Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack: N64, SEGA Mega Drive, GBA + GameCube (5th June 2025)

[Jonnas]

6 hours ago, Julius said:

what are the games not yet confirmed for the service which you'd most love to see, and would heartily recommend I check out if and when they land? 

Besides ToS, I'd also love to see Skies of Arcadia. That's a game that would be better served by a polished remaster (the GCN version is very good, but the music is very compressed, so it's not definitive), but a simple rerelease would also be excellent.

Next game is a bit more unexpected: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. Sure, we're not likely to get Bongos, but we can use the Joy-cons to replicate the effect.

I also must mention the masterpiece that is Super Smash Bros. Melee, and hope that it comes to the NSO sooner, rather than later.

Wave Race: Blue Storm and Mario Party 4-6 are probably a given. They're good games that people are more inclined to play if they don't have to purchase them. Same thing for the Donkey Konga trilogy, if the joy-cons allow it.

Metroid Prime 2 is not my favourite, but it is good, and I'd like new players to experience more than just the first Prime game. Super Mario Sunshine is also one that deserves to be more readily available than in some limited edition release. Starfox Adventures is also begging for a rerelease. And while we already have a remaster, I think Pikmin would also be good for the service.

I'd also love to see some multi-platform games that happened to have a GCN version. Timesplitters 2, Viewtiful Joe, Splinter Cell, Second Sight, and Burnout 2 spring to mind.

On the level of games I personally never played, there's Paper Mario: Thousand-Year Door, Doshin the Giant, Lost Kingdoms (1 & 2), Super Monkey Ball (1 & 2), Kirby's Air Ride, Starfox Assault, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, Geist, and Pikmin 2 (which would be quite something, if they could get those original licensed objects for the rerelease)

Finally, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Master Quest is not yet available on the NSO, and it was technically originally released on the Gamecube. Just saying...

Edited April 3 by Jonnas

[Ashley]

9 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

Wave Race: Blue Storm

I was surprised this wasn't at launch given it was at the console's launch. 

[Glen-i]

45 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

Next game is a bit more unexpected: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. Sure, we're not likely to get Bongos, but we can use the Joy-cons to replicate the effect.

Actually, if you have the WiiU GameCube adapter, DK Bongos will work fine.
I'm pretty certain it can be played with a Gamecube controller though. It's a subpar way to experience it, but it's there.

45 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

Same thing for the Donkey Konga trilogy, if the joy-cons allow it.

This, on the other hand? I wouldn't bet on it. That's a licensing nightmare for a game they wouldn't be selling.

Edited April 3 by Glen-i

[Cube]

2 hours ago, Glen-i said:

Actually, if you have the WiiU GameCube adapter, DK Bongos will work fine.
I'm pretty certain it can be played with a Gamecube controller though. It's a subpar way to experience it, but it's there.

This, on the other hand? I wouldn't bet on it. That's a licensing nightmare for a game they wouldn't be selling.

I believe the bongos essentially send regular GameCube imports to the console, so technically Donkey Konga can be played with a regular controller too.

(I do have bongos for when I get to those games, though, it's wrong to not use them)

[Dcubed]

5 hours ago, Cube said:

I believe the bongos essentially send regular GameCube imports to the console, so technically Donkey Konga can be played with a regular controller too.

(I do have bongos for when I get to those games, though, it's wrong to not use them)

The GCN Controller Adapter specifically recognises the DK Bongos as a seperate controller from a normal GCN Controller.  We know this because if you hack a Wii U to play GCN games (which it can do so with real native GCN hardware), DKJB and the Donkey Konga games feature full uncompromised support for the DK Bongos when played on a Wii U; including the built-in microphone.  I know this, because I've done it myself with a spare Wii U I have.

This would've required specific coding on Nintendo's part to make happen; they clearly had some sort of plan originally to have GCN games playable on Wii U, and that included the DK Bongo games, but of course the Wii U's life was cut short before that could happen.  As an aside, GBA-GCN Link cables do not work on the GCN Controller Adapter, unfortunately.

Edited April 4 by Dcubed

[Glen-i]

 

[BowserBasher]

 

[martinist]

***Nintendo GameCube – Nintendo Classics can also be played with an original Nintendo GameCube controller via the GameCube Controller Adapter for Wii U

Nice

[BowserBasher]

1 hour ago, martinist said:

***Nintendo GameCube – Nintendo Classics can also be played with an original Nintendo GameCube controller via the GameCube Controller Adapter for Wii U

Nice

Good to know. Mines always plugged into my Switch as it's the only way to play Smash Bros each and every Saturday.

[Glen-i]

13 minutes ago, BowserBasher said:

Mines always plugged into my Switch as it's the only way to play Smash Bros each and every Saturday.

Excellent advertising, your cheque will be posted to you in 5 working days.

[Dcubed]

1 hour ago, martinist said:

***Nintendo GameCube – Nintendo Classics can also be played with an original Nintendo GameCube controller via the GameCube Controller Adapter for Wii U

Nice

I'm looking forward to playing DDR Mario with my GCN Dance Mat and playing Donkey Kong Jungle Beat with my DK Bongos on Switch 2!

Edited April 6 by Dcubed

[Helmsly]

Three games were just added to the Mega Drive library for NSO

Streets of Rage 
Super Thunder Blade 
ESWAT: City Under Siege

[Hero-of-Time]

Very happy with ESWAT making an appearance. I love that game.

[Glen-i]

@S.C.G in the bottom left is the person to watch here.

 

[Dcubed]

More detailed impressions about the Switch 2 event to come, but I just want to get this out of the way now; because I'm pretty sure this is World Premiere info...

At the London Switch 2 event.  They had demo stations set up to play four games on GCN NSO (F-Zero GX, SoulCalibur 2, Mario Smash Football and The Wind Waker).  This was a timed demo where you could play any of the four games for up to 10 minutes before the app reset itself.  I highlighted MSF in particular because this was specifically the EU version of the app demo...

I immediately noticed that the games are locked to 50hz.  It was incredibly obvious as soon as I grabbed the controller and started the game.

So me and @Glen-i tried to back out into the GCN NSO menu and then rebooted F-Zero GX and held down the B-button on startup (which is how you bring up the in-game 60hz option in the original GCN EU disc release)... No dice.  Nothing.  There is no way to access the in-game 60hz option in this demo.

Also, this demo only allowed you to select EU versions of these games... We did not see any NTSC versions of any of the games made available.

Now, the organising attendees wouldn't let us access the NSO GCN options menu, so I don't know if there is a specific option in the menu to toggle the US versions on & off like in the other NSO apps, or if there is a system-wide toggle for 60hz in compatible games; but as things stand with this initial demo version? There is no way to activate 60hz in any of the games in the EU version of GCN NSO, even if the EU version disc version of any given GCN game originally supported 60hz.

Now.  This is of course, a limited demo, that we weren't even given the option to fully explore during our time there; and may not be representitive of the release version of the GCN NSO app here in Europe.  So I'm not going to bring out the pitchforks just yet.  But that would be a major bummer if true...

Worst case scenario though? It should be possible to just download the US version of the GCN NSO app instead and play the NTSC versions that way; but really, we shouldn't have to be doing that to avoid playing gimped versions of these games.

Edited Sunday at 04:45 PM by Dcubed

[Glen-i]

It should be said that we weren't able to get to the actual app options themselves.

All the other apps let you choose between EU and American versions, so I'd shocked if that option wasn't here.

And the box art still had that "European" tag on the App menu, which would be pretty pointless if you couldn't access the American version.

[Cube]

5 hours ago, Glen-i said:

All the other apps let you choose between EU and American versions, so I'd shocked if that option wasn't here.

I guess a large part will be if the GameCube app downloads all future games or if it will let you choose what is installed.

Having both versions was trivial for previous consoles, but will take up a ton of storage for GameCube. 

[Dcubed]

CRISIS AVERTED!!
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2025/04/gamecube-games-on-switch-2-will-support-an-optional-crt-filter

The article really buries the lead on this one, but the photograph doesn’t lie.  You can select the NTSC or PAL versions of the games…
 

… interesting how the app has a separate option to display only EU or only US versions… no other NSO app does that.  I wonder if that means that the app will only download the versions you select in order to save space?

[Glen-i]

On 4/13/2025 at 5:41 PM, Glen-i said:

And the box art still had that "European" tag on the App menu, which would be pretty pointless if you couldn't access the American version.

Look at that, crisis never existed in the first place.

He was worrying about nothing.

[Dcubed]

1 minute ago, Glen-i said:

Look at that, crisis never existed in the first place.

He was worrying about nothing.

I’m still worrying about GBA-GCN connectivity support…

I hope I’m worrying about nothing!!

[Ashley]

1 hour ago, Dcubed said:

 interesting how the app has a separate option to display only EU or only US versions… no other NSO app does that.  I wonder if that means that the app will only download the versions you select in order to save space?

I'd imagine cube is right on the money 

On 4/13/2025 at 11:11 PM, Cube said:

I guess a large part will be if the GameCube app downloads all future games or if it will let you choose what is installed.

Having both versions was trivial for previous consoles, but will take up a ton of storage for GameCube. 

 

[Glen-i]

23 hours ago, Dcubed said:

I’m still worrying about GBA-GCN connectivity support…

I hope I’m worrying about nothing!!

Now that is something to worry about. Because if it was something that the app could replicate, I feel like they would've shown that off with Wind Waker during the Direct.

"Lookee, lookee! We've done neat tech-y stuff so that you can use the Tingle Tuner just like in the original release. America will just have to stop being a buzzkill and suck it up!"

Never say never, it could also be added later on for more "dedicated" games, but I wouldn't bet on it being there at launch.