Edd-O

Great stuff, as a longtime F-Zero fan this is such a good game (put 40 hours into it in just 4 months or so). They really need to add an offline mode and bring out a physical version, the same way they did both with Tetris 99 (another Arika/Nintendo game that's also a free download on Switch online).

@Hank_Scorpio Did you see the reference to ISS 64 in the subtitle to the article too? Hat tip to NL.

Going to be boring and vote for the original Smash Bros and Diddy Kong Racing, the two most obvious missing parts of my N64 collection (with Paper Mario a close 3rd, need to play that on NSO some day).

@AllieKitsune I'm not saying it's realistic but who thought that Konami would bring back a Felix the Cat 'Collection' which includes all of 2 games?!

Just bung the Super Famicom, N64 and PS1 Goemon games on there and I'd be more than happy, no need to include the portable games. There must be more of a market for a Goemon collection than there is for Felix the Cat?!

As others have said we really do need a Goemon/Legend of the Mystical Ninja collection next from Konami. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th games on the Super Famicom were never translated and brought over to the west, and the 2nd one in particular is meant to be great.

The two N64 games were really good too (luckily I have both of them on cart as well as LOTMN on the SNES). There were a couple of Goemon games on the PS1 too, all in all there's more than enough there for a collection. but it would need some good translation work.

Looks and sounds like an intriguing game, can't be long before they announce a physical release on Switch, if so they'll have reeled me in and I'm sure I'll be hooked.

Great to hear that LRG will be releasing a proper physical version. After many hours spent and lives lost playing Super Probotector on the Wii Virtual Console and the North American version of it (Contra III) on the SNES Classic, as well as Contra Rebirth on the Wii, i'm looking forward to this.

Goemon Collection (with translations of Ganbare Goemon 2 & 3 on the Super Famicom) next please Konami.

@NintendoWife 2017 (Breath of the Wild & Super Mario Odyssey).

Great review, hope that Limited Run or Strictly Limited pick this up for a physical release in the west.

@Euler Presumably you're counting the N64 as one of the 3 'unsuccessful' Nintendo home consoles? 33 million consoles sold is very similar numbers to the Mega Drive/Genesis and Atari 2600-no one thinks of them as failures.

I think the N64 suffers because the PS1 was such a sales behemoth, selling 102 million and broadening the appeal of home consoles so that they were no longer just seen as kids' toys.

The Switch is a fantastic system with a brilliant library, my second favourite console behind the SNES, and I've had all of Nintendo's home consoles. With it still doing so well sales wise I wonder if Switch 2 might be pushed back from a likely Winter 2024 launch to Spring 2025 though?

8 years with one platform dominating the industry, what a feat that would be for Nintendo, especially coming straight after the dismal failure that the Wii U was.

@PROPS Your memory is playing tricks, there was Twisted Edge Snowboarding and Snowboard Kids 1 & 2 on the N64, and the Cool Boarders games and not much else on the PS1. 1080 was widely regarded as the best snowboarding game ever when it was released, only the SSX games have come close or (arguably surpassed it) since.

Definitely the coolest game Nintendo made in the '90s. Enjoying giving it another go on the Switch, cracking soundtrack too but the reviewer is right when he states that the tricks are difficult to perform. An 8/10 for me.

One of 4 criminally under-used Nintendo racing (although 1080 is arguably more of a sports game) franchises that needs a new entry soon (F-Zero, Excitebike and Wave Race being the others).

@datamonkey 1080, Pilotwings and Wave Race plus Excitebike and F-Zero please Nintendo. A man can dream.

This was a MEGATON announcement from Sega for anyone round about 40 years old, who remembers all of these legendary franchises. And there's more to come! The mind boggles.

Bravo Sega, bravo.

Firing up 1080 shortly, what a classic. I never did pull off a 1080 yet either.

Some people are very invested in trying to convince others that Rogue Corps was a good game.

It's got a Metacritic score of 42 from 11 reviews on Switch, and 52 from 26 reviews on PS4, so it seems very clear that it's not.

Contra Rebirth was pretty good in my experience (it was developed by M2).

Contra 4 was apparently great and was made by WayForward so this should be a good time.

Love the inclusion of Probotector as a nod to the European versions of the NES, SNES and Mega Drive games.

In all seriousness what exclusive games does Xbox have these days? Forza Horizon is about the only one I can think of that I'd like to play.

Fair play to Nintendo for still keeping up the Tetris 99 content 4 years after it first came out.

Very odd choice but at least Konami are pumping out more collections from the old days.

Next we need:

1) Goemon/Mystical Ninja Collection with translations of the 2nd and 3rd Super Famicom games.
2) Gradius Collection, similar to the PSP one but with Gradius Advance, Gradius V and Gradius Rebirth added.
3) Silent Hill Collection (Silent Hill 2 on PS2 goes for £400+ (sealed) these days on eBay)
4) Parodius Collection
5) Castlevania DS Collection
6) Bomberman Collection
7) Tiny Toons Collection
8) Bonk Collection
9) Rocket Knight/Sparkster Collection
10) Adventure Island Collection

They're sitting on an absolute goldmine.

Love my Switch, as a Nintendo collector since the NES, the Switch's library of quality games is unrivalled. I've got around 70 physical copies so far and another 150 or so to get.

Here's hoping that Switch 2 is backwards compatible.

'Blue'?! That's grey.

@BoFiS It would still be laggy like all of the classic/mini systems (as much as i love my SNES classic) and would be limited by what games were included with the system.

This will play any original N64 cart from any region, in 4K with no lag. I'm sold.

Sounds great, looking forward to finally playing my US copy of Conker's Bad Fur Day and it saves me getting a very costly HDMI upgrade for my existing PAL N64.

Agree that the CEO sounds like a prize tw*t though.

I've had Actraiser since Christmas 1993 (great game) and have only JUST noticed that there are pyramids on the box cover of the North American/European version...

Have put about 3 hours into F-Zero 99 and it's been mostly very enjoyable, even if my best finish so far is 6th and as i've been playing the original since 1992 (and finished X and got pretty far into Story and Master Mode in the very hard GX) I thought I'd be doing better than that.

After 19 years since the last game it's so cool to finally get a new F-Zero (of sorts), I just hope they bring out a physical version and an offline mode the same way they did with Tetris 99, which I put nearly 200 hours into.

Also big shout out to the original composers, Naoto Ishida and Yumiko Kanki; the F-Zero soundtrack is fantastic, I much prefer it to the hard rock stylings of X or the GX soundtrack.

Now to get back to working towards that elusive first victory.

F-Zero pleasssssssssssssse!

@YoshiFR2 I don't think you can count ExciteTRUCK and ExciteBOTS as Excitebike games. We did get a new one on WiiWare that I forgot about though (Excitebike: World Rally, based on the NES original).

It maddens me that Nintendo still won't revive F-Zero after all these years. As others have said the least they could do would be a remaster of GX with online multiplayer.

It's the foremost of several franchises that have been criminally neglected since the Gamecube:

F-Zero
Wave Race
1080
Excitebike
Pilotwings
Starfox

Time to bring them all back now.

@Hwatt No way on earth was this a 7 in 2000/2001, most magazines gave it excellent reviews (88 on Metacritic from 24 reviews) and it still plays very well today.

@Ali_Benji I also got mine for Christmas 2017, have played the Switch for around 1000 hours judging by my profile, and haven't had any joycon drift yet. I predominantly play it in TV mode with a Pro Controller but i'd still guess i've played about 200 hours in handheld mode (mainly on Tetris 99 during 2020's lockdown).

Got hold of one on Monday, fingers crossed it's apparently on its way to me now. Nintendo took their time but seem to have finally sorted it out (3 months later than they said they would mind you).

@Phillips455 Speak of the devil, they re-stocked Bayonetta 1 phyiscal copies yesterday, but only made them available (1 per customer) to people who'd put themselves on the e-mail notification list for when they became available. Hope you managed to get hold of one!

Finally out of stock again but good work Nintendo in actually getting enough stock so that the controllers were available for nearly 12 hours rather than the usual 12 minutes!

Now if they can manage something similar when they finally restock the physical Switch version of Bayonetta 1 we’ll be laughing.

Also managed to get one, amazingly it looks like they're still available in the UK at 7.30 p.m.?!

Played loads of 1080, won all the races, did loads of time trials and completed a 900 but never did manage to land an actual 1080! 😢

@Pigeon Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.

The fact that we have Mario Kart 8 DLC till the end of this year then Splatoon 3 DLC till the end of 2024 spells an early 2025 release for Switch 2 to me.

Great review, wonder if Nintendo Life will be reviewing Graze Counter GM soon as well?

I loved the original and am loving the Switch online port, seems perfectly playable to me even without remapping the controls.

Had my Switch since Christmas 2017, had no issues with drift though I do use it docked 75% of the time and for undocked play I tend to use the Blue Hori D-pad joycon, which hasn't drifted either.

Pretty sure it's Toaplan not Toplan?

@eltomo It’s there, some people got their knickers in a twist as it was missing from a clip Nintendo put up on YouTube before the re-release went live.

Feel sorry for the people in the comments who evidently had no friends back in the late 90s/early 00s and never experienced the joy of Goldeneye's 4 player splitscreen mode.

@theModestMouse It was a 10 in 1998.

This is very cool, the Hori Gameboy Player controllers go for crazy prices now on eBay (between £125-£225 used, and there’s currently one on there for £880 new…..) so this will be an amazingly affordable alternative. I just hope the D-pad is decent, if so I’m in!

@daveMcFlave I’ll second that it looks like Contra, in fact the boss in the third screenshot looks like a tribute to the terminator type boss at the end of Level 3 in Contra III/Super Probotector.

Goemon Collection with translations of all the SNES games please.