Introduction
I know that I have not really reviewed much in terms of Switch games. I have to admit that I would play the system in passing. I received the system last year from one of my work buddies. He was bored with the system and he asked who would want it and I jumped on the offer. I also received 2 games with it. They were Super Mario: Odyssey and Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I have completed those games but I have not gotten to reviewing them yet. I shall in due time.
This this time, I will not be reviewing a game but more of an app that is on the Nintendo Switch. This is available for free if you get an online subscription of 24.99$. This is much cheaper than the XBOX Live and PSN services that are currently available today.
Let us see what this app is and what does it do?
Application
This is an application that you can download from the Nintendo eShop. All that you need to do is find it and download it. It is that simple.
The application will allow you to play old NES games straight on your Switch. The best way that I can describe it is XBOX Game Pass for the Switch. The only difference is that you are limited to the games that are on the NES. From what I can tell, it does not seem to download the game on the console but plays them online. Launching a game is very smooth and I have not had any issues with it so far.
The list of games that are available as of the writing of this article is the following:
Blaster Master (Special)
Kirby's Advanture
Metroid (Special 2)
Super Mario 2 (North American)
Blaster Master
Ghost'N Goblins (Special)
Ninja Gaiden (Special)
The Adventures of Link
Adventures of Lolo
Dr. Mario (Special)
Metroid (Special)
Ninja Gaiden
Wario's Woods
Gradius (Special)
Metroid
Mighty Bomb Jack
TwinBee
NES Open
Solomon's Key
Dodgeball
The Legend of Zelda (Special)
Balloon Fight
Baseball
Donkey Kong
Double Dragon
Dr. Mario
Excitebike
Ghost'N Goblins
Gradius
Ice Climber
Ice Hockey
Mario Bros.
Pro Wrestling
River City Ransom
Soccer
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 3
Tecmo Bowl
Tennis
The Legend of Zelda
Yoshi
You will notice that some of these games have a Special tag. These signify that you will be playing the game in a slightly different way. For example, if you take Dr. Mario (Special), the description is as follows:
In this special version of Dr. Mario, you're dropped in just before a rare scene that occurs only after clearing the game on level 20 at Hi speed.
Ninja Gaiden (Special)
This special version of Ninja Gaiden starts you right before the climax of Stage 6-4. With the memories of his father Ken Hayabusa and sworn friend Walter Smith to guide him, Ryu faces the final fight as a true Dragon Ninja. Fight the masked devil Jaquio, Guardia de Mieux, who has awoken from his 700 year slumber. an emotional finale awaits if you manage to defeat all three of the demon forms.
You get the idea. These would have been cheats in the games back in the day. You could have probably achieved the same thing with the Game Genie. So far it seems there are only 8 special versions of the games with Metroid getting 3 different versions (Full game and 2 special).
Bottomline
I will start by saying that this is better than what they had initially announced when they told the world about the online aspect of the switch. Initially, they were going to do like XBOX Live with Gold and have 1 or 2 free games a month free to play. The downside was that you had until the last day of the month to play and then the games would change and you would lose the games.
I am happy to see that they went with a better model and you can play the games on the fly, on your switch as long as you have an online membership. I have to admit that it is cool to play Super Mario Bros. or Metroid in bed before going to bed and I do not have to turn on my big TV to do so.
Are the games listed good? I think that they are. Most games we have played over and over again like the Super Mario Bros. games and the Zelda games. I think that Ice Hockey and Pro Wrestling are nice editions. I would assume that most of the games that are on the NES Classic, will make an appearance here. We could possibly see Mega Man, Final Fantasy and Contra.
The thing is that most of these games we have played many times and the thing is that the novelty wears off very fast. You get the itch, play for 30 minutes and then you are good. At least that is how I think people will perceive these games. It was the same with the NES Classic. People bought the NES Classic on impulse. Then a few months later it gathered dust.
I think if they want to maintain the interest in these games, they would have to create an app for all of their older systems. This would include the Super NES, Nintendo 64 and the GameCube. I think that this would keep the system alive while new releases of games happen. I believe something for the SNES is in the works now.
I also had a difficult getting used to the Switch controls for NES games. Like Super Mario Bros., it was difficult to run fast while jumping due to the positioning of the buttons. I know that I can get used to it, but I am sure that I am not the only one that has this issue with the controls.
Overall, there are good games here but people have played most of these to death on either their original hardware or on emulation. The addition of special versions of the games inflates the number for nothing. Why don't the games just have a cheat code that is entered? If you are cheating on games, you will choose emulation as there are a lot more options available to you (save states, start anywhere, splits...etc) than to just be given a predetermined start position and so on.
Rating: 3.5 NES games out of 5
What do you think? are you enjoying the games and have I lost my marbles? Let me know.
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