Nintendo Switch Online is fast approaching its third anniversary, and truly, there’s nothing more fitting for the House of Mario to celebrate with than to give their fans part of what they want.
If a new rumor is true — and we wouldn’t be reporting on it if there wasn’t enough smoke for a probable fire — Nintendo Switch Online will soon open an ever-expanding library of titles from their most vintage handheld devices. The Game Boy was released back in 1989, which I was admittedly alive for but too young to jam on for several more years. This was just as well given the system’s staying power; new iterations eventually sprang to life in the forms of the Game Boy Pocket and eventually the revolutionary Game Boy Color.
The good folks at Eurogamer confirmed the alleged NSO Game Boy additions with their own sources, following a lead from Nintendo Life which was, in turn, based upon a podcast episode from known industry insider Nate the Hate. That’s a lot of proper nouns. And now you’re here reading up on the potential revelation at Zelda Universe! Truly, this is a modern riff on Chinese whispers.
Whether or not Nintendo Switch Online is worth the $20 per year has been a matter of some debate among scholars (read: gamers) pretty much since the day it launched, but with 80+ NES titles and over half as many SNES picks, you’re bound to find something in there worth a play and/or replay.
Of course, the more the merrier, so we’re stoked to see this come to pass. Perhaps it will be announced at an upcoming Nintendo Direct? No word on that front just yet, but with Sony taking the proverbial stage next week with its upcoming PlayStation Showcase, maybe the Big N wants to hold off a bit longer before dropping the news.
The Game Boy family of portables is the original home for not just the classic version of Link’s Awakening, but both Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages as well. I’d love to see that underappreciated pair of adventures remade someday, but barring that, I hope we’ll soon be able to revisit Holodrum and Labrynna from the comfort of our living rooms, beds, trains, grocery store parking lots — you know, wherever we get our Switch on.
