Last year, people went nuts trying to find Nintendo’s NES and SNES Classic consoles, but it looks like the games those nostalgia-machines offered will soon be available right on your Switch. Data miners claim to have discovered a list of 22 SNES titles and possibly two mystery emulators in the code for Nintendo Switch Online.
The launch of the Switch’s online service has been met with overwhelming disappointment. Even though Nintendo’s subscription service is relatively inexpensive at just $20 per year, the Switch isn’t really filled with that many online multiplayer games and players are experiencing performance issues with blockbuster titles like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The bonus offering of old school NES games hasn’t been enough to make people feel like they’re getting enough. That could change soon.
Over the weekend, data miner and modding enthusiast KapuccinoHeck tweeted that they were recently perusing the online service’s code and discovered a list of 22 SNES games. KapuccinoHeck also tweeted the actual file for anyone interested. Other users confirmed the presence of the list and pointed out that the games include descriptions in English and Japanese, further fuelling speculation that they could arrive imminently. Here’s the full list of titles:
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Super Mario Kart
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Super Soccer
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Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past
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Demon’s Crest
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Yoshi’s Island
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Stunt Race FX
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Kirby’s Dream Course
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Pop’n Twinbee
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Star Fox
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Contra 3
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Kirby Super Star
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Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts
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Kirby’s Dream Land 3
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Super Metroid
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Super Mario World
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Pilotwings
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F-ZERO
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Star Fox 2 (lol)
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Super Punch-Out!!
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The Legend of the Mystical Ninja
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Super Mario All-Stars
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Breath of Fire 2
The list of games is very close to what was included on the SNES Classic, which retails for $US79.99 ($111). But what may be even more exciting is that Twitter user OatmealDome jumped in to do a little more scraping and claimed they found four emulator types, however it’s unclear what two of them do. The code names for the emulators are:
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Kachikachi (NES Classic)
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Canoe (SNES Classic)
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Hiyoko (???)
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Count (???)
Could we be getting N64 or GameBoy emulators? Maybe. One person pointed out that the “Count” category of emulators could just be a string intended to keep track of the number of emulators present and it’s possible only one additional emulator exists.
Nintendo did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for confirmation, but the data miners have a good track record of making discoveries. KapuccinoHeck figured out how to hack the online NES library the day after it was released. OatmealDome helped out with that one and regularly makes discoveries in the code for Splatoon 2.
Yes, Nintendo tends to be overly stingy with its older games but it’s not unreasonable to think there could an incoming flood of titles as the company tries to appease disgruntled users and subscription services become more important to tech giants. And competition for game subscription and streaming dollars is getting more fierce. Sony, Microsoft, Amazon, Electronic Arts, Google, Nvidia, and Verizon are all reportedly working on some type of gaming service.
Just last week, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa told Nikkei that in the long-term Nintendo’s “focus as a business could shift away from home consoles.” Thinking outside of the box is key to Nintendo’s future.
[VG24/7]