Nintendo made a bunch of announcements about its upcoming online services this week, most notably the price and re-release of a number of classic NES games, but fans were left wondering about one expected feature the company didn’t mention.
I’m talking about Virtual Console, a tool Nintendo uses to allow newer hardware to play older games, like those from the NES or SNES. While 20 old titles are still coming to the Switch as part of the service, it won’t be via the Virtual Console.
“There are currently no plans to bring classic games together under the Virtual Console banner as has been done on other Nintendo systems,” a spokesperson told Kotaku.
But don’t shit your pants just yet, because as IGN points out, this doesn’t necessarily mean Nintendo is abandoning the idea of re-releasing further classics on newer hardware, it just means they’ll likely be enhanced first.
You see, Virtual Console simply allows old games to exist on current hardware, meaning they’re as unchanged as the day they were first released. Rather, the company may want enhance older games before they’re put out again, which kinda makes the Virtual Console redundant, particularly from a branding perspective.
In other words, it looks as though Nintendo is still very keen on re-releasing the nostalgic goodies you grew up with, just not in the way everyone was expecting them to.
Dropping in September, Nintendo Online will run as a subscription service that allows you access to games and also cloud save files, which gamers have been crying out for for some time. It’ll cost you $5.95 for one month, $11.95 for three months, or $29.95 for a whole year.
As part of the Nintendo Entertainment System – Nintendo Switch Online access, you can play games like The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Tennis, and more.
