Four Sega Genesis / Mega Drive Games Have Been Added To Switch Online's Expansion Pack

Funny enough just earlier today I was wondering about replaying Pulseman.

Street Fighter and Mega Man being on the genesis NSO service surprised me, considering those games are part of their respective anniversary collections on the eshop. But here they are! Will play street fighter and the other games later tonight. I hope the next GBA game is still on the cards for April though, I am losing hope…

Not bad, not bad. I never did get around to beating Pulseman so I'll get my second chance.

Pulseman is a nice surprise. Definitely checking that out.

Anyone else always forget Genesis is a thing on NSO? Feels like they almost never update it and no one ever talks about it

I've never played them except Pulseman. I'm glad it's finally here after being abscent from the Wii U Virtual Console. If they had added that system to it, you can be sure that Pulseman would've been on my Wii U before its eShop closed.

Retro Game Freak fans are eating well, Pokémon Stadium on the N64 with Stadium 2 to be released, Pulseman on the Mega Drive. Only things missing are the mainline Pokémon versions on GB and GBA and Drill Dozer for the latter system.

These are genuinely good additions! what isn't genuinely good is that we're not getting updates like these for all 4 consoles every month and instead get spoonfed them every like 6 or 7 months instead. Once again, NO excuse for that coming from one of the richest companies on the planet, for a service that costs up to 70 dollars a year.

I always love these updates with the Classic Tails plush photo.
Does anyone know where I can get this Classic Tails plush? Who is the manufacturer and what is the product name?

@burgerkingsauce I guess because the Genesis game additions lack consistency. I mean, all of the NSO applications lack consistency, but it’s more apparent in the Genesis side of things. It’s quality over quantity for the Genesis however, with each batch of games coming every so often, but the games are really good additions, this batch is no exception. I guess that is why it’s so forgettable

Street Fighter 2, Castlevania and Mega Man are examples of why the expansion pack should start including certain NES and SNES titles. It is quite clear the extra cost is contributing to these additions

Ah yes, the far future of 2015!

@KryptoniteKrunch
Ya, i remember Pulse Man being on Sega Channel, back in 94 was it?

Would be cool if they added in Splatterhouse 2&3, Decap Attack, Rocket Knight Adventures and Shadow Dancer too.

That Genesis Classics collection may have a few gems in there that aren't available on Genesis NSO, but GClassics is plagued with horrendous latency compared to NSO, to the point of being game-breaking.

Kid Chameleon is a great game IMO.

I've never heard of Pulseman , but it looks like a pretty cool game.

That awkward moment when sega gets better games on Switch Online than SNES.....

Kid Chameleon! Loved that game as a kid. Looking forward to giving Pulseman and Flicky a go, as well. Seems like a solid update.

@Hydra_Spectre it’s from Jakks Pacific

@burgerkingsauce Mainly because all of it (I think) is already on Switch except for MUSHA. This helps change that though.

@NeonPizza oh gosh, Splatterhouse 3 finna traumatize everyone😂😂

I'm a SUPER STREET FIGHTER II TURBO person myself. Got two six-button controllers for my birthday that year just so I could pick it up on launch day and roll it the way it was meant to be played. Might just have to bite the bullet and get a Sega Genesis Mini 2.

Honestly, some of these games actually look pretty solid. I am not too unhappy with these additions. Embarrassingly though, I haven't played any of the current titles on the Sega Genesis emulator... I have been too busy with other games.

@Funneefox
$70.00 USD a year seems like a bargain for online, VC, and DLC. I know I'm in the minority, but there it is.

The Genesis SF2 brings back memories of when the SNES, Genesis and PC Engine(!) versions of SF2:CE were all available for the Wii Virtual Console.

I've gotta say, aside from Mega Man, the only Sega games I've touched are arcade ports. Strider, Virtua Fighter and now Street Fighter. Pretty nice to have.

All great games on this update. Yes, even Flicky. I will not allow a bad word said about Flicky. (stern stare)

Flicky was a mega drive hidden gem for me. Great game of its time

I know this is a promotion for SF6 - but I still am very surprised Capcom allowed a version of this game to be released on the service. This is the most excited I've been on a NSO announcement outside of the GBA.

Overall a stellar release. Can't wait to use my Sega controller on these!

Surprised I’m not hearing more about Kid Chameleon. I spent an entire summer trying to beat it, sometimes leaving my console on overnight paused. It’s fun, tough as nails and in my opinion an absolute classic

I wish they would add some Master System games like Dynamite Dux, Teddy Boy, Penguin Land, The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants, Psycho Fox, Phantasy Star and Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse.

I love Pulseman. I really enjoyed that game when I first played it on the Wii VC. Too bad Pulseman never made it to the Mini consoles but I’m definitely playing it here.

Kid chameleon might finally be the tipping pint where I add the expansion pak

The service is still not worth it. We need more options to play these these games rather than subscribing. I honestly see no reason why they can’t sell individual games. They are making money either way so what’s the big deal?!

@WhiteTrashGuy

I'd much rather they just bring back the virtual console.

Buying my faves for the umpteenth time still feels better to me than being charged monthly for a chance to play them until I stop paying.

Pulseman is a good game, already played and finished it back then on genesis 😃

@HammerGalladeBro also still missing Smart Ball / Jerry Boy for the SNES. I've never played it, but I'd love to see it come to the online service.

Another semi-obscure Game Freak gem is Mendel Palace for the NES, which is included in the Namcot Collection / Namco Museum Archives on Switch. Some of its characters bear a clear resemblance to later Pokemon. It's one of my favorite NES games!

Flicky is not much to look at, but it has that magical "just let me try one more time" gameplay hook.

@Funneefox Yes! They need to embrace the Netflix and Disney+ models. Large catalogs and new stuff being actively added.

Time to ditch the Disney Vault model.

I'm surprised to see any street fighter here since they are all on the shop, too bad the official Sega controller on switch only has 3 buttons 🙄

Excited to try flicky just because sonic games.

Don’t sleep on Kid Chameleon it’s a brilliant game. Do read the instruction manual if you get stuck.

@Kiwi_Unlimited
I wholeheartedly agree.

@DwaynesGames Not to rain on your passionate plea but NSO IS the Netflix/Disney+ model. Just because it’s not going at your preferred pace (which is completely understandable) doesn’t change the fact that it now houses something approaching 200 games (I think?). That is definitely not the Disney Vault approach.

Pulseman is a great addition I've been waiting for, especially how the Wii Virtual Console version in Europe was butchered into a forced 50Hz mode.

Street Fighter I assume Capcom have no intentions of rereleasing the Mega Drive versions on any other collection just like Wily Wars.

I had way more fun that I would like to admit with Flicky in the Sonic Gems Collection for Gamecube.
It's a simple but insanely addictive Highscore game.

Is this announcement week or something?

I am not very good at Street Fighter but love all platformers so these three will get a boot up today.

Nintendo Life: thanks for the heads up.

Now do Road Rash, Lion King and Clay Fighters! My copy is in my parents attic and I can't be bothered going through boxes.

@WhiteTrashGuy $70 a year!? Over here it's only £35 (£25 if you get an deal from somewhere) which works out roughly $40.

Wish Street Fighter was on the SNES app because better music and sound effects. Curious to try Pulseman and Flicky.

Flicky! Yeay!!!

PULSEMAN OH MY F***ING GOD FINALLY OPFDWJBFHWFWUBFW I'VE WANTED TO PLAY IT FOR YEARS

Absolutely stellar lineup of games this time round: I've been dying to play Pulseman ever since I learned it was one of the games Game Freak made before Pokemon (along with being just an absolutely banging platformer in general from what I've heard), Flicky looks simple but a fun time regardless, Kid Chameleon I have no real thoughts for or against currently and SFII Special Champion Edition is a nice surprise (even if I am completely Street Fighter'd out after the collections). Overall, a great variety of games here and I can't wait to give them all a whirl!

Also the fact that the game where Sonic 1's animals come from came to NSO before Sonic 1 itself is still extremely funny to me.

Some good games here. Will certainly check them out!

Did they alter E. Honda’s stage to remove the “racially insensitive” imagery? And alter Guile’s stage to remove the Air Force logo? They did for other modern releases of SFII.

I remember that Spain's #1 videogame magazine, Hobby Consolas, ranked Flicky as "THE Worst Megadrive game" month after month after month.

I eventually played it and... uuuh... why all that hate?

A while ago I googled for lists of the best Sega Genesis games. I looked for long lists each at least 50 games long, that were ranked. I assigned points based on rank and added them all up. I was left with 16 lists, 396 unique games and 1,465 total entries.

• Pulseman and Street Fighter II: Special Championship Edition ended up top 50 Genesis games.
• Kid Chameleon ended up a top 100 Genesis game.
• Flicky was a top 150 Genesis game.

Of the 4 games, Pulseman is also the only new addition to the Switch, the others already available via the Sega Genesis Classics and Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Edition collections.

These are 4 great games, all worthwhile entries. Flicky is the weakest but its still a fun little arcade "pick-up-and-play" and is historically interesting. The others 3 are stone cold classics and Pulseman is crazy rare and expensive. Great selection of games being added to this service, seemingly better selection and faster than Nintendo are doing with the SNES titles. Just wish they'd also add 32X and Mega CD

@WhiteTrashGuy I LOVE proper 6 button pads, that's awesome that you just picked up 2 of them! Please forgive me if I misunderstood your tweet but just incase, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo isn't on the Genesis Mini 2, just regular Super.

As far as I'm aware SSF2T was never officially on a 16bit platform. I still highly recomend the Genesis Mini 2 though, some great games!

I agree that SSF2T is the best of all the original versions of that game, but all of them have interesting quirks - for me, I like to play regular Turbo sometimes too (and the excellent SNES version), it still very much holds up. If you haven't picked it up yet, I highly recomend the 30th Anniversary Collection, its by Digital Eclipse, sam eguys who made the amazing Cowabunga Collection and Atari 50. Or if you just want SSF2T on the cheap - its available on "Capcom Arcade Stadium" for only like $3 Either way, with your 2x 6 button pads, you can't go wrong!

[edit] Sorry to tag you and bother you if you already know this, or don't care about the differences between the versions. To me, the differences between SSF2 and SSF2T are pretty huge so didn't want you being disapointed if you bought an expensive mini console for one specific game. I wasn't trying to correct you in a "well actually" kinda way, I'm autistic and was trying to be helpful, but I know sometimes I can get that balance wrong. Hopefully it read the way I intended!

There may be no shortage of ways to play Street Fighter 2 on Switch by now, but the rest is a welcome platformer batch. I actually haven't even heard much about Pulseman, and TIL it's by Game Freak!

@nhSnork Its a relatively unknown game, only physically released in Japan - but was briefly available in America through the "Sega Channel" service and therefore became somewhat of a cult hit for those that played and remembered it.

Its a really excellent platform game, up there with the likes of Sonic, and of course historically interesting to have a Game Freak game on Sega - many/most of the Pokemon Red/Green team worked on it. They also made "Magical Taruruto Kun" for Megadrive, based on the anime, another obscure but very high quality platform game

@WhiteTrashGuy Agreed, if you have the expansion pack you get a lot of content. Seems to be something new on at least one of the services each month as well.

Still frustrated by how little the Mega Drive is getting updated, but has to be said, this is a very good update. A nice selection of 4 pretty good games here. I like the variety too.

I'm pretty sure I devoted more of my Mega Drive-playing time to that particular version of Street Fighter than any other game.

@NinjaNicky It isn't $70/year, it's $50. So I don't know why @Funneefox said that. Unless they meant Family Membership, but that's $80/year and it's for 8 accounts so = $10/year ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

What is the £25 deal you speak of?

@jco83 sometimes Tesco do deals, the same as PSN. It's usually £10 off. Just looked on CDKeys and they're currently doing it for £22.99

@NinjaNicky that £22.99 is standard NSO not Expansion Pack. You can only buy Expansion Pack directly through Nintendo. Though it is possible to get it a bit cheaper by buying the cheaper standard NSO keys and then upgrading to Expansion Pack

I'm not aware of Tesco ever doing such deals and I'm a very regular viewer of deals websites 🤔

@TheBigBlue The Mega Drive port of SF2 is on the SF collection?

Wow' can't wait to lay Street Fighter II with my official NSO three button Sega Genesis controller. 😑

I'm still baffled that they can't have some kind og schedule for this. How about 1 game every month, instead of 5 in a week and then four months of nothing?

@Sinton one game every month would be far less than what we are currently getting. Unless you mean one game every week then yes i agree.

I thought Nintendo forgot the Genesis was part of Switch Online. Good to see that's not the case and even better that all these games are quality.

Nice seeing the mega drive get some games that aren't in every sega collection ever for a change

@JohnnyMind
If you aren’t getting the most out of the service then the savings of going in on a family plan is not really a savings. Myself I’m only interested in the games and nothing else. I’d rather buy them like I could with VC and forget all about the online service and the dlc that I’ve no use for.

@YANDMAN
Yes championship edition is in the SF anniversary collection. Just not the Genesis port. The og arcade.

@NinjaNicky
It's $50.00 USD for the standard NSO+Expansion Pass; $70.00 USD for the Family Pass version which covers all 4 Switches in my household.

@jco83 sometimes you just have to go in and check prices. Smyth's toy shop near me usually sell games £5 less than it says online and sometimes have deals in store. Same with GAME.

@samuelvictor
No, I meant I got the two 6-Button pads in 1993... When they originally released for the Genesis a couple months prior to the release of SSF2. There was a big push during that time with Sega showing they have the best way to play SF at home; and they weren't wrong! Sorry about the confusion by adding Turbo. And yes, I do have the 30th Anniversary Collection. And I will probably pick up a Sega Genesis Mini 2!

How do you justify playing the Genesis version of Street Fighter 2 when the 6-button controller is exclusive to certain regions? More importantly, why would you play the Genesis version when you could get either the 30th Anniversary Collection containing multiple versions of Street Fighter 2, or get Ultra Street Fighter 2 if you want the "most updated" experience?

Good additions glad to play Pulseman again

@WhiteTrashGuy Oh I see! Sorry for the confusion. That must have been amazing back in the day! At the time I got a SNES for Christmas to Play SF2T and got used to using the shoulder buttons for the hard attacks, however in 1995 I picked up the full "tower of power" second hand with Megadrive, Mega CD and 32X, and 2x6 button pads, and spent the next couple of years picking up cheap 2nd hand games from that generation and loving them.

I absolutely adore that Sega 6 button pad, only beaten for me by the Saturn S Pad a few years later. I got used to using it for all the Capcom converstion and now I find it hard to go back to a diamond layout for 6 button arcade games, not to9 mention Sega's excellent rolling dpad.

Nowadays I use the NSO SNES pad for SNES & Nes, but Retro bit Megadrive 6button and Wireless Saturn pads for pretty much all my other emulation/retrogame needs

I imported a 6 button controller from Japan but haven't signed up with the expansion service yet (great on PC Genesis collection via Steam though). Can I use the 6 button on the US NSO Genesis service?

@samuelvictor
Yeah, the Sega 6 Button layouts were perfect. I also had the Tower of Power, but ultimately sold it and bought a CDX, which I still have. I also use the RetroBit Sega pads for the majority of my retro gaming. Is there a good wireless option for Switch?

@WhiteTrashGuy Nowadays I mostly use Switch Lite for Nintendo games as I prefer the form factor and D-Pad, and play the rest of my games on PC. But the Wireless versions of the Retrobit pads should sync with Switch if you use a bluetooth adapter. I know the wired versions work fine, I have wired Megadrive pad and used to use it all the time

The CDX is a beautiful unit! Colour me jealous. I've owned one (called a Multi-Mega over here) but sold it before downsizing when I moved country.

@ModdedInkling I can tell you how I justify it - I have NSO+ and it just came out. So I'm going to play it.

*whew that was complicated!

I kid you not, last night I looked at the NSO Mega Drive thumbnail on my Switch homescreen and considered checking it to see if anything was new. Then thought "nah" and promptly fell asleep on the couch while Nintendo was upping these titles.

I'm happy to see Kid Chameleon - that's one I've always wanted to try, and I don't think it was on the Sega Genesis Classics Collection or on the Mega Drive Mini 1 or 2? Flicky will be fun to jump into now and again, and I'm curious about Pulseman, too.

I'd have said all this sooner, but the NL website is not playing nice with my iPhone browser. In this article and others, If I click anywhere on the screen, to read the comments or post one of my own, it sends me to the Curse of the Sea Rats website. I wonder if this has this been happening to other readers here?

Still waiting for Skitchin' and General Chaos. Those 2 alone will be worth the price of admission any day of the week for me!

"The far future of 2015"

@HammerGalladeBro I think the licensed Magical Taruruto? (I forgot the name at the moment) game for Mega Drive got added on the second Mini in Japan, but SmartBall/Jerry Boy is still missing. I can only guess that Sony retains some copyright ownership to it.

@Ganner Great games, but both from EA. Saw someone else mention Road Rash above, same problem

EA had a tonne of great Megadrive titles. Some of the best! But I'm not sure modern EA could be bothered with sorting the lawyers fees to allow Nintendo to use their old games, or would want far too much money... if we are lucky they'll put out an EA collection or something, but they don't seem to care much about their legacy - like the latest FC press release talking about the FIFA series' "8-bit origin".

@WhiteTrashGuy Also, I believe it is $50 total for the Expansion Pass, not an additional charge to the $20 base price.

@KingMike Its just called "Magical Taruruto Kun", I think Fun game

@Angelic_Lapras_King "Street Fighter I"? The only console port of that was the TurboGrafx-CD version Fighting Street.

@samuelvictor Yes, the developers said that cartridge space was the reason to not port Super Turbo. So the devs went directly to the 3DO to create their first console port.
Because I guess in 1994, the 3DO was the most advanced console in the market?
Though I wonder if the console fared any better in Japan than it did in America. It did end up getting a number of exclusive games.

@KingMike "Street Fighter I assume...."

You didnt read the full comment did you? XD

@KingMike At the time (93 ish), many people including business analysts, newspapers, gaming journalists etc thought the 3DO was the future of the industry, partially because of Trip Hawkins reputation, but also because of the open hardware standard meaning anyone that wanted to could make their own 3do compatible consoles, computers, televisions, vcrs, microwaves or whatever else. Software houses loved it because almost anyone could make games for it and the licenses were almost nothing. Third party support was initailly huge.

The Jaguar was very difficult to get the most out of the hardware and cartridge costs were high. Sega was flailing and after Mega CD and 32X devs were untrusting of how long the Saturn would be around - and again its complex hardware was difficult to get the most out of. Nintendo's new hardware was several years away. Sony wasn't really taken seriously until people actually saw the hardware and what it could do.

It really did seem like 3DO was the safe bet. They even had a future roadmap with the M2 based upgraded standard for later down the line once devs were in that eco system.

However, the fact it was an open standard, and so high spec for the time, was actually the system's downfall and killed it dead in the water... because the different manufacturers of the consoles wouldn't be making money from software sales, they had to rely on the hardware to turn a profit, meaning the systems ended up being eye wateringly expensive and out of the reach of consumers. The polar opposite of Sony, who were willing to sell at a $100+ loss, because they knew they'd sell more units if they were affordable (and $100 cheaper than Saturn, which also was selling at a loss!), and would make their loss back when customers bought 3 games.

Also, the fact pretty much anyone could make and publish 3DO games without restriction meant there was a HUGE amount of low quality shovelware, which made the hardware look weak. So another "strength" on paper became a weakness in practice.

[Edit] Thinking about it, there technically was a "16 bit" version of SSF2T in Game Tek's excellent MS-DOS version. But really, the high end 486 based PCs needed to run it at the time were more similar to the 32bit consoles in capability, rather than the 16bit consoles and Amiga, ST etc. They just technically were still using 16bit processors. It was around this time that "bits" really didn't mean very much in determining how capable a system was. And to your point of being too big for cartridges, as far as I know, that DOS version was CD only.

@Angelic_Lapras_King I think they were confused by the lack of Oxford comma... "Street Fighter, I assume Capcom..." and when people are used to seeing the series formated as "Street Fighter II", "Street Fighter III" etc with Roman numerals, its easy to assume "Street Fighter I" meant the first arcade game, and then the implied Oxford comma is after that - "Street Fighter I, assume Capcom... I read it that way too at first til I looked back over the comment. With no punctuation (though its perfectly correct grammatically, I'm not criticising you in any way) its possible to read it both ways.

@samuelvictor Which reminds me, I still haven’t watched Magical Talruto-kun. I first read about the show when Super Play magazine did a feature on SNES games based on anime thirty years ago.

@Bass_X0 I remember reading about it in Super Play too! Thats where I got a lot of my early news about anime & manga, and of course import games It was a pretty popular show, ran for years, though I've only seen a handful of episodes years back. From what I remember it was cute and pretty funny if you don't mind blatant gag/pun setups in anime. There's 3 "films" as well, but they are only 45 mins each so I assume they were OVA for VHS, not seen them.

PS if you are into anime, I'm a producer of a long running podcast that is presented by 2 of my best friends, Blue and Brad, called BnB Anime. Its a great show and they are 2 of the nicest and funniest people in the world, so I highly recomend it

@TheBigBlue I didn't realize Mega Man was on there!

@Jprhino84 it is a subscription service, but it took 6 long years to get to this point. Too much of the vault mentality.

I understand not releasing everything all at once, but it shouldn’t have taken so long to get GB and GBA games. And now that we do have them, basic games like Super Mario Land and Donkey Kong are still held back.

Games should be added to each console on a more periodic schedule.

I have been a constant subscriber from the beginning. I don’t think it is asking too much.

@DwaynesGames No, you’re twisting definitions now. Your original comment was simply wrong.

Like I said, just because it’s not growing at the pace you’d like, that doesn’t make it the “Disney Vault”. That specific strategy released titles on a short term schedule, then made them unavailable for prolonged periods. The Netflix strategy is a growing selection of titles for a monthly fee. In fact, NSO hasn’t removed a single game in the 5 or so years of the service’s existence. That is the complete opposite of the vault strategy. Keep dancing around your own definitions if you wish, but your initial comparison was wrong.

@Jprhino84 Sorry to go off topic but out of interest, nowadays Netflix are removing content faster than they add it. They are moving closer and closer to a small selection of original programing that they push to their audience for a specific period of time. Nowadays when myself or my colleagues sell an independently produced film to Netflix they only want it for 6 months. I've had films be on Netflix for a few months, then on Amazon, and now on Tubi or others.

Sadly the days of the streaming services being ever growing libraries is very much over, and I'm not sure why. The most extreme example I had was Amazon showing a romantic comedy I produced for valentines day in 2018, and it was only on their service for 2 weeks. After that, you couldn't even pay to watch/rent it because that wasn't the "window" they'd bought it for. Makes no sense to me that they'd just remove all traces of the film ever being on their system in such a short time. (This wasn't because the film was controversial in any way, its seemingly standard practice).

What's even weirder is its not just a licensing thing - as even films/shows that Netflix or Amazon have entirely funded themselves are now getting taken down from their archives. I can only assume this is because they ar trying to save money on server space, as they 100% own the rights to the content. The real nightmare for creators and consumers alike is that these productions usually don't have DVD/Blu-Ray versions and will never appear on rival services... so they just dissappear from existence. For fans who really lvoed the shows, this is heartbreaking, and for the people who worked really hard making them, its frankly insulting and makes you feel cheap, used and disposable.

To Disney's credit, so far they've been consistently adding to Disney+, even including stuff they've previously been unwilling to bother putting on DVD or Blu-Ray, and as far as I know, they aren't removing content from the service. Its like the opposite of the old "Disney Vault" mentality. If they keep it up, and keep buying more and more media companies and including their legacy content on there too, they could slowly turn into the biggest and best library out there... but again, being a streaming service there's no guarantee it won't dissappear overnight. There is no permanence in media nowadays, sadly.

@samuelvictor Yes, I’m aware. But because the guy I was responding to was already playing fast and loose with definitions, I stuck to the general ethos of the two models. I’m not discounting anything you said though.

@Jprhino84 No worries. Sorry for the info dump. Its just a growing concern for myself and my friends professionally, but also as a consumer myself. I'm rapidly losing faith in the "ever-growing content vault" promise of early Netflix subscription that seemed such a great deal back then.

While I wish Nintendo would add more games (and consoles!) quicker, I'm hoping that this new service will transfer accross to their future consoles, they will never remove content, and we won't have to start all over again rebuying or being drop fed from zero with each new generation.

I'd still prefer to just buy the games outright ala Wii Virtual Console, but have those purchases transfer across to new hardware, like your Steam Library will still be available when you buy a new PC. Sadly, I don't see Nintendo ever going back to that route though. Market trends have moved on.

@samuelvictor It’s reasonable to assume that the NSO library will reach a plateau eventually. I have hope that it’ll continue beyond generations.

@Jprhino84 Yeah, that certainly seems to be the plan, but being a gamer since the 80s has taught me to never expect Nintendo to do the obvious thing, or follow patterns from previous generations. I feel like if whatever the successor to the Switch is isn't backwards compatible with all Switch e-shop purchases and NSO library (and preferably carts also!) that will significantly harm them. They must be aware of not wanting to kill this golden goose.

@samuelvictor I think what helps the preservation of the service is it now being tied to a universal account. While there’s no guarantee they won’t start from scratch, I think even Nintendo realise that they’re finally starting to claw together a semi-valuable subscription with a decent monthly console rotation. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

@Funneefox,

Nintendo are giving you these Sega games, it's their service and choice of releases, on every system contained within it.

How can you believe that somehow SEGA is actively involved in any of these releases, it's all Nintendo.

@Jprhino84 Yeah, agreed. Fingers crossed!

@GameOtaku Right. so not the same game at all.

@YANDMAN
It’s a port of championship edition so it’s the same.

@GameOtaku Sorry to quibble over minor differences that many won't care about but this is a misconception people have had since the 90s.

Despite the name, the Megadrive/Genesis game is not a port of arcade Championship Edition (the 2nd major revision), its a port of arcade Turbo/Hyperfighting (the 3rd major revision). All the features, tweaks and balances of Turbo are in the Megadrive game.

"Special Championship Edition" was a terrible choice of name because it gave the impression it was based on the older "Championship Edition" arcade game and the SNES SF2 Turbo was the only way to get the latest arcade experience at home as far as practising your timing, moves, etc. Not true - infact in several ways the Megadrive version plays closer to the arcade Turbo than the SNES version does. It also had additional speed settings the SNES version didn't.

This is not to say that I think the Megadrive game is "better", than SNES Turbo, both are good, neither are perfect. I actually slightly prefer the SNES version. But they are both ports of the exact same arcade game: Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Which one is "better" depends mostly on which you have the most nostalgia for, or whether you care about marginally more accurate timings, or marginally better colours and sfx.

The reason the Megadrive game is named differently is simply because once they saw how many people were buying and even importing a SNES specifically for the excellent SF2 port, Nintendo bought "Turbo" as a paid exclusive, and made agreements to have it as a pack-in, as they had with the original, to try and hold onto that advantage and keep up sales. All smoke and mirrors though, they're a port of the exact the same game, just with a different name. Worked on me at the time though, the Sf2 Turbo pack-in was what tipped me over into asking for a SNES for Christmas even though I was a die hard Sega fanboy before then.

I wish Capcom had named the Megadrive version something completely different rather than using a name that sounded like the older, inferior arcade game. Its still confusing people to this day.

@samuelvictor
Thanks for clarifying that. The point still stands though you can still get the game on other collections and services on switch.

@GameOtaku No worries Yes, I agree that the significantly superior arcade version of Turbo was already available on Switch in several ways, so I can see how to some it might seem like including this is a wasted opportunity.

However I'm sure there's a large amount of people who grew up owning the Megadrive version and specifically have nostalgia for it, so imo its a nice addition to have. Even those who didn't play it might feel inclined to play it out of curiosity for how closely the MD could pull off a CPS1 title. Its certainly notably different to the arcade game its based on because of he weaker hardware - its not like you'd confuse the two while put side by side. Part of why its so fondly remembered is just how close it "felt" despite the obvious cutbacks. Capcom did a great job.

I still go back to the SNES version of SF2T and the DOS version of SSF2T every now and again because they are the versions I grew up playing, and even though I know they are inferior, I enjoy reliving that experience and appreciate how good the ports are considering the weaker hardware. Similarly I have a fondness for the (rubbish but still kinda impressive) GameBoy and Master System versions.

@Angelic_Lapras_King Indeed it was the lack of comma that threw off my understanding of the comment.

@samuelvictor
It would be nice if the other street fighter games other than 2 got more ports. The superior Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper and Alpha 2 Gold haven’t gotten rereleased since the Alpha collection on PS2.

@GameOtaku Yeah agreed. Alpha 2 is probably my favourite Street Fighter game overall. Its weird the Gold revision is hardly ever used anywhere.

@samuelvictor @Jprhino84 The Switch launched six years ago. The first NSO console launched 4.5 years ago. We only just got the GB consoles this year. NA started with nine GB/GBC games on NSO. Two more were added in March. GBA started with six games and had one added in March. Hopefully more are added in April.

How will GB, GBC, and GBA games be handled on NSO? Aside from the titles already announced, only time will tell.

While it is an excellent port, Street Fighter 2 seems unnecessary when you can get the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection for cheap and it has the superior arcade versions of every Street Fighter up to Street fighter 3: 3rd Strike and has online play for several of the games.

Pulseman is awesome. Too bad it's a one-off title. I figured it would be coming to NSO eventually.

I have to wonder if Nintendo re-licensed these titles from Sega, or was able to use them from some previously established license that hasn't run out yet. I'm going to assume it's a re-license for some titles, or an entirely new license contract with Sega for all the titles, simply listing out all the titles Nintendo wanted on the NSO service.

@GameOtaku 'IT'S A PORT' So literally not the same, it is not the arcade version, it is a version of the arcade. Two entirely different things. That's like saying Final Fight on the SNES also was released on the Capcom beat-em-up collection.

OhMyGod Flicky is so great! I connected with it immediately. It's so good for short gaming sessions too. Very pick up and playable. 😎

Kid Chameleon is good. It has the Super Mario Bros. physics thing where you can jump higher if you run faster and it has this really cool thing where you can jump at a high platform and roll at the last moment and get on it. I couldn't get this to work once I got the armour though.

Pulseman is decent. Kind of Mega Man meets Sonic. I love the fast travel spinning on the cables.

Street Fighter II I opened up and played as Chun Li and had a good time.

Super decent update to the Mega Drive app.