The Problem Nobody Wants To Admit About Nintendo

Looking Back, Over My Shoulder...

Although we buy new consoles for new games, there is currently a very deliberate and concerted focus on legacy titles, and both Sony and Microsoft are seeking to shine a bright light on their back-catalogues to augment their efforts to push gaming inexorably forward into the next generation.

Xbox Series X/S' backwards-compatibility credentials are impressive, most impressive, and PS5 is no slouch in this department, either. The ability of these new systems to both upscale and double the frame rates of these decades-old titles cannot be overstated, and gamers have been given a tangible incentive to dust off their old games and experience them all over again.

Aside from revitalising physical titles, however, services like PSN and Xbox Game Pass are potential system-sellers in and of themselves. The ability to play practically any game from Sony and Microsoft's back catalogues for a nominal monthly fee, not to mention being gifted free games every month, is not only ground-breaking but indicative of the direction of travel for gaming in the years to come.

Nintendo's equivalent service on Switch, however, is paltry to say the least.

Whilst it is true that the monthly cost of the Switch Online service is but a fraction of Sony and Microsoft's models, you very definitely get what you pay for here.

The current status of the Nintendo online service on Switch sees players given access to the NES and SNES apps, in which they are able to play a selection - and that's the key word here - of classic titles.

The games themselves are hand-picked and spoon-fed to us by Nintendo, and the infrequent nature of the releases is matched only by the questionable quality of the titles themselves. When gamers are starving and are thrown nought but scraps from their masters' table, it leaves a sour taste indeed.

And the huge, bafflingly-obvious irony in all of this? If any one of the big three should have a monopoly on classic, legacy titles, it's Nintendo.

And that's the thing; Nintendo - more than anybody else - should have the best of both worlds. A Nintendo system in 2020/2021 and beyond should not only be the place play the new Zelda and Mario, but should also allow gamers to swim in the deep waters of Nintendo's colossal back-catalogue at their leisure, and gamers would undoubtedly be happy to pay a few extra Rupees per month for the privilege.

A Game Pass-type service on a Nintendo console should be a no-brainer, but Nintendo just don't seem to think this way.