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Nintendo Switch Online - TV Tropes

  • ️Sat May 25 2024

Platform / Nintendo Switch Online

Nintendo Switch Online is Nintendo's online multiplayer gaming subscription service for Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch 2. It is the third online service Nintendo has made for their platforms, succeeding Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection (Nintendo DS and Wii) and Nintendo Network (Nintendo 3DS and Wii U). It also doubles as a successor to the Virtual Console, offering access to a library of classic games as part of the subscription rather than as individual purchases.

Unlike its predecessors, which offered online play at no extra cost, Nintendo Switch Online is a paid online service in the vein of Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. Notably, the service did not launch with the Nintendo Switch. Announced in the January 2017 Nintendo Switch Presentation event, NSO was originally planned to launch in December 2017, but was later delayed to September 2018 in order to improve the underlying infrastructure and firmly establish the planned benefits; as such, all online multiplayer was free for Switch users for the first 18 months of the system's life.

For US$20 a year (or US$35 for up to eight users via family membership), subscribers gain access to online play, cloud saves, exclusive games and avatars, time-limited free trials for games, a downloadable library of classic games playable via emulation, and access to exclusive items on Nintendo's online store (mostly wireless Bluetooth reproduction controllers for the retro consoles available on NSO). At launch, the service only offered NES titles, with SNES titles being added in September 2019. A higher paid tier known as the "Expansion Pack" was introduced in October 2021 where, for $50 a year ($80 for a family plan), users get additional access to Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis games, as well as the paid DLC of select games for no extra charge. In February 2023, Game Boy and Game Boy Color titles were made available to all subscribers as part of the base tier, while Game Boy Advance titles were made exclusive to the "Expansion Pack" tier. As of October 2024, there are currently 300+ games available across all six console apps.

Due to how ratings boards give age ratings for applications as a whole based on the most explicit piece of content (which, in this case, has the side effect of rating the software catalogues with a higher-tier label that doesn't match the original ratings for the less explicit games included), the Nintendo 64 has a separate "Mature" app for ESRB M and CERO Z titles, so parental controls don't prevent children from playing games tailored for all-ages due to the presence of M-rated software. All remaining console apps, with the exception of the Game Boy Advance one, are rated T in North America and its equivalents in other regions.

In October 30th, 2024, Nintendo released a music streaming app that can be installed in smartphone devices, and is available for all active NSO subscribers. Called Nintendo Music, it features a curated selection of music themes from several franchises and properties from the company, with the options to download songs for offline play as well as filter songs to prevent spoilers.

Despite its low entry fee compared to its competitors, NSO has been heavily criticized on a number of fronts. To prevent cheating in multiplayer modes, a number of notable games (such as Animal Crossing and Pokémon) have cloud saving completely disabled. Social features such as messaging are completely absent, while others like voice chat are relegated to the phone app and limited to people on your friends list. The NSO legacy games service gained some initial criticism for marking the third time that Nintendo rebooted their retro library offerings from scratch, and the service's Nintendo 64 emulation remains a sticking point both quality-wise due to performance issues with framerate and/or visual effects in certain games, and also in regards of button-mapping for games that relied very closely on the unique control scheme of the N64's controllers. In addition, upon the confirmation of the first removal from the legacy service as of March 2025 (Super Soccer for the SNES app), concerns about the long-term benefits of the subscription were raised.

However, the biggest complaint is the lag and disconnections that can plague online play; while this is actually a hardware/software issue rather than an online infrastructure problemnote , it nevertheless prompts players to wonder what exactly they're paying for if the titular selling point of Nintendo Switch Online — the online — is little better than the free online services of past Nintendo consoles.

Despite these criticisms, Nintendo Switch Online is still a major part of the console experience; as of September 2024, over 34 million Switch owners are subscribed to the service.

Games available on Nintendo Switch Online

Base Subscription - Original Titles

Base Subscription - Classic Titles

NES/Famicom 

NOTE: Games with an asterisk (*) also have a "Special" version which start you near the end of the game, usually with the best equipment. A double asterisk (**) denotes games that have two separate "Special" versions.

SNES/Super Famicom 

NOTE: Games with an asterisk (*) also have a "Special" version which start you near the end of the game, usually with the best equipment.

Game Boy and Game Boy Color 

Expansion Pack - Downloadable Content

Expansion Pack - Classic Titles

Nintendo 64 

NOTE: Games with an asterisk (*) are available via the "Mature" app. A double asterisk (**) denotes games that are on the regular app internationally, but are on the Japanese and Chinese "Mature" app.

Sega Genesis/Mega Drive 

Game Boy Advance 

Soundtracks available on Nintendo Music

List of soundtracks