Every few months, Nintendo releases new games for the ever-growing NES and SNES libraries available to those who haveNintendo Switch Onlinesubscriptions. The developer announced five new games being added on December 18 through Twitter today, with the most notable title beingDonkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Troublefor the SNES. Players will have access to the Rare’s entire trilogy of platformers as a result, followingDonkey Kong Countryfirst being added in July 2020.
Three other games from the SNES will be available alongsideDonkey Kong Country 3. Of those, two come from Japanese developer Jaleco:The Ignition Factor, a top-down firefighting simulation/action game; andTuff E Nuff, a fighting game. The fourth SNES title coming toNintendo Switch OnlineisSuper Valis 4, an action-platformer developed and published by Telenet Japan.
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The only NES game included in the bundle is 1992’sNightshade, a noir detective-themed point-and-click adventure game developed by Beam Software and published by Piko Interactive.Nightshadeis one of many titles published by Piko Interactive for theNES or SNES that is currently available on Steam. However, the title costs $5 on Valve’s digital storefront, whereas Nintendo Switch users will be able to access it and dozens more classic games for the cost of a monthly subscription.
ThoughDonkey Kong Country 3is clearly the stand-out title of the bunch given Rare’s pedigree, and considering the developer is still active as anXbox Game Studio working on titles likeSea of Thieves, the others will likely be worth trying for those who missed the NES/SNES era. Jaleco titles in particular are interesting given the developer ceased operations in 2006, according to Gematsu, with its catalog of IPs made available to license through owner City Connection just this year.
Many Nintendo fans feel the Switch Online service is too stingy, only releasing its back catalog of games in small amounts every few months, especially as titles on the NES, SNES, and other platforms were readily available through the Virtual Console on systems like the Wii and Wii U. A recent leak suggestsNintendo Switch Online will add Game Boy Advance titlessoon, and if this is true it should be a huge boon to the service.
In the meantime, titles likeDonkey Kong Country 3should give players something to occupy their time between major new game releases. Nintendo recently made it easier to accessNintendo Switch Onlinefrom the console’s home screen, though manyusers were not thrilled about the Switch Online buttonstanding out from the rest of its interface.
