After an agonising three months, Nintendo have finally updated their classic game offerings for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers, with six new titles shared across both the NES and SNES apps due to launch on December 12th. And it's about time as I was bloody sick of playing through Joe & Mac 2 over and over again.
First, and most curiously, we've got Star Fox 2, the until recently unreleased SNES sequel to the astral vulpine's classic flat-shaded polygonal adventure. If you are a retrogaming fan (and if you're not, ), you may recognise this one as the Special Attraction upon the back of which the SNES Classic Mini was sold. There is now no reason to buy one of those miniature consoles except to hack it and put Aero the Acro-bat on there, which I cannot condone as it is a CRIME.
Next, it's Capcom's JRPG sequel, Breath of Fire II! But no original Breath of Fire to give any kind of story context, so you will no doubt be absolutely lost.* I'm quite unfamiliar with Breath of Fire II but I understand it's a relatively fondly-remembered 16-bit grind-'em-up.
The thankfully Tysonless Super Punch Out!! is also coming, so you can relive your disappointment at the fact it's not nearly as good as the NES game. Unless you think this one is actually better, somehow, which would be impossible and entirely mad, as far as I'm concerned.
Bringing up the rear on the ol' Super NES is the most terrific Kirby Super Star, the game that is a bunch of games that are secretly actually one game, kind of. It's possibly the most acclaimed of the pink puffball's praise-proffered platformers, with an enormous amount of variety and plenty of great content.
Over on NES, we've got SNK's cult hit RPG Crystalis, previously available on Switch as part of the seminal SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, which you of course already own... right?
And finally, there's Journey to Silius, Sunsoft's rather interesting Terminator tie-in that got refitted when they lost that movie license. Rather good and rather hard, only really Silius gamers will finish this! (You've got to be joking. - Ed)
So, hooray! Classic games on Switch aren't dead! Maybe we'll get the original Joe & Mac to go with that sequel now that we've all beaten it several times over.
*I have been informed by reader @Sebbyblogs that the original Breath of Fire is, in fact, available on Nintendo Switch Online. I even booted my Switch up and ran the app to double-check this. I think this shows how little I care about RPGs - I see right through them.