StarTopic Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack |ST| New 2024 Poll Up

[Jahranimo]

So what you are saying is, a 1080 Snowboarding announcement tonight will kill all direct hopes for the month of June?

You heard it here first folks!

I'm cool with that, I haven't played 1080 snowboarding since the N64 days. Curious to see if it has held up any like Wave Race.

 

[Barely Able]

 

[MondoMega]

 

[Weebos]

I'll replay the GOAT.

It's a shame we're not getting FE6 too after the trademark news, but it could still come later if they're properly localizing it.

 

[ZephyrPhoenix]

YEEEEESSSSSS LETS GO

RERUN TIME

 

[BassForever]

I'll replay the GOAT.

It's a shame we're not getting FE6 too after the trademark news, but it could still come later if they're properly localizing it.

We waited 27 years for Harvest Moon, we can wait a few more months for Binding Blade.

 

[Josh5890]

Well so much for that N64 update....

 

[BassForever]

So what you are saying is, a 1080 Snowboarding announcement tonight will kill all direct hopes for the month of June?

You heard it here first folks!

Well so much for that N64 update....

The only way this could be more of a Monkey's Paw moment for you is if you hated FE with a burning passion.

 

[Josh5890]

The only way this could be more of a Monkey's Paw moment for you is if you hated FE with a burning passion.

Na, I love FE. I actually have a save file of that game from a year ago on my GBA cart that is 2/3rds through. I'm glad this is coming and I hope that Sacred Stones is soon.

All that said, we are probably going to finish the first half of 2023 with only Pokemon Stadium and Goldeneye added to the app. I need my nostalgia fix lol

 

[Red Monster]

If we don’t end up getting Smash 64 by the end of the Switch’s lifecycle, it’ll be a darn shame.

 

[MisterSpo]

I'm thinking there's another NSO update at the very end of the month, but that it's more likely Mega Drive than N64. Nintendo did April and June 30th updates for Mega Drive last year, so there's every chance it happens again. An N64 game would be more interesting, to shake up the predictability of things, but it really does feel like they're doling out what N64 games they have left as gradually as they can. The base level rollout of GB/C titles also looks slow, presumably so that Nintendo can keep easily adding stuff to NSO for sometime to come.

With 5 confirmed N64 titles remaining right now, it could be that those 5 are it for 2023. More interesting is the GBA, which only has 3 more titles confirmed for the service (F Zero Maximum Velocity, Kirby & the Amazing Mirror, Golden Sun). It's possible that, Mega Drive and DLC additions aside, those 8 titles are the remaining Expansion Pack games for this year.

If we don’t end up getting Smash 64 by the end of the Switch’s lifecycle, it’ll be a darn shame.

I would guess that's a 2024 title at this rate. There are really high profile things - especially Smash and Donkey Kong 64 - which should make it onto the service and which would generate some buzz whenever they do get confirmed. It'd be especially good to see that rounded out by Banjo Tooie and Diddy Kong Racing, and then some other third party titles (Mystical Ninja 64! Mischief Makers! Please?). But we're soon arriving at the thin end of the wedge for N64 without further licensing deals with other companies.

 

[fiendcode]

If we don’t end up getting Smash 64 by the end of the Switch’s lifecycle, it’ll be a darn shame.

With the broken state of N64 online, I almost hope it doesn't come.

I still wish NERD would've scrapped iQue's shitty Wii U emu and started fresh. We maybe could've gotten rewind and (as a result) rollback with a well optimized ground up emu.

 

[Brofield]

I'm thinking there's another NSO update at the very end of the month, but that it's more likely Mega Drive than N64. Nintendo did April and June 30th updates for Mega Drive last year, so there's every chance it happens again. An N64 game would be more interesting, to shake up the predictability of things, but it really does feel like they're doling out what N64 games they have left as gradually as they can. The base level rollout of GB/C titles also looks slow, presumably so that Nintendo can keep easily adding stuff to NSO for sometime to come.

With 5 confirmed N64 titles remaining right now, it could be that those 5 are it for 2023. More interesting is the GBA, which only has 3 more titles confirmed for the service (F Zero Maximum Velocity, Kirby & the Amazing Mirror, Golden Sun). It's possible that, Mega Drive and DLC additions aside, those 8 titles are the remaining Expansion Pack games for this year.

I would guess that's a 2024 title at this rate. There are really high profile things - especially Smash and Donkey Kong 64 - which should make it onto the service and which would generate some buzz whenever they do get confirmed. It'd be especially good to see that rounded out by Banjo Tooie and Diddy Kong Racing, and then some other third party titles (Mystical Ninja 64! Mischief Makers! Please?). But we're soon arriving at the thin end of the wedge for N64 without further licensing deals with other companies.

Literally my worst fear come true if this is how Nintendo mangles N64 NSO.

At this point when do I accept they'll restart the NSO catalogue on next Switch hardware? Precedence is not in our favour

 

[Derachi]

Literally my worst fear come true if this is how Nintendo mangles N64 NSO.

At this point when do I accept they'll restart the NSO catalogue on next Switch hardware? Precedence is not in our favour

I can’t imagine they’d start over. That’d be absurd, even for Nintendo.

 

[Brofield]

I can’t imagine they’d start over. That’d be absurd, even for Nintendo.

Yeah, negativity got the better of me there in hindsight. Dooming more than what's reasonable shouldn't be the case.

It's just, you try and stay on the straight and narrow emulating legally, but goddamn do they make it hard to love let alone actually make it functional. I can understand navigating third party legal clauses, but it shouldn't be so hard to just upload the first party ROMs all at once to the service when you already own all the licensing rights.

 

[Deleted member 2807]

Diddy Kong Racing with the “JointVenture” co-op cheat with my best friend online will be the time of our lives.

That game is absurdly good. The original is still landlocked to the N64.

I think Diddy Kong Racing is also in the Top 10 selling N64 games.

Maybe with Banjo’s 25th Anniversary being a thing, we see Tooie being added as well. That game wasn’t as a commercial success as Kazooie, but you might as well, right?

(Not that Nintendo really has any incentive to commemorate Banjo’s anniversary, but it would be neat.)

((And my own personal bias wants all the Rareware I can get.))

 

[MagicOtters]

Yeah, negativity got the better of me there in hindsight. Dooming more than what's reasonable shouldn't be the case.

It's just, you try and stay on the straight and narrow emulating legally, but goddamn do they make it hard to love let alone actually make it functional. I can understand navigating third party legal clauses, but it shouldn't be so hard to just upload the first party ROMs all at once to the service when you already own all the licensing rights.

I have more faith this time because of their efforts to make Nintendo Accounts a bigger deal, and actually being pretty clear in their branding of NSO as a service that gets better over time. It'd be very weird to scrap all of that when they want people to stay in their ecosystem.

I do wonder what's going to happen when they run out of their backlog, though... I think it'd be super cool if they actually made unique games for the service. Small experimental pet projects that you could buy through the eshop, or enjoy through your NSO subscription. They kind of already do it with things like Tetris 99, but maybe also like, single player focused stuff as well.

 

[Barely Able]

 

[Weebos]

The rewind features of the NSO emulator are already such a nice QOL update for this game. Jumping into this version even though I still have my old GBA copy.

 

[MondoMega]

One thing from the direct i’m not seeing discussed much that I feel is worth speculating on. The Japanese version of the Direct announced that the Famicom 40th Anniversary will be celebrated starting next month (on the Famicom’s actual anniversary), with a lot of third-party titles included in the promotion:

Surely we’ll get some notable NES NSO drops during this period, right? Surely they wouldn’t negotiate to show off all of these Famicom games while not having a good chunk of them on their Famicom service?

nah they would totally do that.

 

[DrJay]

One thing from the direct i’m not seeing discussed much that I feel is worth speculating on. The Japanese version of the Direct announced that the Famicom 40th Anniversary will be celebrated starting next month (on the Famicom’s actual anniversary), with a lot of third-party titles included in the promotion:

Surely we’ll get some notable NES NSO drops during this period, right? Surely they wouldn’t negotiate to show off all of these Famicom games while not having a good chunk of them on their Famicom service?

nah they would totally do that.

I dont think we'll see anything tbh.

 

[MisterSpo]

NES Remix 99.

 

[Mer.Saloon]

I just beat Yoshi's Island (GBA) and Adventures of Lolo for the first time.

I also beat Type B for Wario's Woods.

I also beat SMA 100%, I really like the ace coin and yoshi challenge. It expands the content for SMB2 in a very natural way.

So add that to my NSO bucket list.
Yeah, I really like Yoshi's Island and the style it has. Its easily one of the crowning achievements of sprite art. But damn did the gba do some of the effects dirty, like the twisting lava and the touch fuzz effect.

 

[Semi Lazy Gamer]

 

[LuigiBlood]

I mean these images would explain a lot more about Fire Emblem in Japan and the new functionalities added, sort of.


But yeah the way Fire Emblem works is a bunch of hacks for Single Player use but it's pretty elegant to me.

 

[Brofield]

New month, new laments. Place your bets! Excitebike 64, Mario Party 3, Pokemon Stadium 2, 1080° Snowboarding, or nothing again for N64 this month? Four more N64 games to come in the last six months of the year were scheduled for this year, and I can't say I'm optimistic they'll bother to do another NSO N64 roadmap a minute before 2024 (if at all).

 

[MisterSpo]

New month, new laments. Place your bets! Excitebike 64, Mario Party 3, Pokemon Stadium 2, 1080° Snowboarding, or nothing again for N64 this month? Four more N64 games to come in the last six months of the year were scheduled for this year, and I can't say I'm optimistic they'll bother to do another NSO N64 roadmap a minute before 2024 (if at all).

I think they'll announce titles for 2024, but it'll only be half a dozen probably. Smash Bros and Donkey Kong 64 give them easy headliners, and any further Rare games - Banjo-Tooie? First N64 re-release for Diddy Kong Racing? - would also be really high profile titles to soften the blow of the release schedule further slowing.

But sure, N64 this month, I think. Everything else got updated last month, after all!

 

[Brofield]

I think they'll announce titles for 2024, but it'll only be half a dozen probably. Smash Bros and Donkey Kong 64 give them easy headliners, and any further Rare games - Banjo-Tooie? First N64 re-release for Diddy Kong Racing? - would also be really high profile titles to soften the blow of the release schedule further slowing.

But sure, N64 this month, I think. Everything else got updated last month, after all!

I really hope so, I think the fact that these probably have been my most expected and yearned for games with nothing yet to show for it has been driving me batty to the point I still feel they'll find a way to skip over them even if it's completely illogical thinking

And true, I'm feeling either Excitebike or Snowboarding as the next game especially if every other platform got their update last month

 

[LuigiBlood]

I can't believe it but now I'm asking for the PAL English version of Crusader of Centy (Soleil) to be added just because the translation is way way better, and has no censorship as well. I really dislike the changes of the US version overall.
Also I checked you can actually just bypass the region check and the game would still play the music at the right speed regardless of 50hz and 60hz. The only problem is how the intro (and I assume the staff roll) would desync from the music which is not really great especially when I find the intro pretty cool.

 

[MondoMega]

They'll need to get a move on with N64 to get through the scheduled lineup before the end of the year, especially with Japan having two extra games on their schedule. That'd be one a month unless they do something extra weird like bundling 1080 and Excitebike together.

I know this is exactly what we did in February and it didn't pan out then, but with a Pokemon Presents seemingly on the horizon for this week, maybe we'll see Stadium 2 there? Perhaps, with Game Boy games? Or perhaps we'll be waiting until 2026 for Gen 1, who knows.

 

[Mandos]

They'll need to get a move on with N64 to get through the scheduled lineup before the end of the year, especially with Japan having two extra games on their schedule. That'd be one a month unless they do something extra weird like bundling 1080 and Excitebike together.

I know this is exactly what we did in February and it didn't pan out then, but with a Pokemon Presents seemingly on the horizon for this week, maybe we'll see Stadium 2 there? Perhaps, with Game Boy games? Or perhaps we'll be waiting until 2026 for Gen 1, who knows.

Would laugh if they paired Mario party 3 and stadium 2

 

[Josh5890]

New month, new laments. Place your bets! Excitebike 64, Mario Party 3, Pokemon Stadium 2, 1080° Snowboarding, or nothing again for N64 this month? Four more N64 games to come in the last six months of the year were scheduled for this year, and I can't say I'm optimistic they'll bother to do another NSO N64 roadmap a minute before 2024 (if at all).

I get it that things get delayed and plans change, but Nintendo still has four N64 games announced for 2023. Sooner or later, they have to release something lol.

 

[BassForever]

Also while it's not officially on the schedule, Harvest Moon 64 is almost assuredly "back on the menu" after we got the SNES title.

 

[Derachi]

New month, new laments. Place your bets! Excitebike 64, Mario Party 3, Pokemon Stadium 2, 1080° Snowboarding, or nothing again for N64 this month? Four more N64 games to come in the last six months of the year were scheduled for this year, and I can't say I'm optimistic they'll bother to do another NSO N64 roadmap a minute before 2024 (if at all).

Gonna use my NSO guessing powers to say

Excitebike 64, July 28th (July 27th 9 PM eastern)

Or maybe it’s Mario Party 3. One of those two.

I bet they’d save 1080 for closer to winter, and Pokémon is gonna be a popularity slam dunk so they’ll hold that one for a bit.

 

[Mandos]

Gonna use my NSO guessing powers to say

Excitebike 64, July 28th (July 27th 9 PM eastern)

Or maybe it’s Mario Party 3. One of those two.

I bet they’d save 1080 for closer to winter, and Pokémon is gonna be a popularity slam dunk so they’ll hold that one for a bit.

Never know, Nintendos weird, the remaining four could all be double releases

 

[Brofield]

Never know, Nintendos weird, the remaining four could all be double releases

The most Nintendo thing they could do is MP3/Excitebike double release this month, nothing for August, announce a roadmap in September, October is nothing, and the Pokemon Stadium 2/1080 double release in November. Japan gets GoldenEye in December, and the West gets Harvest Moon 64.

That's about the most non-sensical release schedule imaginable so it's probably par for Nintendo

 

[Josh5890]

Never know, Nintendos weird, the remaining four could all be double releases

I have a hard time seeing Nintendo go from two N64 updates in a seven month stretch to suddenly double releases for (mostly) unrelated games.

 

[Rooster]

To dumb it down: You will be able to transfer your Golden Sun save to Golden Sun: The Lost Age in a very painless way without bullshit passwords and stuff once those are out on NSO.

Thank fuck.

Those passwords were brutal.

Now just gotta wait the two more years before GS2 is available.

New month, new laments. Place your bets! Excitebike 64, Mario Party 3, Pokemon Stadium 2, 1080° Snowboarding, or nothing again for N64 this month? Four more N64 games to come in the last six months of the year were scheduled for this year, and I can't say I'm optimistic they'll bother to do another NSO N64 roadmap a minute before 2024 (if at all).

Assuming they all still to touch down this year (which may not happen), and given their very inconsistent clip (only two this year so far and we're halfway through), and the lower profile nature of the titles, Excitebike and 1080 releasing together wouldn't throw me.

And we did recently get GBA and Genesis, so probably 64 this month. July seems like a filler month too so maybe we get the Excitebike/1080 pair.

Smash Bros

Why the hell does this never show up on time

It has the attendance of a legally complicated Rare game.

I have a hard time seeing Nintendo go from two N64 updates in a seven month stretch to suddenly double releases for (mostly) unrelated games.

Well they have half a year to release four, possibly five titles.

So either they go from a two game release in a seven month stretch to almost one a month, or they double some of them up.

Either way is weird and inconsistent.

 

[Mandos]

I have a hard time seeing Nintendo go from two N64 updates in a seven month stretch to suddenly double releases for (mostly) unrelated games.

I mean depends on if they’re aiming before the Sept/Oct roadmap update. I leaned Pokémon stadium 2 and MP3 together cause they’re both sequels to existing games and party games.

Also with october being the NSO reup month, we could get both GBA and N64 that month. Heck while they haven’t overlapped yet it’s not impossible we could have them overlap on a quiet month

 

[Rooster]

I mean depends on if they’re aiming before the Sept/Oct roadmap update. I leaned Pokémon stadium 2 and MP3 together cause they’re both sequels to existing games and party games.

Also with october being the NSO reup month, we could get both GBA and N64 that month. Heck while they haven’t overlapped yet it’s not impossible we could have them overlap on a quiet month

Pokemon strikes me as the kind of thing that doesn't want to share its release.

But I could see Stadium 2 doubling up with the TCG game for GBC.

 

[Brofield]

Assuming they all still to touch down this year (which may not happen), and given their very inconsistent clip (only two this year so far and we're halfway through), and the lower profile nature of the titles, Excitebike and 1080 releasing together wouldn't throw me.

And we did recently get GBA and Genesis, so probably 64 this month. July seems like a filler month too so maybe we get the Excitebike/1080 pair.

I would be supremely disappointed if somehow they can't deliver four games in the span of six months that they promised almost a year ago. I can understand and sympathize with the complicated nature of N64 emulation, but this is not new tech. This has no need to be a six year development project like Zelda

Why the hell does this never show up on time

It has the attendance of a legally complicated Rare game.

But also THIS

FFS Smash is always what I look forward to most but how is it always this difficult to bring it out. If it's because of Ness' inclusion, why is Itoi the hold out to sign off with his consent? He's clearly not had issues with Ness in any other iteration of Smash.

 

[Josh5890]

I mean depends on if they’re aiming before the Sept/Oct roadmap update. I leaned Pokémon stadium 2 and MP3 together cause they’re both sequels to existing games and party games.

Also with october being the NSO reup month, we could get both GBA and N64 that month. Heck while they haven’t overlapped yet it’s not impossible we could have them overlap on a quiet month

I wouldn't be surprised if we don't get another roadmap this year for N64 games. At this point, I think that Nintendo is fine with running through the end of the year with the current map (4 games in 6 months seems normal), and maybe a surprise before the Spring direct in 2024. There is the looming situation with new hardware as well. Nintendo might be focusing more on getting everything moved over to the new system.

Regardless. I will not rest until we have Diddy Kong Racing playable on the NSO!

 

[Rooster]

I would be supremely disappointed if somehow they can't deliver four games in the span of six months that they promised almost a year ago. I can understand and sympathize with the complicated nature of N64 emulation, but this is not new tech. This has no need to be a six year development project like Zelda

I was basing it more on the rate of rollout so far vs. what's left and the remaining time, meaning the releases either have to drastically speed up, double up, or not all make 2023. I'm not sure if the holdup is/would be emulation-based or just Nintendo deliberately dragging it out to cover more time.

But also THIS

FFS Smash is always what I look forward to most but how is it always this difficult to bring it out. If it's because of Ness' inclusion, why is Itoi the hold out to sign off with his consent? He's clearly not had issues with Ness in any other iteration of Smash.

That's as good a guess as any, but we already have Mother 1 and 2 on NSO, and there's seemingly never been a problem getting Earthbound in Smash... so... I still don't get it.

I've seen it suggested that Nintendo just doesn't prioritize getting all the parties to sign off, but... it's only HAL, Game Freak/Creatures and Itoi...

 

[jnWake]

inb4 they do like GameBoy updates and release unnanounced games for N64 like Mischief Makers or Goemon instead of Mario Party 3 or Stadium 2.

...

Just let me dream please.

 

[MisterSpo]

I imagine Smash is held back, like Donkey Kong 64, because it means Nintendo have a couple of guaranteed high profile games as N64 enters year 3 of the rollout. It's difficult to see where they get many more releases from - Microsoft and Rare are the most obvious source of games out of the companies on N64 so far and without further support from them it's slim pickings. DK64 should be easy and would be Nintendo-published; I think Diddy Kong Racing and Banjo Tooie are the other potential Rare titles that make it over. Even if Nintendo got some support from Square, Konami and Capcom, the N64 support wouldn't really increase all that much. Mega Man 64 would be a good get, though, I'd love to see Mischief Makers and Mystical Ninja make the cut. Also difficult to see Castlevania 64 getting a re-release outside of NSO.

Including GBA, Nintendo have seven titles confirmed for international release across N64 and GBA - eight if Harvest Moon 64 is on the cards. Either way, a single game a month from that selection takes us up to a possible February Direct and a new roadmap for 2024.

 

[Josh5890]

Or..... Nintendo is going to announce a new roadmap with games from roadmap 2 left to be released!

 

[Rooster]

Mischief Makers

Doesn't Square partly own this game?

Just let me dream please.

I imagine Smash is held back, like Donkey Kong 64, because it means Nintendo have a couple of guaranteed high profile games as N64 enters year 3 of the rollout.

But why is it always Smash?

On Wii, the thing didn't show up until like four years into the VC

On Wii U, it just didn't show up

And it's still not available here

No other first-party 64 game of this caliber (that doesn't involve Rare) has been so regularly not present on the back catalogue services

 

[Derachi]

hey let me throw out a monumentally bonkers idea
will this happen? almost certainly not but let me play for a min

OK so it’s September. Direct Time.

Koizumi comes out and is like

“As you may already know, we’ve been making games originally released for the Game Boy Advance system available to subscribers of Nintendo Switch Online plus Expansion Pack. The Game Boy Advance was home to many classic games, so we’re proud to be able to allow players to play these games on the Nintendo Switch system. However, there’s one Game Boy Advance game that many people wanted to play, but was never released outside of Japan. Please, take a look.” [motions towards camera] [screen goes black]

title card fades up saying “Earthbound 2”
pause for applause. Koizumi voice over

”Earthbound 2, released in Japan as Mother 3, is the long-awaited sequel to Earthbound for Super NES. Originally released on Game Boy Advance, only in Japan, in 2006, this game stars Lucas, who you might know from the Super Smash Bros. series. Earthbound fans all over the world have wanted to play this game for a long time, so we hope it’s worth the wait.

Earthbound 2 started development in the 1990’s for the Nintendo 64. While this version of the game was never completed, we did have a playable demo at our 1999 Space World trade show. As a gift to Earthbound fans all over the world, to thank them for their continued support and patience, we’ve decided to allow Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers who complete Earthbound 2 on Game Boy Advance Nintendo Switch Online to play this demo using Nintendo 64 Nintendo Switch Online. The game’s text will be entirely in Japanese, but we believe fans will still enjoy seeing this small part of this version of the game.

And now, some more Nintendo Switch headlines.” (snap)

 

[MisterSpo]

I wonder if Nintendo-published titles from third parties have a higher shot at coming to NSO N64. I think we can rule out the licensed sports titles as well as the licenses Disney own (Mickey's Speedway and several Star Wars titles). But if other third party titles which Nintendo published in some regions came, the potential list becomes much more interesting because the following would be in play:

• Mischief Makers and Ogre Battle 64 (Square Enix should be the rights holders and so far aren't on board with NSO...)
• Tetrisphere and The New Tetris (we have Tetris on GB NSO, but that one kinda feels essential to the system)
• Starcraft 64 (this, funnily enough, could be another Microsoft license depending how things go: difficult to see this port getting re-release any other way)
• Bomberman 64 and Bomberman Hero (this is presumably Konami these days?)
• 3 Cruis'n games (not sure on the exact status of this one but Nintendo presumably still have some licensing rights?)
• Rare's games (I think at least some of these are in play)
• Command & Conquer (EA, so no)

Doesn't Square partly own this game?

But why is it always Smash?

On Wii, the thing didn't show up until like four years into the VC

On Wii U, it just didn't show up

And it's still not available here

No other first-party 64 game of this caliber (that doesn't involve Rare) has been so regularly not present on the back catalogue services

I don't think it's unusual that, less than 2 years into N64 games on Switch, at least something high profile from Nintendo isn't there yet.

If we get to like, summer 2024 or later and Smash isn't there then yes, something is off. But it not being there in the first two years isn't all that crazy given Nintendo's options for the service are fairly limited.

 

[Derachi]

Starcraft 64 (this, funnily enough, could be another Microsoft license depending how things go: difficult to see this port getting re-release any other way)

Oh my GOD this would rule online