Nintendo Switch Online Mid-Year Report Card 2024: The Best Year Ever?

[@kevincullen13]

Never had so much fun with bar charts, 10/10.

[@TacoDiceCosas]

It's very funny that Alleyway is the worst reviewed game of the year. Because it's also my most played game of the service this year, lol. I love that thing.

[@puffdaddy6488]

I’m honestly shocked at how much they hated it back then. It still plays well to this day, which can’t be said about all of the games on there. Heck, I feel Alleyway, is significantly better than Gameboy Baseball.

[@davidgoldammer348]

Yeah Alleyway is a real fun time when ive played it, at least until theres like one square left. Then it becomes pretty tough to hit it

[@danielebowman]

Oh snap! I played Alleyway loads and found it’s simple and addictive fun. Perfect as a free by on the online pass. I have no idea why it was so badly reviewed?

[@HybridAngelZero]

NSO won me over already this year with that surprise Megaman Game Boy drop! I'm really hoping that plus the seven game NES drop from this month is an indicator of us getting bigger batches of games, especially with stuff like Wario Land 1 and 2, the older Game & Watch Galleries and DK 94 still absent. Of course, I also wanna see the retro Pokemon games (with Stadium on the N64 app cross compatibility), but I would still love to see Pokemon Puzzle Challenge, Pokemon Pinball and more of the great spin-offs

[@pattersong6637]

Spinoff Pokemon games that aren't on NSO that are on NSO consoles: N64: Hey You, Pikachu! (Never gonna happen, unless the Switch 2 has a microphone in which case maybe it'll be Switch 2 exclusive) GBC: Pokemon Pinball Pokemon Puzzle Challenge GBA: Pokemon Pinball Ruby/Sapphire Pokemon Mystery Dungeon (doubtful given the remake on Switch is out) Presumably they wouldn't drop the two Pinball games in one NSO drop but I could see Puzzle Challenge and Pinball dropping next February for Pokemon Day and Pokemon Pinball in 2026 for Pokemon Day. (Maybe by then another console like the DS or Gamecube will have been added that both have WAY more Pokemon spinoff games).

[@Rubberman202]

This won't be the "Best Year Ever" for Nintendo Switch Online until they add Wario Land 4! Of course, Donkey Kong '94 and Mole Mania couldn't hurt either, not to mention Banjo-Tooie and Diddy Kong Racing for Nintendo 64 and Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II for the NES. Those are currently my most-wanted games for the service, but for now, they added a LOT of fan-favorites, plus some more obscure picks that most people probably don't know about but will probably be pleasantly surprised by once they start playing them! I'd be fairly confident in saying NSO, even the Expansion Pack, is now worth it... if the actual online didn't leave a lot to be desired. Maybe it just depends on who's playing and who's connected, but I've seen a lot of people with otherwise stable Internet connections not make the online work for their Switch. Just last night, a streamer I really like had to scrap their plans on playing Mario Party 3, then Super Mario Party, then Mario Party Superstars because Nintendo's online functionality kept lagging like Hell (they said playing Mario Party 3 with 4 players was like listing to a CD stutter). So yeah, Nintendo's still got a few kinks to work out, but as far as game selections go, it's so far so good for this year!

[@michaelhockaday7426]

The NSO online was already worth it to me two years ago.

[@slavche]

Switch online service was always worth the price, but I saw the POTENTIAL in it, they can add ALL POKEMON, the RARE ONES, on 8 inch almost, OLED 2.1 million pixels they can add Fire Red, Blue, Crystal.... then they can add ZELDA wind waker 64... ( THEY CAN STILL SELL the games alongside, GC ones if adding some GC to service, would be sick ) This service can be MUCH better.. but there was a reason I said XBOX + Switch from years years years ago. Then PS5 guys tried to copy word for word haha, :D However I have HIGH hopes for Switch going forward, they need to stop adding Bullshit months. like all Japanese games months. NO NO.. they need to ADD big games to get us enticed.

[@brandonmatys]

They’ll never fix the online for the same reason n64 online doesn’t have rewind: “technical limitations” Even though I’d argue it’s bs and that Nintendo didn’t even try with n64 online as they literally copy and pasted the bad Wii U n64 emulator to the switch online service and called it a day and made said emulator worse in the process.

[@slavche]

@@brandonmatys True True, but I still have LOVE for the N64 emulation, it has online play even, I LOVE how instant the start up is. I LOVE my XSX Quick resume for 100GB-300GB GAMES that launch with ONE CLICK - 1 second iNTO DIFFERENT GAMES? that big size? then NINTENDO switch online, ALL 6 gens of OLD games or kind of old(n64), they start up iNSTANTLY within

[@brandonmatys]

@@slavche I just wanted a 3.0.0 update that fixes the netcode of the n64 nso and adds rewind, crt filters, controller pak support and transfer pak support…. BAH who am I kidding version 3.0.0 is never happening that’ll make waaaaay too much sense! Doesn’t it suck when the n64 is always ALWAYS the console getting screwed over in terms of re-releases from Nintendo?

[@Cyberpunknut]

I was pretty luke warm on a lot of the releases this year until all those gameboy mega man games dropped. That's pretty awesome they did that instead of releasing them in a compilation like the others.

[@superbros64deluxe]

13:26 OBJECTION! Quest for Camelot on Gameboy is a game based on a warner brothers movie and is on Gameboy switch online

[@DefunctGames]

OVERRULED! Quest for Camelot may be based on a Warner Bros. movie, but they don't own the rights to the game. The game was published on Switch by Titus. Warner Bros. Interactive has yet to release any games on the service.

[@superbros64deluxe]

@DefunctGames dang it, also sorry for the random objection haha been on a ace attorney kick lately, although i will say, it is a lisenced game, they probably had to go through warner for approval like Nintendo did for goldeneye no?

[@DefunctGames]

Yes. In order to get the game on NSO, Titus had to renew the rights to Quest for Camelot (which I'm assuming were dirt cheap). So, in a very roundabout way, Warner Bros. is connected to the Nintendo Switch Online. But that's like saying that Amazon Prime is a supporter of NSO because GoldenEye 007 is on the service and they own the rights to Bond. The point is, Warner Bros. Interactive has yet to deliver the games it controls -- Mortal Kombat, Atari's later arcade titles, Midway Games, etc.

[@superbros64deluxe]

@DefunctGames fair enough, I'm not a legal guy so I don't know the ins and outs, I will however say that speaking of Midway, "Atari Games" (not to be confused with modern atari) wonder if we'll ever see those games make the light of day again, last time they were in a major collection was on the Xbox360, only a matter of time until we get a new collection you'd figure since a lot of devs putting out arcade 1 up's are slowly transitioning to modern console porting thier old arcade games (Capcom, Konami among others)

[@DefunctGames]

Sadly, the only part of Midway that WB Interactive cares about these days is Mortal Kombat. It wouldn't surprise me if the people in charge don't even know the goldmine they are sitting on. And that is what makes it frustrating. Atari has been spending a lot of money on acquiring developers and reviving publishers, so I dream of a day when they will work out a deal to get all of the Atari games back from WB. Finally combine Atari into one whole company. That may seem far-fetched, but last time I checked, Warner Bros. was bleeding money and literally canceling movies in order to take tax write-offs. They aren't exactly in a position of strength, and it's not like they are doing anything with those IPs. Might be time to make a deal!

[@poil8351]

also there are 5 more months to go so i suspect 2024 will be likely a lot more to come. the only thing is wish sega would release more mega drive games on nso.

[@Bored_Barbarian]

9:35 well, they don’t own the genesis. That needs a lot more rights shenanigans.

[@Gernam12]

They don't even work on the emulator. That's M2 who does that and they are in SEGA's pocket.

[@danfortuna1984]

now i gotta watch gremlins again

[@goranisacson2502]

The lack of Genesis / Mega Drive games really makes me wonder. My most hopeful reading of the situation is that I suspect they're moving on from NES / SNES where a large part of the games Nintendo made and own, and thus can be reissued without much fuzz, are now available meaning they might ramp up their third party offerings like SEGA now that the bottom is getting acratched amd they HAVE to negotiate with others... Buuut they already have Rare now to tie them over AND the GB and GBA feels like the platforms that they still have a lot of games for, so odds might be they're holding out on SEGA until they're REALLY done with the bottom of those barrels. In the future I hope for improved N64 emulation since there's still glitches and so in their games, lately Perfect Dark apparently ran into an issue where in some cases an effect meant to make the screen slightly blurry because Joanna is poisoned made every blurry outline remain on screen instead of fade away, until the whole screen was just a mess. Apparently the company that they contracted for that emulator isn't the same as their internal emulation company, Nintendo European Research & Technology or NERD. And as for games... well, I do hope for more third parties but I'm not holding out any hope for SquareEnix or bigger names like RE2 for N64. Capcom are only now investigating what the salesnumbers for a RE-classic collection for PC looks like, if they feel encouraged they're absolutely selling those on their own. I guess I can at least hope for Final Fight since Capcom aren't in any real hurry to license those into their own package- feels like they would've done so by now if they were really interested. But sitting around trying to figure out which games Capcom, Konami and other parties feel can be "shared" with NSO for small sum or repackaged as part of a retro re-release feels like a fools errand. Konami even re-released Sparkster for retro-collections, I have no clue know what they do or don't value at this point. Will Konami give us Bomber-Man on NSO or collection? Will we get Final Fight? Will SEGA at least continue and give us all the games in their Mega Drive Classics Collection? Can we at least have Vectorman? Nobody knows... nobody knows...

[@pattersong6637]

Good video. It sure seems like Sunsoft, Irem, and whoever owns Acclaim's IP seem willing to put whatever onto NSO so I'm expecting more from their catalogs. Specifically re: Sunsoft, I'm expecting Chameleon Twist 1 and 2 on the N64 app soon. There's certainly a lot of titles I'd prefer over those but they're solid titles. Konami really really needs to dive into NSO deeper. They support it but pretty spottily. It's made worse by the fact that they own Hudson Soft's back catalog too, so not only are Konami's own classics like Castlevania, Goemon, Gradius, etc in spotty nature but there's no Bomberman or Adventure Island or etc from the Hudson side. (Konami buying Hudson only for Konami to then decide to drift mostly out of game making was such an unnecessary catastrophe. Hudson could've been bought by just about anyone who actually cares about making games)

[@poil8351]

well at least they weren't briught by embracer group.

[@Eggplant_Salad]

Hudson became Ndcube

[@pattersong6637]

Question for Defunct Games: What do you think are the chances for Starcraft 64? I used to think it was totally absurd to hope for it but Microsoft has been cooperating so well with the Rare properties and it's the only Blizzard game on the N64 so it is a Microsoft game now... It'd be pretty amazing to have a legit version of STARCRAFT of all things on the Switch. Even if it isn't the best version it's still incredible they fit all of the base game and Brood War into a 32 MB cartridge.

[@DefunctGames]

That is such a great question. My gut reaction is to say no, but then I wonder why? After all, StarCraft 64 was published by Nintendo and you're right about Blizzard having new ownership. This would be a really cool addition, since there aren't a lot of real-time strategy games on the Switch. But here's what's working against the game's chances. StarCraft 64 was one of only a couple of computer ports that Nintendo published. You saw Nintendo do something similar with SimCity when the Super NES launched. The Super NES has been part of the NSO for six years now, and so far there's no sign (or even hint) of SimCity getting a port. That doesn't mean StarCraft 64 is out of the question, but it does show Nintendo being reluctant to go that extra step. I suspect there would need to be a groundswell of vocal support for something like that to happen.

[@shulkash8799]

Still hope they add zapper and super scope support for the NES and SNES, which would add a few more first party games to switch online. Also you forgot to mention other third party games from less popular publishers, like Natsume with Pocky and Rocky games, some random Jaleco games, Interplay with the Clayfighter games, and Irem with Kung Fu. And some more Sunsoft games. Also still want Gargoyles quest 2 on NES to have the whole trilogy on NSO.

[@ZuzNewsReviews]

Yeah, I was wondering why they don't just put up Duck Hunt. It seems like they could adjust it so you could play with a regular controller.

[@JenMistress]

Would be interesting if Nintendo does cut a deal with Triple H and Nick Khan to release those classic WWF titles, and since they now a days own the rights to WCW and ECW, maybe could do a bunch of old school wrestling game. Doubt it would happen, but you never know, crazier things like CM Punk returning, and Cody Rhodes winning the WWE Title has happened. As for the question, it does seem like they still have some fuel left in the tank, so yeah, seems to be a good year so far for this.

[@Mintcar923]

This is like gaming overload! I’m still tempted to get deluxe NSO tho

[@ZuzNewsReviews]

Even though it was rated T at the time, I think if we see Clayfighter 63 1/3 it'll be on the mature app. What I'd really like is for them to use the switch online as an excuse to rerelease Sculptor's Cut.

[@DefunctGames]

It's weird, Interplay added Claymates to the NSO library back in 2021, and has yet to release any of the other Clay games. You would think that they would offer up one of the Clayfighter games, but the series is nowhere to be seen. Baffling.

[@ZuzNewsReviews]

@@DefunctGames Personally I'd chalk that up to Claymates being more of a kid's game. The reason I said it'd be on the mature app (if they're even comfortable getting it at all) is because they might be afraid that the humor isn't in line with today's sensibilities and don't want the heat. Heck, I even think modern Nintendo might even be uneasy adding Boogerman.

[@FortuneCookieLies]

Maybe we will get a dreamcast expansion pass where we will get crazy taxi, Seaman, Shenmu, and Dino Crisis from Capcom.

[@DefunctGames]

That would be AMAZING! When you dream, you might as well dream big. It's so frustrating how many of the best Dreamcast games have never been ported to other consoles. There are just so many post-Genesis Sega games that need to be re-released.

[@brandonmatys]

I’d rather have sega Saturn on switch online there are many *more* games on that platform that never got ported. Just a shame the Saturn is a bitch to emulate and the chances on switch, switch 2 or any console emulating Saturn is ZERO%!!! 😢

[@FortuneCookieLies]

@@brandonmatys I know. Saturn had some great games.

[@platinum-or3y]

i still love blast corps :3

[@DefunctGames]

One of Rare's very best games.

[@ZEKESPILLEDINKMUSIC]

In terms of Nintendo dropping games from Rare: 10/10 In terms of the surprise Mega Man Game Boy titles: 9/10 (because I dislike Mega Man II) In terms of Mario games: 7/10 because we didn't need another Dr. Mario port and Super Mario Land arrived late. In terms of Nintendo releasing Super R-Type: Pain/10 In terms of other NES games: No/10 because Mach Rider SUCKS!!!

[@brandonmatys]

I swear square enix if you put final fantasy tactics advance on switch online instead of any other nes or snes game im going to be very VERY *VERY* ANGRY!

[@melvinbandel601]

Love me some Alleyway!

[@platinum-or3y]

ya

[@caseyjlamm3051]

We need RESIDENT EVIL GAIDEN. Back when it was released game was too dark. Game Boy screens not backlit yet. Way to difficult to see. Game was just to dark. Now we could play on Switch. A copy o the game just cart over $120 - $650.

[@DefunctGames]

That would be a great addition, and it's the kind of game that Capcom SHOULD add to the service, since it's not like they are going to release it with any of the other Resident Evil games. If they add it, I can predict that my entire comment section will be people complaining it's not Resident Evil 2 on N64. Calling it now!

[@gligarguy4010]

Chrono Trigger not on NSO, not for sale on eShop, what is Square Enix even doing?

[@DefunctGames]

Square Enix seems to have very little desire to put their games on these classic game subscription services. Even if it's not available right now, I have to imagine that it's only a matter of time before Square Enix tries to sell you a remake or pixel remaster. That's one of those big games they want to hold on to. More frustrating are the smaller Square and Enix games that should be on the service, like ActRaiser, Illusion of Time and Soul Blazer.

[@gligarguy4010]

@@DefunctGames Sad. One game I want to see most on NSO is Mischief Makers, a cult classic on the N64, but I have no idea who owns it (which is always a big problem when it comes to collecting old games to bring to modern times). It might be Square Enix, since Enix published it, but if that's the case we're screwed 😔

[@DefunctGames]

Yeah. Enix published it in Japan, but Nintendo brought it to the U.S. and Europe. Seeing as it had different publishers, I suspect that Treasure owns the rights to that game. We have seen other Treasure games, though they have been the ones directly connected to Sega (Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy, etc.). Seeing as it has a Nintendo connection already, I would say the chances of seeing Mischief Makers show up is probably a lot better than a lot of other games. Maybe not this year, but if the NSO keeps going into the Switch 2's lifespan, I could definitely see it show up.

[@slavche]

I like it. but, I need to double check, was it REALLY JAN 2024 they released this NSO game Golden sun WHILE promising it 2023? in first showcase trailer 23'? WOW. I waited ALL 2023 for Golden sun. so including 2024 as best year so far, with Golden sun is counter-intuitive. However, even if we say 2023 was made worse, with no golden sun as they said would be... Okay... 2024 ain't' SOO much better, many months it's 1 release or 2... and even if its 2 or 1 uploads per month, that's fine for the price, BUT when it's pOOPy games... wow that sucks. FEW months already it has been Japanese titled games ONLY... Like, to me I like some of those titles, but mostly those are misses for me.