largely hints at a different emulator, possibly the same one as Wii U.
GBA VC on Wii U was mentioned on M2's website as their own software. So assuming this is just Nintendo not wanting to pay M2 to port to Switch, they'd have to make a new emulator from scratch, as their last commercial GBA emulator goes back to the GameCube days, in Pokemon Box and demo discs it's likely not viable to build off this very platform-specific software.
I feel like they’d have to charge for these games. They haven’t milked them as much as with SNES and NES
Would Nintendo Life be interested in doing a proper article about the real cost of emulating these different platforms?
Coding, licensing, obtaining reratings by modern standards, advertising, hosting costs, etc etc etc. And a measure of what the actual demand for these games is, how much they really get played, how much Nintendo actually make from NSO vs the cost of running it?
We get these "wouldn't it be wonderful if..." articles every single day here at NL, but never one looking at the reality.
It simply is not as easy as it sounds.
Imagine there were actually games to talk about. Nintendolife wouldn't have to dig up every random story that is tangentially related to Nintendo.
While I'd love to see GBA games roll over to Switch Online, I feel like a natural progression would be to include a decent selection of GB/GBC games first.
...So by 2025.
But those are all GOOD games. That's not how this works.
Nintendo: Up next on NSO, Virtual Boy! Because we like to make you suffer.
Please stop watering down your content, NL. This article is especially of particularly low quality - the mockup isn't even well done. This website is better than this.
Now that would be worth the price of admission.
@Noid Drill Dozer DEFINITELY needs some love! I loved playing it with my GameBoy Player!
Give me the Kirby and Castlevania GBA games and I'm good to go
I'd kill for physical releases jam-packed with classic GB/GBC/GBA/GC/Wii games.
Who am I kidding? They can be stingy and I would still throw my money at them.
This would be so cool! However I’m not sure how Nintendo would do the exclusive controllers like they’ve got for nes and SNES
@Ulanda
Because it’s Nintendo. They had Advance emulation on WiiU and 3ds as well as some GBA games being available right now on the switch eshop.
one word. cheese. that is all.
N64 games would be much better, even if we had to pay more for them.
The Game Boy Advance was no more powerful than the SNES with very similar games.
2 Metroids, 2 Golden Suns, AND 2 Fire Emblems?! Make it real Nintendo!
June 22nd the GBA will be 20 years old, perfect timing if they wanted to do it then
I would like to see all the gameboy advance games on the switch especially the mario and luigi games and kirby games. I also would like to ds and 3ds games on the switch as well.
@Noid DRILLDOZER IS INCREDIBLE
Rolling my eyes at all the people criticizing the quality of this article. Here we are, almost 70 comments into a low-effort post. It's hard for Nintendo fans to avoid arguing over theoretical improvements to the NSO. Therefore, this latest low-effort photoshop was NL's perfect excuse to post this kind of click bait.
Oh well!
Yes. Please and thank you Nintendo.
@GameOtaku because it is Nintendo says nothing.
@Ladasta or its maybe not in their current plan? We can speculate here until the cows comes home, but without facts or proof, we can't be sure.
@YANDMAN I think so, too.
Why won’t Nintendo just bring GBA games to the Switch in the form of virtual console?
The more Nintendo knows we want this, the more they're going to withhold it.
Tough but possible. I look more forward to new games made for the switch such as metroid prime 4, Mario Kart X, earthbound (sequel), Wario ware switch, Wii/Switch fit, Punch-Out the return of Mike Tyson, Donkey Kong jungle beat 2, and I would most definitely want to play pro wrestling from the NES made for the switch with more characters including all from the nes series and a huge story line. Same with Kung fu kid. The past is still available for anyone who wants to play it. You don’t need to play them on your switch. Let’s take these classics and ask that they be given an enhancement and move forward in the future of gaming instead of dwindling in the past. Stop asking for dog chow and start requesting filet mignon people. Not that Nintendo listens to us anyways.
Hopefully, Game Boy Advance will come 2 Nintendo Switch Online eventually, 4 Christ's sake.
@Ulanda
There are GBA games already available on the switch eshop. Nintendo has already done emulation for GBA on two other consoles so why is it such a stretch?
@GameOtaku there are already? I was not aware of that because I'm not actively looking for them.
I would love if Nintendo puts it out and the first Games they release will be the Super Mario Advance Collection, the NES Titles and Zelda altp and all without addition for a year
gba games are the most anticipated in my opinion on switch online, there are really high quality games like Mario and luigi and the two Metroids and many others, I really hope to be able to play them on switch within this year!
@NorseGamerTommy well it’s called a ‘Mock-up’ for that reason
Wouldn’t mind this but need to fix Pokémon games as it wouldn’t work, or try to make it work with home
@Ulanda No, but Google does.
@GameOtaku
Which gba games are on Switch? Nothing comes up in Google or in the eshop
It'd be a dream come true to play Zero Mission on Switch.
Minish Cap is such an awesome Zelda game. I still listen to the soundtrack from time to times. Good memories.
@Shigai97
Robotech the Macross Saga.
This will never happen because its far too good of an idea and we know how Nintendo feels about a good idea.
@YANDMAN what?! For real???
It could've been done years ago but they simply chose to ignore the requests.
Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga
All of the Super Mario Advances
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
Whatever pokemon games were on GBA
Golden Sun
Mario Kart
Wario Land
WarioWare
Metroid: Zero Mission
Metroid Fusion
Final Fantasy V & VI Advance
Those would be MUST haves.
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