After using Nintendo Switch Online — the $20/year service that gives me access to classic games — has been fine, but nothing to shout home about. I’m not so chuffed about paying for cloud saves and online access, but that seems to be the way of modern console gaming. And having access to some classic NES and SNES games is rather neat and a good nostalgia hit.
But rumor has it that Game Boy and Game Boy Color games might be coming to Switch Online, and that’s piqued my interest. This tidbit comes courtesy of insider NateDrake on the Nate the Hate podcast, with the tipster claiming Game Boy games could come to the Switch in the next few weeks.
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As ever with such leaks, I advise you take this with a fair amount of distrust, though NateDrake is a known entity in the leaking world, and sources talking to Nintendo Life have said petty much the same thing.
In fact, I think its about time the Japanese gaming giant did that. While I know Nintendo has previously liked to keep its games siloed, we now live in times where older consoles simply won’t work with newer TVs, unless you’re willing to spend a good bit of cash on modded consoles or third-party connectors from small suppliers.
I would love to be able to play Super Mario Land 2, Wario Land 3 or Donkey Kong Land on my Switch, all of which are available on the 3DS and are proper classics. But equally, I’d like to see Nintendo go further and bring N64 games to the Switch. It’s already done that with Mario 64, so I see no reason why The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time couldn’t be ported over. After all, don’t the gaming youth of today deserve to play one of the best games ever made?
The nature of these games mean that they also play rather well today, though N64 games don’t exactly have the smoothest of frame rates. So even if I had to double-dip and pay again, I’d love to see such classics make a return on the Switch. If not that, then a reimagined “Classic” N64 would and/or Game Boy would be ideal; Nintendo has done that with the NES and SNES, to massive sales success.
Of course, Nintendo is dogmatically tight-lipped with its plans; it refused to comment on the Nintendo Switch Pro rumors until the Nintendo Switch OLED was revealed. So who knows what the company is up to.
My hope is that Nintendo does bring back these classics to the Switch. And it’s about time these games were made more readily accessible, rather than relying on dodgy emulators or scouring second-hand game shops. Just thinking about a portable version of Perfect Dark or Goldeneye is enough to get my gaming glands all aquiver. Let’s hope there's good news from Nintendo as we get into the fall.
