Switch Online's Missions & Rewards Adds New Icons You Can Only "Get By Playing"

I actually would be down to get those Magikoopa and Wiggler renders, I may go ahead and do this

if it wasn't for the fact I just recently got Animal Crossing then I'd be sad because I've been a fan since I had my DSi. It just took me a while to get it because NH seemed like NL with just a tiny bit of added stuff and took away even more of the meanness in the villagers.

Wait, what? They still cost points? What the heck is the point?

@Uska NH was such a downgrade on what I loved about Animal Crossing, man. It's a cute and creative "my little island and dollhouse" simulator, but the residents have even less personality or interesting stuff to say. And it was painfully lacking in content at launch.

Probably won't bother redownloading Animal Crossing to do this, but guess it's an excuse to turn on Mario World for a bit.

Ew, gross, make these even more exclusive why don't you. Absolutely unnecessary. But whatever, they're just icons. I'll probably still get at least the Yoshi ones.

NSO ones aren't that egregious. You can open the game directly from the app - it booted directly into Super Mario World for me - and collect icons right after, they're synced with the mission, and you have access to the games as a subscriber to begin with.
Forcing you to open paid games 3 days in a row to access icons that were previously available to all subscribers with no strings attached is asinine.

This is kind of irritating. I purchased my digital copy of Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH) on my main account and have all of the other ACNH icons released so far on that account. But I actually use my second account to play the game because that's the account associated with my Animal Crossing: New Leaf town that my New Leaf friends were linked to. So now I'll have to open the game with my main account to get the new icons? Dumb. They should just let you get the icons (for free even, no platinum points) if you own the associated game.

I really wish they offered an option to "purchase" all of the available icons at once if you have enough platinum points. For example, there was a "Get All" button option for each set of icons available. And they should make past icons available more often. I think I might have missed some Zelda ones, would like a chance to get those again.

now THIS is a good idea! ill be launching the snes app for the first time in a bit thanks to this little promotion

It would be cool if they'd just add Achievements to NSO. Well maybe on Next Gen Switch.

Also it's not hard to get the icons. I still play ACNH daily. And just booting up SNES NSO isn't hard to do. Also also, you could've gotten the ACNH icons in previous years. (they're not exclusive)

I wish you could mix and match different sets

I stumbled upon this on my own. Being a lifelong ambassador of Princess Peach, I naturally got her icon in particular.

I really wanted some of the N64 icons they had a while back, but naturally they were only available to people with the NSO Expansion Pack... =/

i think i would like this a lot more if you just could unlock those items by unlocking them in their games. could be a good achievement replacement system. but just opening the game to get them is lame

Ok Nintendo, you can either have this kind of system OR the fomo system, but not both at the same time!!! that's just annoying

'Oh, you like Super Mario World, huh? Want the icons? Ok, let's see you play the game first, Mr 'I love Mario'. Yeah, that's I thought.'
Going to be real shame if they introduce F-Zero icons and some F-Zero fans actually have to play the series for the first time 😛

You'll need to have played on three separate days in the last 30 days, leaving at least 24 hours between each play session

WTF!?!

Wh... wh... why make it so complicated ffs? For icons.

This is Nintendo at its Nintendo-iest.

Guess I'll stop collecting them then.

I love these little mission things and getting platinum points. It's pointless and I don't even really care about the icons becuase I never change mine but it's a fun little thing to do between real games. Reminds me of opening the weather channel for ten minutes between games on the Wii just to putz around mindlessly as like a palette cleanser.

@sanderev They've been adding a handful of new ACNH icons on top of the previously released monthly icons, so there is some you can miss.

What an awful added step. I'm not buying the Switch iteration of AC just to obtain icons, guess I'll be saving up more platinum coins then.

Cool way to drive engagement.

The fact that we have to purchase each one individually and it takes several minutes to get a whole set is just absurd. And now they still insist on charging Platinum points for these?! How can Nintendo be so backwards when it comes to online?

Wow, an excuse to go back to Mario World. Especially since I still haven't reached the Star and Special worlds yet.

Switch definitely needs a quicker “Add to Cart” option here (as well as in the Eshop). It’s kinda painful redeeming these trivial icons one by one every week.

And I also agree that the next Nintendo console should incorporate their form of achievements- maybe with things like these icons as rewards.

Kinda weird that they're doing this, but I'm definitely getting those SMW icons.

I hope this doesn't become the norm for all games going forward.

Can't say I see the point of this, at least for the Animal Crossing icons. Animal Crossing fans will have already gotten the icons they want during the time when they didn't have to play the game to get the icons, and players that have moved on from playing Animal Crossing won't be enticed to go back to a game that doesn't get any more content updates just because Nintendo started locking icons behind playing that game, least of all when it requires them to play the game on three separate days.
This could be a decent system for future games, as an extra incentive for people to want to buy the game, and I bet that's exactly what they have planned for Princess Peach Showtime, so anyone who isn't interested in playing the game, but wants Ninja Peach as their profile icon, you're SOL.
Edit: Side note, wouldn't it be the funniest thing ever if Nintendo added Mother 3 icons after the Earthbound icons are gone, but you have to play the game to unlock them?

Not to just join in the choir, but I'm not a fan of the method for these icons either. They're treating them as way too exclusive "perks", and worse yet, they don't rotate around fast enough for 2nd chances. I forget what it's called, but I have a few icons I think were called "NES" or something, but I not only have just a few, but I haven't seen them since. Was it unlockable? How about telling me how to unlock it if so? Truth is, none of the icons bother me that much, I'm just observant to an odd practice and do hope they improve it above the dangling, hidden, carrot.

The icons have become old and tiresome to me. Even the process of collecting them feels like a chore. The icons themselves are shown so small that they often look like blobs IMO. I would rather Nintendo bring back Miiverse and the achievement-like stickers found on the Wii U. If it were up to me, I would do achievements and reward the gamers with stickers that can be used on the home screen, bio, or in messaging.

I do not understand the need for this kind of change. It's just totally unnecessary to lock these behind gameplay.

I've already put hundreds of hours into Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Why do I have to have played it recently to get the icons for it???

Nintendo’s Japanese website also says they’ll get Mother 3 icons on the 7th at 10:00 JST (01:00 UTC). Will we get those here? Probably not, but who knows?

@BandeeOfTheStars I've been wondering about that since Earthbound Beginnings, and wondered more since Earthbound last week. If they do Mother 3, I have to wonder what name they will use in the banner, because Mother 3 is unlocalized.

@Nua Smash just calls it Mother 3 in English, so they’d probably just do the same here, assuming they release those icons. Smash also called Beginnings “Mother”, like in Japan, prior to Ultimate.

Ah, more icons without borders or backgrounds, yet extra hoops to go through to get them. Nice.

And... Shouldn't the system know that I've already played SMW on the eShop for hours on end, but to "buy" these icons I have to start the game, then close it to go back to the eshop!? Okay. 😵‍💫

This is not the worst thing they've done with these Online profile icons, but it's certainly in the running.

I still haven't forgiven them for both BotW and TotK having a completely white background available for 5 points each. No, not a faint texture/pattern, just a white square. I bought both, of course.

I'll be getting what I can of the Super Mario World set. They do need to make more simultaneously available on rotation.

@RainbowGazelle 1000% agree. Never have I ever seen a game carried so hard by being released at exactly the right time than ACNH. It's such a shallow game and even now - after $60 up front plus PAID DLC - has less to offer than its $40 predecessor. PATHETIC!

Oh, and something something icons why are these on a timer just make an achievement system something something boo nintendo

If you got them for free for playing x amount of minutes/hours of a game that would be great. But having to load up a game just to unlock the opportunity to purchase the icons is incredibly ridiculous.

They don't even have a mission to gain more coins for playing Animal Crossing 3 times. And that's the biggest problem with the icon store, there are not enough opportunities to earn coins unless you want to waste your life on their mobile games.

They really should have a static storefront that is updated weekly.

Ah. Remember when online play was free? Remember when new Switch icons were included for free as part of a system update?

As much as I loathed Nintendo Badge Arcade, at least that let you collect some badges without paying anything.

While this new-fangled system forces you to...

• Play a certain game within certain timeframes
• Have an active NSO subscription
• Pay in platinum coins (that comes with its own list of tasks)

The more you pay Nintendo for things that were previously free, the more they seem to treat you with contempt, which is precisely why I've refused to subscribe to NSO out of principle from the get-go (on top of not being good value for money, at least without a family plan).

Come on smb3 icon set next (the greatest Mario game to date) yes I know those are fighting words