Nintendo‘s online service kicks off tomorrow, giving users access to online play, cloud saves, a number of classic NES games, and more for a monthly or yearly fee. According to an FAQ on Nintendo’s website, you’ll be able to play the NES games offline, but you’ll need to connect to the internet once a week to keep doing so.
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Of course, you’ll need to connect in the first place to download the games, but once they’re sitting on your device, they’ll be playable for 7 days. “Yes, these games can be played offline for up to 7 days as long as you have an active Nintendo Switch Online membership,” the FAQ reads.
It’s not clear exactly what happens after that point should you decide not to connect again, but assuming your saved games are kept in the cloud, downloading the actual game again should take less than a minute, given these older games are small as hell. If your games aren’t saved prior to whatever happens after that 7 days, however, well, that’s probably gonna be a real pain in the ass.
The service, which launches tomorrow, will have 20 NES titles available for download initially, with others coming at a later date. You can check out the list below.
- Balloon Fight
- Baseball
- Donkey Kong
- Double Dragon
- Dr. Mario
- Excitebike
- Ghosts’n Goblins
- Gradius
- Ice Climber
- Ice Hockey
- The Legend of Zelda
- Mario Bros.
- Pro Wrestling
- River City Ransom
- Soccer
- Super Mario. Bros.
- Super Mario Bros. 3
- Tecmo Bowl
- Tennis
- Yoshi
A 1-month membership will set you back $5.95, 3 months is $11.95, and a whole year is $29.95, so it’s all pretty reasonably priced if you ask me. There’s also a family option for $54.95 if you have more than one person keen to use it.
