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Nintendo has announced the latest batch of games to come to Nintendo Switch Online’s ever-growing library of classic games. While the SNES and NES libraries have a ton of classic games featuring some of the most iconic 8- and 16-bit games ever released, this batch of games isn’t quite so recognizable. However, this month represents a major milestone for the service.
This month, Nintendo is adding four SNES games and one NES game to subscribers’ libraries. The 1991 action game Joe & Mac (or Caveman Ninja) probably headlines this month, giving players plenty of stone-age adventuring. In addition, players can take the field in the outlandish baseball game Super Baseball Simulator 1.000, then throw other kinds at magical balls of enemies in Spanky’s Quest. The Super Nintendo offerings are rounded out with Magical Drop2, a puzzle game that hit Super Famicom in 1996, but never received an English release. Players who prefer the NES can look forward to Ninja JaJaMaru-kun, an action-packed ninja game that previously only released in Japan.
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These five new additions push the Nintendo Switch Online’s catalog of classic SNES and NES titles over the 100-game threshold. To this point, Nintendo Switch Online subscribers have enjoyed some of the most iconic games ever released, with titles like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario Bros. 3, and plenty more being playable at no additional cost to subscribers.
The service supplanted Nintendo’s Virtual Console service, which was the way to purchase classic games à la carte on Wii U and Wii. Initially there was some resistance in the Nintendo fan base to the transition away from players owning the classic games through Virtual Console and instead having them bundled in with the online subscription. However, those criticisms have largely faded as the number of games playable on the service at no extra cost has continued to climb and players weighed the cost of a Nintendo Switch Online subscription against the cost of purchasing each one of these games individually. While not every game on the Nintendo Switch Online service has been a massive hit, cult-classic, or critical darling, it has given players a massive library of retro titles to play.
What would you like to see next from Nintendo Switch Online? Is a Nintendo 64 library the obvious next step as the number of beloved SNES and NES titles not already on the service continues to dwindle? Where does the Nintendo Switch Online subscription go from here? Sound off in the comments section!
Source: Game Informer Nintendo Switch Online May 2021 Game Update Adds Five More Games