Switch owners located in North America can currently claim a free trial for the standard version of Nintendo Switch Online.
The good news is it's even available to players who have previously activated a free trial and don't currently have a subscription. If you're already an existing subscriber though this offer isn't available to you.
This trial will give you the ability to play Nintendo Switch games online, and will also allow you to access the libraries of NES and SNES games, and Save Data Cloud support. Unfortunately, N64 and Sega Genesis / Mega Drive games are part of the 'Expansion Pack' premium tier - so to access that content, you'll just have to pay extra. This tier also includes the Animal Crossing: New Horizon DLC - Happy Home Paradise.
Nintendo recently revealed standard Switch Online subscriptions had surpassed the 32 million mark, as of September 2021. You can read more about this in our previous post.
Will you be making use of this free trial? Are you already an NSO subscriber? Leave a comment down below.
Comments 41
They could have given us one for plus, But why would they do that i'm I right?
Free N64!? Nope... never mind
Right when my year ran out, lol. Of course no trial for the Expansion so I can at least play some N64 games for 7 days, because hellz no I'm not buying that stupid expansion.
Remember when the online was free and you didn't need trials or subscriptions?
@Tourtus : Lest we forget.
Good news. I can probably finish the online challenges in Smash Ultimate (I think).
Nintendo should release a Disney+ style subscription service that offers every single Nintendo published game for nes, snes, gb(c), gba, n64, and gc. This would be so easy for them to do, but they choose not to, because £€$¥. All hail the drip, I guess.
It's hardly even worth making a new account to keep getting free trials for what amounts to incredibly shoddy emulation at this point. But hey, at least this suggests that they know they've screwed up and they're now desperate. Maybe we'll actually see some improvements.
I hope someone out there will use those 7 days productively and beat an all-timer like Super Mario World, Kirby Super Star or Super Metroid for free.
Can't give it away 😜
Does this trial still require you to put in your credit card details? I always pay with eShop credit but last time I tried the trial it asked for my US credit card (i use the US eShop)…I’m in China and we all know how bare-bones their eShop is haha
Neat guess I'll finally be able to dust off the switch and try out some Sora in smash online even though I hate his floaty combat
To everyone complaining it doesn’t include the Expansion Pack… I mean, obviously? That’d be super dumb for them to include it, which one of you would have your mind changed by a trial of that? For one, a week is more than enough to beat every N64 game on offer there, meaning even if they ran flawlessly most people would already experience everything it has to offer, and two, none of it does run flawlessly (it runs pretty good but has some noticeable issues that most players wouldn’t accept) so it’d likely make less people subscribe, not more.
Nintendo is very aware that people are unhappy with it at this point. Whether they’re gonna fix it and make it more worth the value remains to be seen, but they’re not dumb enough to demo that right now, that’s not gonna get them any more sales. If they fix it and add a bunch more content, then it’s worth discussing whether they should have a trial, but right now it’d be yet another dumb move after a series of dumb moves. At least they’re self aware enough right now to realize that move would be dumb.
I've had like 3 trials and it's the only time I've ever had NSO. Nice to dive in every year or so and see the 5 new SNES games.
I haven't used it since its first year. Don't intend to use it again tbh
Please understand...
@Kintypoo121 I used a free trial on my japanese account once and never had to provide any credit card info on the japanese eshop I just pressed a button, and it activated the free trial
@Matty1988 Why subscribed and not use it? You're basically giving them free money at that point.
Lol i know why they dont offer the + for trial.
Its really bad. I played it at my cousins house.
Man nintendo really should hire those creators of emulators.
Its even worse than all the previous.
They can do wayyy better.
With this quality it should be added in the base online subs.
@Tourtus was a good time, miss it
@Mr_Fox Well it's obviously not that easy given some of the opinions about the (lack of) quality in the N64 emulation. Also licencing these old games can be a bit of a nightmare too. I think people forget that it's not just a case of dumping a load of old ROMs on the service and it just works, especially when it's a paid service - folk are going to be a lot less forgiving than they would be compared to something like a Pi or hacked mini-console with ROMs obtained from some shady website.
I'm one of those disgusting heathens who bought the expansion pack. Yes I'm why you can't have nice things. I regret nothing, I'm getting a lot of playtime out of the N64 games and Animal Crossing DLC
I don't understand, this trial is available to people who already own the product you can trial??? Excellent work once again, is this a joke?
@YusseiWarrior3000 Why? It says it's available to those who already own it, if you own it you don't need it.
I have a permanent free trial on my PC and Wii, Wii U, 3DS. Can't be bothered to sign up for a temporary free trial.
@Specter_of-the_OLED I'm not subscribed, I had it for the first year of the service but haven't been subbed since it expired
@CodyMKW Cheers, I’ll try again and see
Man, I was hoping they'd start offering Expansion Pack trials. Maybe another day.
Great free trial for the awesome online service, been on the expansion pack and those N64 titles look great on the OLED screen or docked, can't wait for more to be added.
@TheBigK,
Same here, the price is peanuts to be honest, not even the price of a decent meal out, for the full family membership.
@RetroOutcast This only applies to the standard account. They aren't even giving free access to the crappy emulation.
Don't need a trial to know that NSO is rubbish. I have the basic subscription and I'm not gonna renew. I don't play online anymore. Nintendo's netcode and voice chat implementation is laggy, antiquated and awful. Most classic games I've replayed on the Wii and Wii U. The N64 games that I like have emulator issues. And let's not talk about the lack of QoL features for the Switch. NSO is a hot mess....It's been a couple of years that a Retropie system looks like the best option. Gonna do it this year. In Joe Vargas' words; "Nintendo, you done F-ed it up!!!". I hope Nintendo learns eventually, but I'm doubtful.
@ShadJV Older games in their library are throw away titles for Nintendo, anything they cannot sell you for 79.99 CAD a pop they don't truly care about. They throw in those games for "added" value, even though I and most people who want to play them have all of them and superior ways to play them.
(suggests not using any free trial for this Nintendo Switch Online for as long as it involves fees)
Not worth it. Nintendo online is still bad.
@Jokerwolf I disagree, Nintendo highly values their older titles, they practically vault them like Disney, slowly dripping them out again on every generation. Any company that charges you $10 for a 25 year old game is not viewing that game as throwaway, they’re viewing it as a long term cash cow. They do their best to make consumers pay for the same games over and over again.
Also your statement that they throw the games in their for added value make no sense. Value to what? All the Expansion Pass is is older gamers. They’re charging $50/year for literally 9 N64 games and drip feeding them out. And let’s not even mention the Genesis games since you can get more of them for less money in a one time eShop purchase (or physical game card). The N64 games are what they’re trying to market to players more.
@MrSad I mean, seems like a good time for a trial. Mario Party released a few weeks ago and Pokemon releases this week, both have online. Plus it’s the start of the holiday and so kids could try the online and then want a subscription for Christmas, or if they get online games for Christmas they could use the trial then. Holidays are a great time for trials.
@ShadJV They think it is added value most people would rather them give away full titles like Microsoft or Platstation does. I have all of those roms on backup drives for pretty much every system at this point with no qualms about legality. Old software is fair game these big compannies habe enough money.
@YusseiWarrior3000 do you think they will give one for Europe?
I stopped subscribing to Switch Online shortly after they introduced a tier system and I don't want to get sucked back in so I'll probably pass on this.
@braincandy101 Wow. Just making a better case for emulation and piracy. GG Ninty.
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