December 18, 2020: The DK Trilogy is complete
December brought Donkey Kong Country 3 to the Nintendo Switch, completing the Donkey Kong Country trilogy. Take control of Dixie Kong and Kiddy Kong as they battle Kremlins to save Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong.
Other new additions include the SNES games The Ignition Factor, Super Valis IV, and Tuff E Nuff. Nightshade was the lone NES addition.
September 23, 2020: Play more Mario and Donkey Kong
This month, Nintendo Switch Online adds the SNES platformer Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest. Players will try to rescue Donkey Kong from the clutches of Kaptain K. Rool with the help of Dixie Kong and plenty of animal friends while also exploring hidden areas to search for collectibles.
The other new additions are the SNES puzzle game Mario’s Super Picross and beat-’em-up The Peace Keepers, and NES sci-fi shoot-’em-up S.C.A.T.: Special Cybernetic Attack Team. The service now has a total of 90 titles.
July 15, 2020: Take a trip to Donkey Kong Country
The classic SNES platformer Donkey Kong Country hit the Nintendo Switch Online service this month along with two other titles, bringing the service’s collection to 85 games. Play solo, competitively, or cooperatively controlling Donkey or Diddy Kong as you explore more than 100 levels filled with collectibles and secrets.
Also new for July is the dungeon-delving isometric action NES RPG The Immortal. The SNES list now includes Natsume Championship Wrestling, which lets you play one of 12 fighters and learn more than 50 moves as you fight other players or the AI.
May 14, 2020: Panel de Pon is finally available outside of Japan
For May, the Nintendo Switch Online service is adding a total of four games to the NES and SNES libraries. Rygar on NES, with Wild Guns, Operation Logic Bomb, and Panel de Pon on SNES.
Panel de Pon is a particularly unique addition because this game was originally never released outside of Japan. Gunpei Yokoi initially designed this classic SNES puzzle game. Still, outside of Japan, it was simply called Tetris Attack, and the anime art style was replaced with Nintendo characters from Yoshi’s Island. So while it was technically released outside Japan in some form, it wasn’t the original game. So for many, this new addition will be the first time to experience the true Panel de Pon.
Rygar is a mythical action game from Tecmo, Wild Guns is a western shooter from Natsume, and Operation Logic Bomb is an overhead shooter from Jaleco.
All of these games will be available on May 20, 2020.
Feb 19, 2020: Pop’n TwinBee and Smash Tennis are finally available in the U.S.
There are a total of four new games arriving in the NES and SNES app for active Nintendo Switch Online members. The games are: Shadow of the Ninja (NES), Eliminator Boat Duel (NES), Pop’n TwinBee (SNES), and Smash Tennis (SNES). Pop’n TwinBee and Smash Tennis have never been released in North America until now.
Pop’n TwinBee is a vertical scrolling top-down shooter from Konami that was initially released in 1993 in Japan and PAL regions, but never once made its way to the United States. Smash Tennis, also known as Super Family Tennis in Japan, is made by Namco and came out in 1993. The name became Smash Tennis when it was released in Europe in 1994.
September 10, 2019: SNES games join the service!
Nintendo announced in a Direct last week that Nintendo Switch Online would now feature SNES games as well as NES games, revealing a whopping 20 titles to join the service in the initial wave, with more to come in the future.
May 12, 2019: More classic games on the way
Three additional games will be added to the queue, including Donkey Kong Jr., VS. Excitebike, and Clu Clu Land. Each of these classics is a welcome addition to Nintendo Switch Online’s ever-expanding collection.
March 13, 2019: New titles have arrived in the ever-expanding NES library for Nintendo Switch Online users
So far this year, Nintendo has gifted us with plenty of great new options in the NES library for NSO. We received Blaster Master and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link in January, and February brought us Kirby’s Adventure and Super Mario Bros. 2. There have also been plenty of “Special Edition” versions of the existing games, which have you start at later points in the game or give you all the password-locked bonuses from the get-go. We haven’t gotten word of the March additions to the NES library, but we’re sure that we’ll hear more about that soon.
November 7, 2018: New titles coming to the NES library!
Nintendo has given NES fans with Nintendo Switch Online something to look forward to. On November 14, there will be three new titles joining the NES library. Those who love the Metroidvania genre will be happy to get their mitts on the original with the release of Metroid. If you want some super fun retro platforming, you can look forward to Mighty Bomb Jack, and those who find joy in sidescrolling shooters will be happy to see the addition of TwinBee. I am thrilled to see that Nintendo is going to continue to build this library of retro classics.
With a deep and fantastic library like Nintendo’s, it is a joy to find that they are no longer content to let great titles languish as they have for so many years. So many young people have never gotten an opportunity to play some of the games that made Nintendo the behemoth that it is.
Hopefully, we will see this library of awesome old games expand, so gamers will not have to turn to eBay or emulators to play the titles they want to revisit.
