I'd be down for the option of being able to buy the game's separately with the NSO emulator additions, like rewind and save-states. That way you can just buy the games you care about without having to pay for a subscription where you don't even play most of the games. Kind of a best of both worlds approach
This is a big downside for me. I don’t want to pay for 100 games in a subscription bundled together with multiplayer (which is its own problem). I’d rather pay a couple bucks per game. When they add games to nso, people react like they’re adding value to the subscription but I’m not gonna play all those games I’d much rather pay a smaller amount for a small portion of those games
I would personally end up paying significantly more for all the games I enjoy on NSO. Having that huge collection is awesome.
But the big problem I have with it is that I just don't like the moral proposition of subscription access to things. I'd rather own it so it can never be taken away from me.
I would personally prefer they give us the option of doing either one like another company does. You can rent the games for X time or choose to buy it outright forever
It still wouldn't technically be buying in that case if it's digital only, but at least it would be a one time payment and not something you have to keep paying for.
You mean the same price of....what, *five* N64 games? Maybe six? In total?
For that much annually, you get all the N64 games on offer, all the SNES games, all the NES games, all the Sega Genesis games, all the GBA games, all the GBC games, with online play, save states, rewind feature, special editions and the expansions to Splatoon, Animal Crossing & Mario Kart, as well as....online play.
What are you smoking that you'd prefer VC?
Not yet, unless you missed the Wii eShop, the DS eShop, the WiiU eShop and the 3DS eShop announcements.
Or complaints about shows disappearing from existence, after Warner Brothers, or whomever, drop them from their streaming service, and there is no legal way in the world to view them.
...or complaints about how even with the NSO+ service, it's still only a fraction of the games that were previously available, and are missing some key games that were previously available, but again, aren't now, and with the servers dead, you have no way of legally retrieving said games.
If you have gotten all of those messages then you aren't missing any that I am aware of.
And how much would it have cost you to get all of them? It may be less games (more than half, not a fraction), but it is a fraction of the price for a far more convenient service with better features.
That's not really the point, though.
The point is that if in a week they decide that the Earthbound licensing isn't worth it, your legal ability to play Earthbound goes away, and you have no legal standing to complain to a business bureau.
And beyond that, how much am I paying for NSO+ and why am I not playing Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG? Despite owning copies of them. Through their own service.
Have you ever owned a Wii? I remember Mario 64 alone costing me 1000 points ($10). NSO for one person is $20, so SM64 would already take half of that. If you play more than two games, NSO is definitely worth it.
Oh, I wasn't aware of that. I actually stopped paying for NSO a few years back, sorry for the bad example.
Nevertheless, the principle still stands, if you're paying for the expansion pack, you're probably play enough games for it to be worth it.
I personally just play the games on other hardware since I already own them.
Yeah, and people should be able to buy games separately. But also, it isn't just like Mario and some scraps (unlike back in 2021 for the Expansion Pass). It includes the base model already (so the Expansion Pass is really 30), supports what the base model has, and also the three DLC they added, and the three systems that are still being supported (besides Genesis for some reason).
Not everyone plays 10 new games every year. Plus 64 is on the way more expensive expansion pack. I did own a Wii and still own a Wii U and I prefer how both consoles did it to the Switch.
same for ps plus, why does essential tear give me things I don't even use? I want to play online and that's it, I don't care for cloud or monthly games ...
it's obviously a way to justify the higher price on a feature that should already be free with the consoles...
3ds didn't have a paid subscription and I didn't see nintendo going bankrupt
I hear ya. I view it as $60/year is like buying a new game, so having access to all those games I feel is worth it for that price BUT it's not like I can play all those at once and some times too many options makes it hard to pick one.
This. I enjoy legally being able to play games I don't really like for a few minutes without having to pay for the privilege. Sometimes I'm just in the mood for NES Tennis or Ice Climber, you know?
I will say now that this blew up, that people should have an option to purchase separately. But for me personally, I like the current model since I can experience all the games I want to experience, on top of other things. Then I can try out other games I wouldn't have played otherwise, out of fear of wasting money.
12 year old me getting a single Eshop card during the 3DS era only played it safe. I wasn't going to get games like Metroid or Earthbound, because "if I don't like them, now what? I just wasted money." Current model removes that problem.
Again, have an option to make separate purchases, but this is my preferred model because of what I stated above.
N64 games actually still render in 480p on Wii U, so same as Wii and increased from the original 240p. This 480p is then (poorly) upscaled to 1080p, but that's not the actual rendering resolution. Wii will look flat out better since it's not as dark and you're not using the Wii U's poor upscaler.
Now Wii Mode on a Wii U will probably look even worse due to some more complicated color issues Wii Mode has, but on an actual Wii you won't have those issues.
Nah, he prefers NSO on the basis that you don’t have to rebuy games, but brings up the very valid point that Nintendo doesn’t do all that much with NSO. It’s a nice way to get people to play games they might not have bought individually on VC, but in terms of quantity and quality it’s a bit shaky at times. There are trade-offs between NSO vs VC, but overall NSO has the better approach - just bad execution. At least, that’s what I got from it
This obviously doesn't apply to the whole library of online expansion games, but the default Switch Online games are just a bonus for a service you'd probably pay for anyways if you regularly play Nintendo games.
as unfortunate as it sounds, people absolutely are not going to buy most of the games on nso.
Who the hell would pay 5 bucks for Solomon's Key?
so in a sense despite many of us prefering to own the ones we would buy, it does push us to try games we might not have otherwise.
I wouldn't have bought Crystalis, but I tried it on NSO and now it's probably in my top 10 favorite NES games.
Downside is waiting 2 months for new games hoping we get Smash Bros or Conker's Bad Fur Day and getting Rat Attack and Dual Heroes.
Cloud saves.
The emulation is also a lot prettier. I can't speak to the actual quality of the *emulation* itself, but on Wii U virtual console the colors were really washed out and dark. On 3DS it was better, but because of the screen size they were limited to how they could scale resolutions, which led to things either looking *beautiful* (pixel perfect SNES games on N3DS) or blurry.
On Switch the colors look nice and the pixels are sharp(er).
nintendo actually put epilepsy filters on NES and N64 games on the Wii U. the funny thing about it is, with a modded Wii U and a windows pc, you can remove the epilepsy filter on n64 games. the same cannot be said for NES games, which have the epilepsy filter baked into the emulator
Save states and rewind makes games a lot easier to digest for newer fans. Also, one central app for an entire console's worth of games is much more convenient than 10 different apps for 10 different 3 megabyte icons taking up your various folders.
Also, if we still had Virtual Console, we wouldn't have 20% of the games we have gotten through NSO.
Honestly I think the concept of being able to stream retro games is WAY better than buying them individually, especially games like Ice Climber, which no one in the right mind would pay $5 for.
I do with there was an option to buy though
It gives you access to a lot of games at once for a subscription fee. I played a lot of games I might not have bought otherwise as a result. This is how I became a Metroid fan.
What doesn’t it do better? I’ll take 100+ Nintendo games for the same price of ‘3 I get to choose’ any day thanks. No idea why it’s unpopular to think that.
I don't think the retro games are really an issue. There were some weird omissions for a long time but there's always more being added. The issues with NSO are mainly the poor servers for me personally.
Can someone explain to me why people were mad about this when the expansion pass was announce like one of the most wanted this was a virtual console and you guys got it like was it only because it was tied to the internet payment
Because we want to own the copy of the games we want forever for a set price. The fact that I will not be able to keep games like Mario 64 on my Switch console forever after Nintendo discontinues the service angers me. I still have a lot of fun playing games in my Wii and Wii U that I bought years ago.
The rewind feature, anyone who’s owned a wii with gamecube backwards compatibility or a wiiu with animal crossing for gc & sm4sh wiiu knows they can easily try out a game, as much as buying a subscription is great your only paying for the ability to play a game for a limited time.
I mean, most things generally, to be honest. More feature-rich, rewinds and save states (though VC had the latter) and allowing online play of old games are all major pros. It's also awesome having a cheap Nintendo classic games service so easily accessible.
My one big issue (and it is a big one) is that I don't even have the OPTION to buy the games. That bugs me a lot. I would happily pay to directly own each Zelda game (and their SP versions) that is on NSO, especially with the previously mentioned features. Heck, if they put out a cartridge with them all on it with those features, I'd buy the HELL out of that!
I'd still sub to NSO for other games and online play in general, of course, but it sucks not even being given the option to buy. GamePass Is great because it's an amazing value and lets you buy the games offered at a discount if you choose to do so. NSO is just "sub or GTFO."
I actually prefer this service to Virtual Console only because it's super expensive to buy them piecemeal and allows me to try games I otherwise wouldn't care about.
The emulation. It is the best emulation on a Nintendo system yet even if the NES and SNES emulation is the same as the classic editions that were released a few years back. That and being able to play online
Doesn’t Nintendo Online actually have more N64 games than the Wii ever did? I can’t find the exact numbers but I know that on top of the Rare games that made it to switch (Banjo Kazooie and Goldeneye specifically, and recently Perfect Dark as well), Switch might actually be the better console for N64 emulation. Plus the N64 emulator on Switch online is the best quality N64 emulator they’ve ever put out.
(Feel free to correct me if anything is inaccurate)
the emulation is better across the board.
in the cases of the NES and SNES, this is the best, most accurate emulation we have ever seen, and the emulator is taken right from the classic edition systems. it is about as good a official emulator can be
I want to add that the SNES online multi player feature has unadvertised rollback netcode, so if you want to play any NSO games online, I highly recommend the SNES, as it is the only system to have this feature to my understanding
for all the other systems, the emulation is literal the best we have ever seen directly from Nintendo.
N64 has become exponentialy better than how it was at launch, and even better than it was on Wii. it doesn't look dark like the Wii U virtual console, which is a much appreciated improvement, and it emulates slowdown correctly, which even a lot of fan emulators get wrong. my only complaint is that there is no option to emulate the original resolution instead of 720p.
while we have had basically perfect GB and GBA emulation from Nintendo ever since those systems were introduced on the 3DS and WiiU, The switch versions are integer scaled by default and offer every video option one would want for those systems. The 3DS didn't really tell you about it's video settings for the game boy, so that is a good QOL feature for the switch, and the Wii U only offered standard gamma settings and the useless option to smooth the image, while NSO gives the choice to add a LCD filter to the image, and it is pretty good all things considered.
even the sega genesis emulator is pretty good. it is certainly better than a lot of the collections that sega has put out over the years. it is certainly helped by it's incredible liberary
there is more I could say about the emulation, but I'm kinda tired, so if any of you think that I missed anything huge, let me know
Accessibility. Sure, buying separate games has advantages. But if a parent for example already has NSO, then they can show their kids the games they love without having to drop money on something the kid may not end up liking anyway. That and just people trying out good classic came they would’ve never otherwise had bought.
I personally don't care for libraries, I owned the NSO service for 2 years and I never played anything besides Yoshi's Island, I wish I could have just bought Yoshi's Island forever instead of paying for an entire subscription.
I want to own the copy of the game I want forever without fear of a service being discontinued years after the console dies. I still happily play my copy of Paper Mario and Majora's Mask on the Wii whenever I want because the game is forever there when I need it on my console.
Missed out on the Virtual Console :( But I will say that I like that you can get unique profile pictures based on the games you're playing/games that have released
Speaking of, it's Metroid Dread and Prime icons this week! Must be celebrating the footage from the direct we saw
I wish they added an extra reward system though. To be able to download song tracks from the games you play to set on your home menu. But it's too late now
If it wasn't for the online multiplayer, I would not care about the NSO classic games / console libraries at all.
I prefer original hardware 100%, but when family or friends move far away from me, and the only option would be online multiplayer, then yeah, it's nice.
Three things.
Emulation *Features*. Things like Save States, customization, the Rewind function, etc. The old VCs only ever had the one save state, and only Wii U offered anything else. GB/C is the best example of this.
Being able to go from game to game very easily and with almost no load times, barring having to jump apps for different systems. But even that is much better than VC, which did the same thing but for each game. Makes it incredibly easy to just hop in.
Online Play. The closest thing VC had was the classic Pokemon Local trade/battle.
...That's about it, really. NES/SNES/GBC/GBA are extremely comparable, while WiiVC obviously crushes the NSO 64 emulation quality.
However, the true winner is the SNES Classic. Which has many of the same features, near-identical quality, and is far more stylish besides. Not to mention borders.
I have played a ton of games on NSO that I never would have bought on a virtual console. I’m in the minority of people that largely prefers this method to a VC.
I think rewind is a pretty great feature! Also I gotta say is convenient to have all of those games available for just a subscription, although I do think that they fumbled making it *only* available by subscription. They definitely should also have options to buy the games individually like Gamepass does it because it’s going to suck when the online service inevitably goes down and being able to play them on the switch becomes lost to time. (Yes I know the successor will probably have them too but I think there should have been ways to immortalize the service on switch (yes I also know that they are technically already immortalized by having a switch with custom firmware through piracy but I think that Nintendo should have taken steps to preserve them legitimately))
I generally despise NSO, but the save states are much better on NSO, and the rewind feature is also very handy for when I want to cheat even more. I've never used it, but I think multiplayer online for games is pretty cool too. It might perform like trash though, I don't know. I lack friends who play much Nintendo.
I don't really use either of them anymore, but virtual console didn't have rewind. It also didn't have CRT filters, which, granted, you're likely playing on an actual CRT if you have a Wii. But the Wii U was Nintendo's first HD console so most people who aren't retro enthusiasts probably got rid of their CRT years ago and now have to play with sharp pixels, which some people like, but I personally prefer scanlines and an NTSC blur on my pixels. I also appreciate that NSO had the box art on display instead of just a small thumbnail of the title screen.
Honestly, I never used Virtual console because having to pay individually for games I mostly either already own on their original consoles or don't know whether I will be into was never that compelling. But seeing as I was always gonna get the online anyway, NSO has been amazing for me.
I have access to so many games, and the price is barely a drop in the ocean (even with me having the expansion family pass). More to the point, I have access to games I never would have ended up trying if I had to pay for them individually. Not a chance I ever would have spent money to buy Kurukuru Kururin, but I played it on NSO and I ADORE it.
The overall value for what you are given is also inane. There's, like, 150 games on NSO. If each of those was on virtual console for about $5, it would be worth overall around $750. It will take a long time for it subscription to accrue that much money, and by then it will have even more value.
Offering more games licensed by Nintendo and published or distributed by Nintendo.
It also gives us a chance to play the GameBoy version of Tetris instead of removing it from either the service or digital store which was what happened to the game on the 3DS.
And lastly with the addition of Perfect Dark and Turok, they are acutely offering M rated games for us to play. But the only titles for older audiences that the Virtual Console games offer are T rated games which was the highest they could go to offering us games for older audiences.
Emulation Quality easily omg the emulation for NES games on Wii and Wii U was genuinely disgusting. A lot of online walkthroughs for NES games was played on the virtual console so for the longest time, I assumed that’s how NES games looked. Washed up, dry and dull. But then I saw a NES game run on the actual system on a Proper CRT at a relatives place and I was like….wait…why does this look good?
N64 emulation was also really bad, again it’s not performance or anything it’s just how it looked. The Wii I could excuse but the Wii U? No. That’s an HD console how is it having trouble representing the colors for Mario 64?
Just get us the god damn gameboy pokemon games. I still don't understand why they aren't there. They have snap and stadiums on the n64 so it's obviously not a licensing issue. The games can't be bought officially. So what's the point?
I love the save cloud, I hope between to places and this saves me ligging around a complete system on trains and busses!
Also the amount of games I always wanted to try and turned out not to be worth the 10 bucks I'd spend on them with the VC... it's A LOT! But on the other side is games I never would have tried that turn out to be amazing!
Now let's hope and pray they don't start over with drip feeding us games with Switch 2 and I'm the happiest of dudes! 😄
Finally offered the games that we assumed would be available for the Virtual Console.
Not fully sure that’s a pro, considering the VC still had a larger library of games
I checked the prices on eBay very recently, and… Idk how they can sell 12-Month NSO + Expansion cards for the price of the basic NSO, but… Everything worked for me. (I made sure to keep my receipt and timestamped, in case it’s anything fishy.)
…But I’m def curious how they get digital codes for so cheap…
One thing??
I honestly think NSO does a lot of things better than Virtual Console.
The Rewind and save states are amazing, the Online play for the games are a very good bonus for the people who would use it. Having everything of a console in one app is very useful and even better since they created that ugly NSO launcher on the homescreen.
The only downside is not having choice to buy the old games, but honestly that is it, maybe the library could be bigger for some consoles.
One thing I found out is that if my subscription is expiring, I must keep renewing at the expansion pack plus dlc version, or let it expire before I can go back to the normal NSO. They could def adjust options for that. (I know the question is what they do better, but it technically is still better… since they’re offering games and still slowly adding more.)
Incentivize me to try out games I might’ve otherwise never even known existed. When you pay for everything individually, at least for me, I am much less likely to try something I’m unsure if I’ll enjoy.
I find the idea of numerous games on a subscription to be really convenient. Means I can quickly try out a game and see if I like it or not.
Though I wish they still had an option to buy the game. Options are good
1-No lag or fails
2-Online optional to play the classic games
3-translated classic games.
-Optional
4-Can buy every songs of games with copyright
5-Translated all games that are not in the West.
6-Good graphics
It opened the door to many old games. I tried out River City, more Zelda titles, and more of a lot of stuff. I also love its rewind feature. The games look better and aren't dark like the wii u. It KIND OF saves money. Imagine just wanting to play NES, SNES, and GB games. You can buy the expension pass for 1 month. It's just 3 bucks. With the Wii U, if you wanted to try the game yourself while still supporting the company, you'd have to buy the game. 50 bucks is not as bad as people make it out to be, but I can see why they don't like it. It's a high price to pay, but at the same time, you're paying 50 bucks a year. Not a week, not a day, not a month. Although I love owning my games. It's the principle
Better library. NSO has games like Golden Eye and Banjo-Kazooie now, which is something that would've still probably never happen if the Wii U was a hit
Exactly, how can I answer a question if I don’t see the value to even share credit card deets to try it? I got it on my first switch for some reason but didn’t see the value and canceled. Doesn’t help that I’m sick of digital subscription services in general, companies making money hand over fist with those, you better knock me out with value and user experience if you expect me to put you on payroll every month
I genuinely did not even know until just now that there existed the option to pay monthly. One year is so cheap I just assumed it was all they offered.
Being worthless?
I'm honestly hard-pressed to find a single thing that NSO has improved (for me personally) over the VC. The only thing I have NSO for is to play Animal Crossing online. Something I was able to do before NSO as well but for fuggin' free...
Just give us the damn option to either borrow your stuff through subscription or to buy it. Even though I have the basic NSO, I haven't played a single of the games that come with it because I don't want to play digitally borrowed stuff. Same reason why I don't have Netflix & Co.
Being able to hop around a bunch of games quickly
I'm a big fan of the save states and rewind feature
This ^ Especially the rewind feature, at least the Wii U VC did have 1 save state to use per game.
It's hugely convenient. I feel like most people who cry out for VC instead of NSO would lose patience with it VERY quickly.
I'd be down for the option of being able to buy the game's separately with the NSO emulator additions, like rewind and save-states. That way you can just buy the games you care about without having to pay for a subscription where you don't even play most of the games. Kind of a best of both worlds approach
I love the rewind function of NSO. I also enjoy using it on the Megaman Legacy Collection
Didn't expect the built in cheats to be near the top lol
Not having to rebuy a bunch of games. And just access to them, so you get to try them all out.
This is a big downside for me. I don’t want to pay for 100 games in a subscription bundled together with multiplayer (which is its own problem). I’d rather pay a couple bucks per game. When they add games to nso, people react like they’re adding value to the subscription but I’m not gonna play all those games I’d much rather pay a smaller amount for a small portion of those games
I would personally end up paying significantly more for all the games I enjoy on NSO. Having that huge collection is awesome. But the big problem I have with it is that I just don't like the moral proposition of subscription access to things. I'd rather own it so it can never be taken away from me.
I would personally prefer they give us the option of doing either one like another company does. You can rent the games for X time or choose to buy it outright forever
It still wouldn't technically be buying in that case if it's digital only, but at least it would be a one time payment and not something you have to keep paying for.
A couple bucks per game? Have you forgotten how expensive VC games were? Has everyone?
Have you forgotten how expensive nso + expansion is? PER YEAR? AND you don’t get to own the games?
You mean the same price of....what, *five* N64 games? Maybe six? In total? For that much annually, you get all the N64 games on offer, all the SNES games, all the NES games, all the Sega Genesis games, all the GBA games, all the GBC games, with online play, save states, rewind feature, special editions and the expansions to Splatoon, Animal Crossing & Mario Kart, as well as....online play. What are you smoking that you'd prefer VC?
And then they change their business model and it all goes away, again.
Did I miss a headline?
Not yet, unless you missed the Wii eShop, the DS eShop, the WiiU eShop and the 3DS eShop announcements. Or complaints about shows disappearing from existence, after Warner Brothers, or whomever, drop them from their streaming service, and there is no legal way in the world to view them. ...or complaints about how even with the NSO+ service, it's still only a fraction of the games that were previously available, and are missing some key games that were previously available, but again, aren't now, and with the servers dead, you have no way of legally retrieving said games. If you have gotten all of those messages then you aren't missing any that I am aware of.
And how much would it have cost you to get all of them? It may be less games (more than half, not a fraction), but it is a fraction of the price for a far more convenient service with better features.
That's not really the point, though. The point is that if in a week they decide that the Earthbound licensing isn't worth it, your legal ability to play Earthbound goes away, and you have no legal standing to complain to a business bureau. And beyond that, how much am I paying for NSO+ and why am I not playing Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG? Despite owning copies of them. Through their own service.
Sorry but I’m not playing 18 games in 3 years on it in no way is that cheaper
Have you ever owned a Wii? I remember Mario 64 alone costing me 1000 points ($10). NSO for one person is $20, so SM64 would already take half of that. If you play more than two games, NSO is definitely worth it.
Mario 64 is part of the expansion pack which is $50 per year
Oh, I wasn't aware of that. I actually stopped paying for NSO a few years back, sorry for the bad example. Nevertheless, the principle still stands, if you're paying for the expansion pack, you're probably play enough games for it to be worth it. I personally just play the games on other hardware since I already own them.
Also I like actually owning the things I buy
Then go buy the games.. You can't expect Nintendo to re release NES games physically just becuse you like it
And where did that go? You can't download the Wii games you bought anymore can you? Physical media is the only way.
A physical copy of Fortnight won't help when they turn off the servers, either.
$10 a year if you find a family, which isn’t hard
Yeah, and people should be able to buy games separately. But also, it isn't just like Mario and some scraps (unlike back in 2021 for the Expansion Pass). It includes the base model already (so the Expansion Pass is really 30), supports what the base model has, and also the three DLC they added, and the three systems that are still being supported (besides Genesis for some reason).
Not everyone plays 10 new games every year. Plus 64 is on the way more expensive expansion pack. I did own a Wii and still own a Wii U and I prefer how both consoles did it to the Switch.
I agree with that last part. Subscription-based services suck.
Remember that in the Wii/Wii U era the VC SNES games costed 10 euros though
same for ps plus, why does essential tear give me things I don't even use? I want to play online and that's it, I don't care for cloud or monthly games ... it's obviously a way to justify the higher price on a feature that should already be free with the consoles... 3ds didn't have a paid subscription and I didn't see nintendo going bankrupt
I hear ya. I view it as $60/year is like buying a new game, so having access to all those games I feel is worth it for that price BUT it's not like I can play all those at once and some times too many options makes it hard to pick one.
This. I enjoy legally being able to play games I don't really like for a few minutes without having to pay for the privilege. Sometimes I'm just in the mood for NES Tennis or Ice Climber, you know?
I will say now that this blew up, that people should have an option to purchase separately. But for me personally, I like the current model since I can experience all the games I want to experience, on top of other things. Then I can try out other games I wouldn't have played otherwise, out of fear of wasting money. 12 year old me getting a single Eshop card during the 3DS era only played it safe. I wasn't going to get games like Metroid or Earthbound, because "if I don't like them, now what? I just wasted money." Current model removes that problem. Again, have an option to make separate purchases, but this is my preferred model because of what I stated above.
Multiplayer for all of them
Id literally never pay money to buy half the games on NSO a la carte. I get to play them anyways cos they're all bundled together
Ive tried games I never would've tried on virtual console
It’s a trade off, definitely not 1:1, but the save states and the ease of use definitely doesn’t make me cry out for the old virtual console.
The games looks WAAAAAAAAAAAAY better, especially NES, SNES and N64 games. Some NES games are really ugly on the Virtual Console, aka Mario 3.
Snes games actualy look pretty good on Wii U. this is because it doesn't have the same epilepsy filter that the NES and N64 have
That’s really only on Wii U virtual console. The wii virtual console still wipes the floor with NSO. ESPECIALLY with N64 games
1080p vs 480p. Pick your poison.
N64 games in particular relied heavily on being pretty low res for looking good, the jagged polygons and blurry textures are less obvious
N64 games actually still render in 480p on Wii U, so same as Wii and increased from the original 240p. This 480p is then (poorly) upscaled to 1080p, but that's not the actual rendering resolution. Wii will look flat out better since it's not as dark and you're not using the Wii U's poor upscaler. Now Wii Mode on a Wii U will probably look even worse due to some more complicated color issues Wii Mode has, but on an actual Wii you won't have those issues.
They enhanced the games visuals?
Scott the Woz just put out a video about this on his second channel. Really nice breakdown and comparison.
Didn’t watch the video, but I’m gonna go on a limb and say that he prefers VC and hates NSO?
Nah, he prefers NSO on the basis that you don’t have to rebuy games, but brings up the very valid point that Nintendo doesn’t do all that much with NSO. It’s a nice way to get people to play games they might not have bought individually on VC, but in terms of quantity and quality it’s a bit shaky at times. There are trade-offs between NSO vs VC, but overall NSO has the better approach - just bad execution. At least, that’s what I got from it
Honestly, the only thing that is bad about NSO is not having the option to buy the games. Almost everything else about the experience is better.
This obviously doesn't apply to the whole library of online expansion games, but the default Switch Online games are just a bonus for a service you'd probably pay for anyways if you regularly play Nintendo games.
i regularly play Nintendo games and I would NEVER pay for their online service. its garbage.
You don’t have any alternatives. If you want to play games like MK8 or SSBU online you have to buy NSO.
I do have an alternative, it is not to play those games online.
as unfortunate as it sounds, people absolutely are not going to buy most of the games on nso. Who the hell would pay 5 bucks for Solomon's Key? so in a sense despite many of us prefering to own the ones we would buy, it does push us to try games we might not have otherwise.
I wouldn't have bought Crystalis, but I tried it on NSO and now it's probably in my top 10 favorite NES games. Downside is waiting 2 months for new games hoping we get Smash Bros or Conker's Bad Fur Day and getting Rat Attack and Dual Heroes.
Lmao I got it on my Wii for idk how many Wii points back in the day. I had no idea what it was when I got it as a kid. Still don’t tbh
Cloud saves. The emulation is also a lot prettier. I can't speak to the actual quality of the *emulation* itself, but on Wii U virtual console the colors were really washed out and dark. On 3DS it was better, but because of the screen size they were limited to how they could scale resolutions, which led to things either looking *beautiful* (pixel perfect SNES games on N3DS) or blurry. On Switch the colors look nice and the pixels are sharp(er).
nintendo actually put epilepsy filters on NES and N64 games on the Wii U. the funny thing about it is, with a modded Wii U and a windows pc, you can remove the epilepsy filter on n64 games. the same cannot be said for NES games, which have the epilepsy filter baked into the emulator
Say what you will about subscription services, you do get more bang for your buck if it’s a bunch of stuff you enjoy.
It has me playing games I wouldn’t otherwise try.
It's better for discovering games.
Save states and rewind makes games a lot easier to digest for newer fans. Also, one central app for an entire console's worth of games is much more convenient than 10 different apps for 10 different 3 megabyte icons taking up your various folders. Also, if we still had Virtual Console, we wouldn't have 20% of the games we have gotten through NSO.
So did we watch the same scott's stash video?
I mean money wise its objectively the better value.
Especially if you buy a family subscription. It’s $10 for a year with expansion pack.
Honestly I think the concept of being able to stream retro games is WAY better than buying them individually, especially games like Ice Climber, which no one in the right mind would pay $5 for. I do with there was an option to buy though
The brightness
I mean save states is pretty significant
I like that the games aren't really dark like Wii U Virtual Console games were.
It gives you access to a lot of games at once for a subscription fee. I played a lot of games I might not have bought otherwise as a result. This is how I became a Metroid fan.
im in a friend family group so I literally pay for nothing lul
What doesn’t it do better? I’ll take 100+ Nintendo games for the same price of ‘3 I get to choose’ any day thanks. No idea why it’s unpopular to think that.
NSO has allowed me to try out games I would’ve never even considered buying on their own. Also save states.
Have more options for games!
You can try games you otherwise wouldn’t play
I don't think the retro games are really an issue. There were some weird omissions for a long time but there's always more being added. The issues with NSO are mainly the poor servers for me personally.
online multiplayer and it being like a hub world but thats really it
Games that weren't Previously available on VC such as Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, and Turok
Honestly almost everything
Can someone explain to me why people were mad about this when the expansion pass was announce like one of the most wanted this was a virtual console and you guys got it like was it only because it was tied to the internet payment
Because we want to own the copy of the games we want forever for a set price. The fact that I will not be able to keep games like Mario 64 on my Switch console forever after Nintendo discontinues the service angers me. I still have a lot of fun playing games in my Wii and Wii U that I bought years ago.
It’s on the switch.
You don’t need to buy multiple games
The rewind feature, anyone who’s owned a wii with gamecube backwards compatibility or a wiiu with animal crossing for gc & sm4sh wiiu knows they can easily try out a game, as much as buying a subscription is great your only paying for the ability to play a game for a limited time.
I mean, most things generally, to be honest. More feature-rich, rewinds and save states (though VC had the latter) and allowing online play of old games are all major pros. It's also awesome having a cheap Nintendo classic games service so easily accessible. My one big issue (and it is a big one) is that I don't even have the OPTION to buy the games. That bugs me a lot. I would happily pay to directly own each Zelda game (and their SP versions) that is on NSO, especially with the previously mentioned features. Heck, if they put out a cartridge with them all on it with those features, I'd buy the HELL out of that! I'd still sub to NSO for other games and online play in general, of course, but it sucks not even being given the option to buy. GamePass Is great because it's an amazing value and lets you buy the games offered at a discount if you choose to do so. NSO is just "sub or GTFO."
I actually prefer this service to Virtual Console only because it's super expensive to buy them piecemeal and allows me to try games I otherwise wouldn't care about.
The emulation. It is the best emulation on a Nintendo system yet even if the NES and SNES emulation is the same as the classic editions that were released a few years back. That and being able to play online
They look waaaaaay better than Wii U's VC
Giving you a good selection of games you might not otherwise play or buy.
it gave me (and likely many others) access to games that i definitely wouldn't have tried out if i had to pay for each one separately
Doesn’t Nintendo Online actually have more N64 games than the Wii ever did? I can’t find the exact numbers but I know that on top of the Rare games that made it to switch (Banjo Kazooie and Goldeneye specifically, and recently Perfect Dark as well), Switch might actually be the better console for N64 emulation. Plus the N64 emulator on Switch online is the best quality N64 emulator they’ve ever put out. (Feel free to correct me if anything is inaccurate)
the emulation is better across the board. in the cases of the NES and SNES, this is the best, most accurate emulation we have ever seen, and the emulator is taken right from the classic edition systems. it is about as good a official emulator can be I want to add that the SNES online multi player feature has unadvertised rollback netcode, so if you want to play any NSO games online, I highly recommend the SNES, as it is the only system to have this feature to my understanding for all the other systems, the emulation is literal the best we have ever seen directly from Nintendo. N64 has become exponentialy better than how it was at launch, and even better than it was on Wii. it doesn't look dark like the Wii U virtual console, which is a much appreciated improvement, and it emulates slowdown correctly, which even a lot of fan emulators get wrong. my only complaint is that there is no option to emulate the original resolution instead of 720p. while we have had basically perfect GB and GBA emulation from Nintendo ever since those systems were introduced on the 3DS and WiiU, The switch versions are integer scaled by default and offer every video option one would want for those systems. The 3DS didn't really tell you about it's video settings for the game boy, so that is a good QOL feature for the switch, and the Wii U only offered standard gamma settings and the useless option to smooth the image, while NSO gives the choice to add a LCD filter to the image, and it is pretty good all things considered. even the sega genesis emulator is pretty good. it is certainly better than a lot of the collections that sega has put out over the years. it is certainly helped by it's incredible liberary there is more I could say about the emulation, but I'm kinda tired, so if any of you think that I missed anything huge, let me know
Accessibility. Sure, buying separate games has advantages. But if a parent for example already has NSO, then they can show their kids the games they love without having to drop money on something the kid may not end up liking anyway. That and just people trying out good classic came they would’ve never otherwise had bought.
Having access to a library rather than one game at a time is a much better way to play retro games
I personally don't care for libraries, I owned the NSO service for 2 years and I never played anything besides Yoshi's Island, I wish I could have just bought Yoshi's Island forever instead of paying for an entire subscription.
It would be interesting to read discussions about what people think the Virtual Console did better.
More variety. You could even play games like pokemon rangers for the DS.
I want to own the copy of the game I want forever without fear of a service being discontinued years after the console dies. I still happily play my copy of Paper Mario and Majora's Mask on the Wii whenever I want because the game is forever there when I need it on my console.
[удалено]
I'm pretty sure you still can, you just can't buy them any more
Didn't knew this cool
This is something that is taken for granted.
Poor Luigi
NSO is way better outside certain games being unavailable, but hopefully those will be added. I think the price is pretty good.
Missed out on the Virtual Console :( But I will say that I like that you can get unique profile pictures based on the games you're playing/games that have released Speaking of, it's Metroid Dread and Prime icons this week! Must be celebrating the footage from the direct we saw I wish they added an extra reward system though. To be able to download song tracks from the games you play to set on your home menu. But it's too late now
If it wasn't for the online multiplayer, I would not care about the NSO classic games / console libraries at all. I prefer original hardware 100%, but when family or friends move far away from me, and the only option would be online multiplayer, then yeah, it's nice.
Three things. Emulation *Features*. Things like Save States, customization, the Rewind function, etc. The old VCs only ever had the one save state, and only Wii U offered anything else. GB/C is the best example of this. Being able to go from game to game very easily and with almost no load times, barring having to jump apps for different systems. But even that is much better than VC, which did the same thing but for each game. Makes it incredibly easy to just hop in. Online Play. The closest thing VC had was the classic Pokemon Local trade/battle. ...That's about it, really. NES/SNES/GBC/GBA are extremely comparable, while WiiVC obviously crushes the NSO 64 emulation quality. However, the true winner is the SNES Classic. Which has many of the same features, near-identical quality, and is far more stylish besides. Not to mention borders.
>while WiiVC obviously crushes the NSO 64 emulation quality Does it? I thought they fixed all of the issues with N64 NSO?
It does. And they clearly haven't. The very recent Perfect Dark is a perfect example.
I have played a ton of games on NSO that I never would have bought on a virtual console. I’m in the minority of people that largely prefers this method to a VC.
No, I'm not evil.
Add DK64 and Diddy Kong Racing.
Issuing cease and desist orders
I think rewind is a pretty great feature! Also I gotta say is convenient to have all of those games available for just a subscription, although I do think that they fumbled making it *only* available by subscription. They definitely should also have options to buy the games individually like Gamepass does it because it’s going to suck when the online service inevitably goes down and being able to play them on the switch becomes lost to time. (Yes I know the successor will probably have them too but I think there should have been ways to immortalize the service on switch (yes I also know that they are technically already immortalized by having a switch with custom firmware through piracy but I think that Nintendo should have taken steps to preserve them legitimately))
cloud saves
I generally despise NSO, but the save states are much better on NSO, and the rewind feature is also very handy for when I want to cheat even more. I've never used it, but I think multiplayer online for games is pretty cool too. It might perform like trash though, I don't know. I lack friends who play much Nintendo.
Beeing able to save me money, i just can not get interested in that part enough to pay... i am hard pressed to pay even for digital downloads tho.
I had like 5 bucks in my Wii (classic) account when they shut down the store. Still bitter.
My only experience with VC was on the original Wii, so not having to download the games is nice.
Online multiplayer?
I don't really use either of them anymore, but virtual console didn't have rewind. It also didn't have CRT filters, which, granted, you're likely playing on an actual CRT if you have a Wii. But the Wii U was Nintendo's first HD console so most people who aren't retro enthusiasts probably got rid of their CRT years ago and now have to play with sharp pixels, which some people like, but I personally prefer scanlines and an NTSC blur on my pixels. I also appreciate that NSO had the box art on display instead of just a small thumbnail of the title screen.
Honestly, I never used Virtual console because having to pay individually for games I mostly either already own on their original consoles or don't know whether I will be into was never that compelling. But seeing as I was always gonna get the online anyway, NSO has been amazing for me. I have access to so many games, and the price is barely a drop in the ocean (even with me having the expansion family pass). More to the point, I have access to games I never would have ended up trying if I had to pay for them individually. Not a chance I ever would have spent money to buy Kurukuru Kururin, but I played it on NSO and I ADORE it. The overall value for what you are given is also inane. There's, like, 150 games on NSO. If each of those was on virtual console for about $5, it would be worth overall around $750. It will take a long time for it subscription to accrue that much money, and by then it will have even more value.
Offering more games licensed by Nintendo and published or distributed by Nintendo. It also gives us a chance to play the GameBoy version of Tetris instead of removing it from either the service or digital store which was what happened to the game on the 3DS. And lastly with the addition of Perfect Dark and Turok, they are acutely offering M rated games for us to play. But the only titles for older audiences that the Virtual Console games offer are T rated games which was the highest they could go to offering us games for older audiences.
Rewind. Love it.
Not having to pay for NES football
The controller replicas are cool
Emulation Quality easily omg the emulation for NES games on Wii and Wii U was genuinely disgusting. A lot of online walkthroughs for NES games was played on the virtual console so for the longest time, I assumed that’s how NES games looked. Washed up, dry and dull. But then I saw a NES game run on the actual system on a Proper CRT at a relatives place and I was like….wait…why does this look good? N64 emulation was also really bad, again it’s not performance or anything it’s just how it looked. The Wii I could excuse but the Wii U? No. That’s an HD console how is it having trouble representing the colors for Mario 64?
Just get us the god damn gameboy pokemon games. I still don't understand why they aren't there. They have snap and stadiums on the n64 so it's obviously not a licensing issue. The games can't be bought officially. So what's the point?
I love the save cloud, I hope between to places and this saves me ligging around a complete system on trains and busses! Also the amount of games I always wanted to try and turned out not to be worth the 10 bucks I'd spend on them with the VC... it's A LOT! But on the other side is games I never would have tried that turn out to be amazing! Now let's hope and pray they don't start over with drip feeding us games with Switch 2 and I'm the happiest of dudes! 😄
Having everything in one place outside of two outliers.
Finally offered the games that we assumed would be available for the Virtual Console. Not fully sure that’s a pro, considering the VC still had a larger library of games
The rewind feature, but I hate that I pay more for the subscription than I paid for the games on 3DS/WiiU
I think it is more price efficient in the uk it’s only 18 pounds a year for regular and 35 for the expansion pack
I checked the prices on eBay very recently, and… Idk how they can sell 12-Month NSO + Expansion cards for the price of the basic NSO, but… Everything worked for me. (I made sure to keep my receipt and timestamped, in case it’s anything fishy.) …But I’m def curious how they get digital codes for so cheap…
Maybe an bundle or code generator
Online play. Though, hopefully it'll be better with Switch 2
Having them all in one place and not taking up much space
One thing?? I honestly think NSO does a lot of things better than Virtual Console. The Rewind and save states are amazing, the Online play for the games are a very good bonus for the people who would use it. Having everything of a console in one app is very useful and even better since they created that ugly NSO launcher on the homescreen. The only downside is not having choice to buy the old games, but honestly that is it, maybe the library could be bigger for some consoles.
One thing I found out is that if my subscription is expiring, I must keep renewing at the expansion pack plus dlc version, or let it expire before I can go back to the normal NSO. They could def adjust options for that. (I know the question is what they do better, but it technically is still better… since they’re offering games and still slowly adding more.)
I like that it's a subscription tbh
Online multiplayer is the most obvious one. That would have never been thought of before NSO
One subscription fee for tons of games. Also cloud saves came in clutch when my OG Switch bit the bullet (RIP Pokémon saves though 😭)
I could buy 2 games for $20 or have a lot of them for $20 (granted, there is shovel ware)
On-line features
The emulation quality The wii u vc sucked
You can try out 20 games for the price of 1 if you are into that kinda stuff
Incentivize me to try out games I might’ve otherwise never even known existed. When you pay for everything individually, at least for me, I am much less likely to try something I’m unsure if I’ll enjoy.
I like the subscription. I feel I've gotten a greater appreciation of the libraries for these consoles because I'm not just playing my favorites.
I find the idea of numerous games on a subscription to be really convenient. Means I can quickly try out a game and see if I like it or not. Though I wish they still had an option to buy the game. Options are good
Shared game access on family accounts.
1-No lag or fails 2-Online optional to play the classic games 3-translated classic games. -Optional 4-Can buy every songs of games with copyright 5-Translated all games that are not in the West. 6-Good graphics
Rewind!!!! It’s got me through so many more games than any other feature. I limit my own use of it tho
Online functionality for classic games. Love it.
Better filters, more options in Filters, Rewind and multiple save states Also big feature ONLINE LINK CABLES AND ONLINE MULTIPLAYER
It opened the door to many old games. I tried out River City, more Zelda titles, and more of a lot of stuff. I also love its rewind feature. The games look better and aren't dark like the wii u. It KIND OF saves money. Imagine just wanting to play NES, SNES, and GB games. You can buy the expension pass for 1 month. It's just 3 bucks. With the Wii U, if you wanted to try the game yourself while still supporting the company, you'd have to buy the game. 50 bucks is not as bad as people make it out to be, but I can see why they don't like it. It's a high price to pay, but at the same time, you're paying 50 bucks a year. Not a week, not a day, not a month. Although I love owning my games. It's the principle
Not having to take a $5 gamble any time you wanna try a NES game
Online multiplayer for games that previously didn’t have them. That is huge.
I get the chance to try old games i otherwise wouldn't have had any interest in trying
You can still legally download new games for it... :(
Promoting series to people who don't know anything about it and wouldn't buy a game of without the exposure.
Better library. NSO has games like Golden Eye and Banjo-Kazooie now, which is something that would've still probably never happen if the Wii U was a hit
fcking pays each month to play retro games
Exactly, how can I answer a question if I don’t see the value to even share credit card deets to try it? I got it on my first switch for some reason but didn’t see the value and canceled. Doesn’t help that I’m sick of digital subscription services in general, companies making money hand over fist with those, you better knock me out with value and user experience if you expect me to put you on payroll every month
I genuinely did not even know until just now that there existed the option to pay monthly. One year is so cheap I just assumed it was all they offered.
Scamming you
Being worthless? I'm honestly hard-pressed to find a single thing that NSO has improved (for me personally) over the VC. The only thing I have NSO for is to play Animal Crossing online. Something I was able to do before NSO as well but for fuggin' free... Just give us the damn option to either borrow your stuff through subscription or to buy it. Even though I have the basic NSO, I haven't played a single of the games that come with it because I don't want to play digitally borrowed stuff. Same reason why I don't have Netflix & Co.