Nintendo Switch Online Release Pac-Man 99 Shutting Down This October

As much as this is disappointing, at least they’ll allow you to continue to enjoy the part you paid for. I wish more service based games did this when they closed down. I hate investing money into a mobile game only to have it taken down and become unplayable, effectively flushing my investment.

I kind of forgot that this game existed, to be honest.

I liked Tetris 99 (to a certain extent) and Super Mario Bros 35, but Pac-Man 99 was kind of a "just there" game for how boring it was to me in pale contrast and the lack of sense of "incentives" from online matches didn't help either; Tetris 99 gave you Special Themes (via Maximus Cup events), Super Mario Bros 35 gave you stages to "practice" in, and Pac-Man 99...I guess nothing (as far as I knew from the few matches I played from it) and I don't consider its "paid DLC" themes to be on the same league as the other rewards the other NSO games provided you with for participating in online matches.

Either way, I would say that I'm sad to see Pac-Man 99 go (for online services), but I personally didn't care about it at all and therefore, I'm (much) more sad to see Super Mario Bros 35 leaving the building to be "replaced". I want that game back, especially since I've been a huge Mario fan since the day of my birth (and is my favorite NSO game).

Hopefully they make one last sale for those who haven't gotten the Deluxe Pac yet.

EDIT: Wait, why are they terminating DLC purchases one month before the online shutdown?

Sorry for those who enjoyed it, didn't click with me though.

Bring back Mario 35 ya cowards! It was amazing!

What a shame. While it was really hard to find a full online lobby, it was a unique spin on the tried-and-true formula.

It's a small solace that the game's DLC can still be played offline. There's some solid score-chasing fun in the expanded modes (with no chance of online leaderboards now!).

@SBandy1 I never got to play Mario 35. I hadn’t subscribed to Nintendo Switch Online until after the whole Super Mario 35th Anniversary stuff had already come and gone. It would be amazing if Nintendo brought it back, even if it’s only for a limited time again.

This just makes me wish Mario 35 came back, it had so much potential, they could have had different game modes for the different games, they could have had wii, wiiu, switch, all of it, why Nintendo! Whyyyy!

@SBandy1 @Inkless You know, with the buzz behind the Mario movie, I'm surprised Mario 35 didn't get another limited time run.

We lost Mario 35 for this.

Bring back Mario 35 for cripes sake!

At this rate NSO will be shut down before the Switch's successor is even out. I sure am glad Virtual Console doesn't exist anymore. All ya'll who passed on the Wii U back in the day will be sorry when NSO shuts down and I can still play Ocarina of Time and Super Metroid.

Can we get Mario 40 yet? I’d prefer that… only played Pac-Man 99 a few times and didn’t really enjoy it. Same with Tetris, but at least there I understood the core gameplay.

@Inkless

It was brilliant fun. The madness that could occur during a run with all the enemies on screen was great!

And unlike Tetris 99 (which I also love) I could actually win a few games!

@CharlieGirl

I'd love that. It is mad Nintendo hasn't brought Mario 35 and the 3D Collection back. Easy money.

I enjoyed Pac Man until I finally won a battle, and never returned. There'll be no farewell games either, because I already cancelled my online subscription 2 months ago in protest that GBA games were included in the premium subscription. So far I haven't missed the online features at all, especially Tetris 99, which became bit of a morning ritual to jolt my mind into the day's reality.

How expensive would running servers for this be? How much is Nintendo saving with this? Or is it the licensing? Anyone knows?

Pacman 99 was really fun for a while, but I do ultimately see why it didn't take off like the other two did. I don't think you needed a second game like this that was also unendingly one screen, Tetris 99 was enough.

Like everyone though, I miss Mario 35 so much. Genuinely the most I've enjoyed Mario 1 since I was a kid playing DX on the GBC. And based on that one game, it really makes me want to see other classic NES side-scrollers or the like to get a similar treatment (even if I'm not sure nearly any of them will be the right type of game to recapture the magic of Mario 35).

I was a big fan of Pac-Man 99 when it was released and for a long time afterwards, but I haven’t played it as much recently. We need a Ms. Pac-Man 99 with different stages. I believe there’s some kind of copyright issue with whoever actually created the original Ms. Pac-Man, however. Bandai-Namco needs to end this once and for all and just buy out the rights to Ms. Pac-Man. They’re Bandai-Namco, for Christ’s sake. They can afford it.

Good thing I didn't invest a lot with this game. I already got various Pac-Man collections so this being gone is not a big deal to me.

Bring back Mario 35!!!
(This is not the first comment here to say this, and it certainly won’t be the last)

I’ve only played it a handful of times and it wasn’t a bad game. I just don’t know if I’ll miss it when it’s gone (definitely not like Super Mario Bros. 35).

I liked it more than Mario 35 but it didn't have as much lasting appeal as Tetris99 for me. I will try to get a few more games in before it shuts down

Dread the day that this story gets written about Tetris 99 instead. Most played Switch game by far, probably in my top 5 games of all time honestly (definitely top 10 at least).

Pac Man 99 was great fun but didn’t have the lasting appeal of Tetris. Still a huge shame to see it go

I hope they do another battle royale and I hope its space invaders next time.

https://gamerant.com/space-invaders-99-retro-battle-royale-potential-tetris-mario-bros/

@Inkless I really hope they do so you can try it! I played some and enjoyed every minute of it, it was great

@Wilforce In a couple of years on the Switch 2.

I still jam Tetris 99 and man did I love Mario 35. They're just games that work so well and then when I gave Pacman 99 a go... Something just didn't work there about it for me. It's easy to say I'm just bad I suppose but there was never any additional motivation for me to try and give it another go.
I wonder if this means they'll shadow drop a new unique multiplayer thing around June to "add value" to the service.

Sega: We saw you guys didn't have PacMan 99 anymore so here's Sonic 4 episode 1 99!

I haven't played this as much as Tetris 99 or Mario 35 (RIP) but this is sad news. I'm sure the game would have been more popular if they'd supported it with events like Tetris 99. As it is, it's easy to just forget the game exists.

Genuinely quite disappointed about this, I'll often fire it up once a week for a single game. Only ever won one! Hopefully we'll at least see something else taking its place.

"Offline mode will still be accessible"

Amen to that, at least. Online games that do this upon shutdown can be counted on one hand, it seems.

@Friendly I think it has less to do with Nintendo more to do with Bandai Namco considering they are the publisher (although this and Tetris 99 do have the same developer, ARIKA)
I'm not wise to how these things work but I'm guessing it wasn't quite the pull BN hoped. The fact Tetris 99 gave you a reason to come back (new themes events) probably gave it some longevity and a

@Beanbon Bring back Mario 35!!!

I really enjoyed Pac Man 99 as a Battle Royale, more than Mario but not as much as Tetris. But the game was hardly supported, people would actually play it if it had unlockable skins and tournaments like other BRs. At least it will still be available in offline mode, but with the short shelf-life of Nintendo's online offerings, I wonder how that bodes for other games that rely on online servers (stuff like Smash Ultimate and Splatoon and Mario Kart?).

I've played Pac-Man 99 almost every single week since it was released. Games have been increasingly filled with bots in the last 12 months though.

@JJtheTexan I managed Pac-One exactly one time. I've gotten to 2 or 3 many many times though.

This is why I don't like subscription platforms. I prefer to see a game as a standalone product that I can play whenever I want. The market made gaming depending too much on the platform. It takes away some magic from gaming, now it's more like a service - play and never come back.

I like it when people talk about Free to Play game ePurchases as an "investment". It always makes me giggle.

Glad I didn't buy any of the DLC...though I hope Tetris 99 will live on!

Just another blow to NSO's value.

@JetForceGemInEye Oh damn, really? I never really pay attention to how populated the lobbies are, I typically mess with my phone until the game starts and don’t really look at the score board unless I rank in the top 10 or so so I don’t really know how many bots make up the matches generally.

Hopefully given that they still support it with a Grand Prix every now and then they get enough people playing it monthly to make it worth their time updating it. I hope that the game just stays as a mainstay with their subscription services going forwards but I know realistically they’ll pull the plug at some point (probably when they have to renew the license) and that just sucks.

@shoeses Except there’s no value in a dead game. The player population is already dwindling to the point that the lobbies are mostly AI. Switch Online is the most economical option for the options available… it may not provide free games like Sony or Microsoft, but as someone who’s subbed to all three I get the most value just out of the Switch for how much I play online.

Damn, the only two games I could get a first place in and now they're both gone. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Why shut it down? To me it makes no sense. So many people enjoy it. I don’t get ut.

@sportvater No idea. Could be a case of Nintendo pulling it to replace with another battle royale game like they did with this and Mario 35 (though why they did that in the first place is beyond me), or might not have anything to do with Nintendo at all and be a Namco decision since it seems they published it.

If it’s anything to do with server costs then that’s a joke, what’s the point in putting a price barrier to online play if part of that money isn’t keeping servers going? Especially for a game exclusive to that service?

I'm just going to add my "bring back Mario 35!" comment to join all the others! God I loved that game!

I'd love to see a Puzzle League 99, personally.

Now it's time to speculate what the next "99" game will be...

Well at least we got F-Zero 99 so Nintendo are obviously clearly commited to expanding the perks of ‘switch online’ and clearly not removing them
Bah!!! I loved this game and I’m sure I would have enjoyed Mario 35 but F-Zero is utter pap!!!