I used to love myNintendo Switch. The day I got it was a truly game-changing moment for me, and it all but saw me abandon my traditional consoles in favor of its handheld brilliance. However, while that novelty managed to stick around for a very long time, it eventually wore off, and I found myself gravitating more and more away from it. The occasional new release saw me return every so often, but, for the most part, it now lives on a shelf somewhere collecting dust.
I had hoped that Nintendo Switch Online, even despite it monetizing basic features that were previously free, would fix this for me, in large part thanks to its impressive library of older Nintendo titles. However, since it was released back in 2018, I have foundNintendo Switch Online very disappointing. Fortunately,while NSO is easily the least impressive console-based subscription service, Nintendo could save it with one major improvement.
Nintendo Switch Online Isn’t Worth It
It Doesn’t Justify The Price
I’ve never found a meaningful use for Nintendo Switch Online. The service, which lets you play online with friends, access a library of NES, SNES, N64, Game Boy, and assorted other ancient Nintendo consoles, and, if you pay just a little extra, get DLC for a handful of games for free, just isn’t worth it to me. The problem isn’t the price, as it is rather cheap, but rather that,even at that low cost, nothing it offers is any good. Naturally, I still pay for it, which, I suspect, is what makes my anger towards it so exacerbated.
I get that there are a lot ofamazing games on NSOthat fans enjoy, but as fun as revisiting a small selection of the enormous NES, SNES, Game Boy, and N64 catalogs can be,these older titles are little more than a fun novelty to me. It isn’t even that I lack the nostalgia for them, but rather that many of them lack the substance and quality that Nintendo’s output from the early 2000s onward offered. As a result, I find it hard to justify playing them when I have so many newer games I’d rather get around to.
It also doesn’t help thatNintendo has added games excruciatingly slowly to Nintendo Switch Online. While there are a lot of titles on there now, when Nintendo first started rolling out these titles on the service, it did so at a snail’s pace, and continues to even now. It isn’t the mostdisappointing part of NSO, but it certainly doesn’t help make it any more enticing to someone like me, especially when, although I don’t condone it, all of these games and more are readily accessible online for significantly less money.
Simply put,Nintendo’s approach to Nintendo Switch Online feels halfhearted and underbaked. When compared to its competitors, NSO feels like it exists purely for the sake of existing. This is especially true when you look back on just how good the Virtual Console feature was on the Wii, Wii U, and 3DS. That let you buy so many iconic Nintendo titles for a paltry sum and then keep them, so long as you downloaded them before the Wii, Wii U, and 3DS digital storefronts shut down. It was a significantly better option than the considerably more expensive offering on NSO.
Nintendo Switch Online Needs More Games
And Not Just From The NES And SNES Era
There is a way to fix all of this, and, naturally, it is to add more games to Nintendo Switch Online. If Nintendo is insistent on not adding its newer titles to the service, then there are plenty ofgames NSO could addfrom across all of Nintendo’s older hardware, including the Wii, DS, GameCube, and more. That isn’t to disregard the games already available, nor their quality. However, as aforementioned, for those of us who want the convenience and added substance of modern gaming,NSO needs titles from Nintendo’s more recent crop of consoles.
Nintendo isadding GameCube games to NSO, although exclusively on the Switch 2, inexplicably. That is absolutely a step in the right direction, but once again, it is doing it at an extremely slow rate. There is some logic to that, as it ensures that newcomers to the service don’t get overwhelmed. However,I believe one of the benefits of subscription services like Xbox Game Pass, Netflix, and even PlayStation Plus is the variety on offer, and the fact that they largely provide a comprehensive library of titles and experiences. Nintendo is hampering NSO by holding back its best games.
There really is no rhyme or reason as to why Nintendo is so slowly adding games to Nintendo Switch Online, but I seriously believe that it is not only negatively impacting fans, but also Nintendo’s profits.
One could argue that Nintendo is also purposefully not putting games likePokémonorSuper Smash Bros.on the service, as it could take away sales from their modern counterparts. However, if that were the case, then it wouldn’t have added multipleMario Partygames or older 3DMariotitles to the subscription.There really is no rhyme or reason as to why Nintendo is so slowly adding games to Nintendo Switch Online, but I seriously believe that it is not only negatively impacting fans, but also Nintendo’s profits.
Nintendo Needs To Change Its Approach To Putting Old Games On NSO
It May Make More Money Via NSO Than Individual Remasters
It is time Nintendo started to speed up the number of games and consoles it adds to NSO. Not only would it give those who emulate games via unofficial means a chance to do so legally, thus saving Nintendo a headache and legal fees trying to shut it all down, butit would also increase the value of NSO exponentially. Nintendo would be able to increase the price of the service were it to add DS and Wii games at the least. It could even separate them into tiers, like how PlayStation Plus handles its back catalog of older games.
While the currentGameCube games on NSOare varied and strong offerings,there’s plenty more Nintendo could add to help incentivize those who aren’t interested in the service to give it a chanceand those keen to cancel their subscriptions a reason to stick around. It would also help immensely with making its enormous catalog of incredible titles more accessible to those who can’t afford or find its older consoles. A lot of Nintendo’s best games are unbelievably expensive on their original hardware, so this would better democratize them.
Nintendo makes a lot of money from remastering games likeSkyward Sword. There is still value in doing that, especially when it’s as transformative asXenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. However, for a lot of its titles, it could save a considerable amount of money by simply adding them to NSO via an emulator. They would help justify increasing the base price ofNintendo Switch Online, give players something to do on the service, and keep everyone sticking around for a lot longer, which can only mean more money in Nintendo’s pocket for very little effort.
