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

[Helmsly]

Ridge Racer is headed to the N64 NSO:

It’s funny to see Nintendo refer to the Ridge Racerrrr meme from Sony’s E3 conference 

[Ashley]

When are we getting Giant Enemy Crabs?

[Happenstance]

I’d love to see Phantasy Star Online come to this. It would be great to be able to play it again without fanmade pc servers. I’m not sure I’ll be bothered with the online pass but that being on there could convince me.

[Julius]

8 minutes ago, Helmsly said:

Ridge Racer is headed to the N64 NSO:

It’s funny to see Nintendo refer to the Ridge Racerrrr meme from Sony’s E3 conference 

I did a double-take when I saw them post this, partly because I thought something was afoot with them doing something on a Sunday, and well the other part being because I could've sworn it had already hit the service earlier this year – which it turns out, it had 

On 1/31/2025 at 1:03 AM, Julius said:

Ridge Racer 64 races onto the N64 line-up – today! 

So I guess someone over there just wanted to twist the knife on E3 being dead 

7 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

I’d love to see Phantasy Star Online come to this. It would be great to be able to play it again without fanmade pc servers. I’m not sure I’ll be bothered with the online pass but that being on there could convince me.

Definitely seems to be one of the most requested games to come to the service, and given the affection everyone here and elsewhere has for the game, I'd love the chance to try it for myself. PSO2 making its way West to begin with - after all that time - is enough of a reason to remain hopeful, imo. 

However, honestly, if they're going to bring a game like that back I'd hate for it to be locked to a service like this and to miss out on a shot at a physical re-release!

[Helmsly]

Ha, when I saw the tweet I vaguely thought ridge racer was on the service already but then assumed they’d not randomly advertise it a month or so later 

[Julius]

Just now, Helmsly said:

Ha, when I saw the tweet I vaguely thought ridge racer was on the service already but then assumed they’d not randomly advertise it a month or so later 

I have that exact same initial reaction every damn time they post randomly about a game that's already on the service, so you're not alone there  it's the way they word it too! As if people haven't had the opportunity to play it for months by the time of that post! 

Yeah, I know, I know, they're just advertising the service...but being even more honest, they're just biding every second they can because we're just 11 days away from the Switch 2 and GCN NSO dropping! 

and also twisting the knife on E3 being dead, because c'mon, Nintendo are ruthless 

[Helmsly]

1 hour ago, Julius said:

Definitely seems to be one of the most requested games to come to the service, and given the affection everyone here and elsewhere has for the game, I'd love the chance to try it for myself. PSO2 making its way West to begin with - after all that time - is enough of a reason to remain hopeful, imo. 

However, honestly, if they're going to bring a game like that back I'd hate for it to be locked to a service like this and to miss out on a shot at a physical re-release!

Yeah, I played used to play PSO on gamecube am awful lot and also on Dreamcast before that and if it came to NSO I'd certainly be playing it again. I still talk to a lot of the online friends i had in PSO to this day, they'd probably play it too.

[Glen-i]

Geez, for a moment, I started to really question my sanity there.

Because I know I played it with 3 other people here on NSO!

[Cube]

On 5/25/2025 at 8:19 PM, Julius said:

Definitely seems to be one of the most requested games to come to the service, and given the affection everyone here and elsewhere has for the game, I'd love the chance to try it for myself. PSO2 making its way West to begin with - after all that time - is enough of a reason to remain hopeful, imo. 

However, honestly, if they're going to bring a game like that back I'd hate for it to be locked to a service like this and to miss out on a shot at a physical re-release!

They can't really rely on the NSO's online functionality for PSO, either. They'd need to still have servers for proper online, and for that you really should do a proper port available across multiple platforms.

Technically, you could still do it with NSO, as it does have 4-player split screen, but the additional players can only play with Player 1 (they wouldn't be able to use that character on their own), can't be in different areas and other restrictions. 

 

I do wonder if Nintendo are going to allow for playing online with LAN support for Mario Kart, Kirby Air Ride and 1080.

[Julius]

The update today on the Nintendo Today! app details the new Switch 2 exclusive features coming to N64 Classics, as well as confirming that button remapping is also coming to the OG Switch version of the app. 

Good stuff. Now let us get rid of the damn borders and profile icons you monsters! 

 

UPDATE

YouTube upload:

Compatibility chart: 

Edited yesterday at 01:22 AM by Julius

[Dcubed]

5 hours ago, Cube said:

I do wonder if Nintendo are going to allow for playing online with LAN support for Mario Kart, Kirby Air Ride and 1080.

Lots of Qs still with GCN NSO.  I do hope LAN support is in, as even though we have online splitscreen, the LAN modes offer unique gameplay that can’t be replicated otherwise… including 8-16 player support for Double Dash!!(!).  It must be doable, since you can actually do wireless LAN using homebrew on Wii/Wii U, and it works really well! And that’s with real hardware, not even emulation!

GBA-GCN connectivity has to take priority though.  It’s easily the most impactful and important USP of the hardware and it would be a tragedy if it isn’t supported… I get that it’s not trivial to support under emulation, but it’s such an important feature of the hardware.  It would be like not supporting the touch screen for DS VC games!

Edited Tuesday at 06:19 PM by Dcubed

[Cube]

@Dcubed out of interest, are there any examples of Switch games reading the save data from another game/app (other than system ones like Miis)? Just curious if games have their own "protected" folder, which meant the GameCube app wouldn't be able to read the GBA app (which would limit the Link Cable communicating with your saves). Although you would hope Nintendo could allow for some exceptions.

The way Dolphin works is that is has an integrated GBA emulator (although it can also connect to external ones) for the link cable functionality. You can plug in GBA roms (and saves). This is all down via the controller settings. 

My main concern is that Nintendo would consider the implementation to be too complex for the end user, although ideally Nintendo would have something that can automatically connect GBAs (to the right port) and assign any additional controllers to it, doing all the configuration themselves.

[Dcubed]

5 minutes ago, Cube said:

@Dcubed out of interest, are there any examples of Switch games reading the save data from another game/app (other than system ones like Miis)? Just curious if games have their own "protected" folder, which meant the GameCube app wouldn't be able to read the GBA app (which would limit the Link Cable communicating with your saves). Although you would hope Nintendo could allow for some exceptions.

The way Dolphin works is that is has an integrated GBA emulator (although it can also connect to external ones) for the link cable functionality. You can plug in GBA roms (and saves). This is all down via the controller settings. 

My main concern is that Nintendo would consider the implementation to be too complex for the end user, although ideally Nintendo would have something that can automatically connect GBAs (to the right port) and assign any additional controllers to it, doing all the configuration themselves.

Famicom Detective Club Parts 1 & 2 can read each other's save data (And Emio as well BTW).

Clearly it can be done.

I'd imagine that any such feature would work by using another Switch 1/2 via Game Share as the stand-in for the GBA.  Or perhaps they could just have the other system open up the GBA NSO app and put the emulated system into the respective Single Pak/Multi Pak mode?

It's definitely doable from a technical standpoint.  The question though is whether or not Nintendo can be bothered, or if they're too lazy to do it...

Edited Tuesday at 10:23 PM by Dcubed

[Julius]

Director's Cut of the NSO + Expansion Pack + Switch 2 additions overviews:

I feel like it's pretty hard to argue against the Expansion Pack having become one of the better value propositions in gaming when it comes to experiencing such a strong catalogue of classic titles

unless you find yourself in a position where you've already played it all and are waiting for the next games to drop, maybe then it wouldn't be so great