Nintendo Switch Online’s NES/SNES game library vs. the Virtual Console
Virtual Console had so many more games than Nintendo Switch Online. It had games from the Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64, TurboGrafx 16, Neo Geo, arcade machines, etc. Pretty much every major home console before the Gamecube except the PS1, Sega Saturn, and Atari. The Wii U and 3DS even have ports of Game Boy Color, GBA, and DS games on Virtual Console.
However, the problem is that Virtual Console games had to be bought individually. It is this reason that makes Nintendo Switch Online an attention-getting deal. Switch Online is basically Xbox Live for Nintendo. You have to pay to play your games online. And for many games like Splatoon 2 or Mario Kart 8, online is kind of the whole reason to even play the game. So many gamers would have gotten the online subscription anyways. For North America it is $4/mo and $20/year to subscribe.
The part that’s gravy is that they thrown in about 80 games from the NES and SNES that are available to you so long as you’re subscribed. $4/mo is less than a third of US Netflix’s $13/mo HD plan, so I’d say it’s worth it if you like the old Zelda games for instance.
But although it’s nice that they provide all those games to you sort of for free, it is worth noting that the library isn’t exactly as well-rounded or robust as the libraries on the Wii Virtual Console, Wii U Virtual Console, NES Classic reproduction console, or the SNES Classic reproduction console.
The Switch Online’s games
Here are the NES games on Nintendo Switch Online as of May 25, 2020:
Here are the SNES games on Nintendo Switch Online as of May 25, 2020:
How the Switch Online’s free game library compares to the libraries of the NES Classic and SNES Classic limited run reproduction consoles
The Switch Online does beat out the NES Classic and SNES Classic reproduction consoles that came out in 2016 and 2017, as they only had 30 and 26 respectively. But Switch Online is missing many of the fantastic games that were on these, such as Earthbound, Castlevania 1/2/4, Donkey Kong Country, Mega Man X, Final Fantasy 1/6, Super Mario RPG, Super Street Fighter II, Galaga, Pac Man, Bubble Bobble, etc.
Aside from those few games, and a few others, I would say that there isn’t much point tracking down one of these reproduction systems, though, except that Switch Online will probably be shut down one day whereas those consoles come with the games right on them.
How the Switch Online’s free game library compares to the libraries of the Wii Virtual Console and the Wii U Virtual Console
Neither Switch Online nor the NES/SNES reproduction consoles hold a candle to the Wii/Wii U Virtual Console platforms.. The Wii’s Virtual Console had a staggering 427 games that you could get on it in North America, and the Wii U’s Virtual Console had 311 games that you could get on it in North America.
Here is the Wikipedia list of the Wii’s Virtual Console games. You could buy games from the NES, SNES, N64, TurboGrafx-16, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Neo Geo, Commodore 64, and the arcade. It had a staggering 427 games that you could get on it in North America.
Here is the Wikipedia list of the Wii U’s Virtual Console games. You could play games from the NES, SNES, N64, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and TurboGrafx-16. It had a fairly staggering 311 games that you could get on it in North America.
And, sure, I’ll throw in the Wikipedia list for the 3DS Virtual Console. It can play games from the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Sega Game Gear, NES, and SNES. It has 191 games.
It is worth noting that while the Wii U and 3DS Virtual Consoles are still going strong, the Wii’s Virtual Console is now totally shut down as of January 2019. If you own the games you can still run them, though, and homebrewed Wii consoles can play the files of Virtual Console games.
A hypothesis as to why Nintendo hasn’t been porting Nintendo 64 games to Switch Online’s free game platform (hint: because it’s free and they’re running a business)
The problem is that Nintendo stands to gain less by porting more games to the Nintendo Switch if they’re just being paid a platform-wide blanket subscription. If you get the 12 month subscription, you’re getting access to online play and all these games for only $1.67/mo. Which is practically free.
Many people have been clamoring for N64 games to come to Switch. But have you ever tried to emulate an N64 game on a PC? It’s usually a buggy mess. Anything past 2D is usually quite difficult to emulate on anything. PS1 games aren’t so bad, and Sony has done a good job of porting those games to PlayStation. But generally, anything 3D is going to, first of all, have a bunch of deprecated 3D modeling technology in it that might not be well supported anymore by modern systems, but also, are just larger and much more finely tuned products than a 2D game is.
The disc sizes of early 3D games jumped, in some cases, a GB or two, from the transition from their 2D game conterpart’s total game size. You have to imagine that there is just a lot of stuff in a game with that much data, and that getting a game that big to work on new hardware (which it may not have originally been meant to run on) can be a difficult process. This is why I don’t exactly blame Nintendo for not bringing everything to Switch if their plan is to put it all under the $1.67/mo subscription platform.
Free games vs. the Virtual Console’s usual prices
So, you know, free is free. And that’s pretty cool.
On the other hand, here is the Virtual Console eShop webpage. Yoshi’s Story for N64 as ported to the Wii U is $10. Advance Wars for GBA as ported to Wii U is $10. Mother 1 for NES as ported to Wii U is $7. Mario Party for NDS as ported to Wii U is $10. The 3DS’ Virtual Console Game Boy ports are usually $3, which is nice. Pokemon on the Game Boy Color is $10, though.
So, despite that I love Yoshi’s Story and everything, I wasn’t really about to shell out $10 for it. And if the Wii U had Sega Genesis games on it’s Virtual Console like the Wii did, I wasn’t really about to spend upwards of $10 per Sonic game. (fortunately there is the Sega Genesis Classics bundle on Switch that has over 50 games on it like the Steam version of the same bundle)
That’s the problem with the Virtual Console and probably why it got shut down in the first place. $10 might be too much for some of these old games nowadays, especially if the game’s main fans have already played them to death. I’ve probably played through Sonic 3 like 25 times, but I’m not sure that I would drop the $10 on it if it was on the Wii U’s Virtual Console.
I guess it just depends on if you’ve played these games before and how much you value replaying them.
So which old games should they bring to Switch Online’s free game catalog?
Of course, since the Switch is pretty much a portable system, I’d love if they would port the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS Virtual Console games as free Switch Online games. Especially Pokemon. But I think that what might be more important is getting some N64 games on there. Paper Mario, Mario 64, Yoshi’s Story, Mario Party 2, Diddy Kong Racing, Donkey Kong 64, etc. Also, Earthbound is an amazing game for SNES that should definitely be ported. Likewise for Donkey Kong Country.
In summary
The Nintendo Switch is a fantastic console with some truly amazing games on it. They’ve already ported some of the games that I most wanted on there, such as Breath of the Wild, Final Fantasy XII, The World Ends With You, and Link’s Awakening. And they’re porting all the home console Mario games such as Super Mario Galaxy as well.
If you’re someone who wants everything retro ever on one platform, the Switch is getting there. But for the couple of things you can’t find on it, you can probably find it on the Wii U or 3DS in some capacity.
Even in the case of Final Fantasy, you can get VII, VIII, IX, X, X-2, XII, and a lesser version of XV.
But for God’s sake, Nintendo, port Wind Waker HD from the Wii U already.
