The Nintendo Switch Online service is about to receive some new SNES games, and they might be the most obscure ones yet. Nintendo Switch Online is the paid subscription service that is required to play online multiplayer in Switch games, and there a few other incentives to subscribe to NSO.
Outside of multiplayer access, there are free perks that can be downloaded in games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with Nintendo Switch Online. There are some games that are exclusive to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers, such as the unique Tetris 99, as well as temporary trials of full releases. One of the bigger draws for the service is its collection of NES and SNES games that can be accessed through their respective apps, which include games like Super Metroid, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, a ton of 2D Super Mario Bros. games, and the Donkey Kong Country trilogy.
Nintendo periodically adds new games to the NES and SNES apps, but almost all of its first-party offerings are already on there by this late-stage point. This has led to some obscure games from third-party developers hitting the service, and the next batch is no exception. A new trailer on the official Nintendo YouTube channel has revealed that the next games will be Claymates, Jelly Boy, and Bombuzal. All three games will arrive on July 28, 2021.
Claymates and Jelly Boy are both bizarre and colorful platformers, while Bombuzal is an isometric puzzle game about detonating bombs while still leaving enough room for the protagonist to run away. It's especially annoying that games like this are appearing on Nintendo Switch Online, when classic games like Duck Hunt, EarthBound Beginnings, and EarthBound are missing from the service. And that's to say nothing of the amazing third-party games, like Super Mario RPG and Turtles in Time, that are also nowhere to be found on the Switch.
It seems clear that Nintendo needs to add more classic consoles to the Nintendo Switch Online lineup, as the NES and SNES offerings are scraping the bottom of the barrel. The fact that Metroid games have topped the Wii U charts might convince Nintendo that the time has come to add some Game Boy Advance titles to the series, if not Game Boy and Game Boy Color games at the very least. The Nintendo handhelds are sorely missing from the Nintendo Switch Online service, and it's not as if they're being sold on a Switch Virtual Console of any kind. It's unclear why subscribers are getting Jelly Boy instead of the first-party games that are sitting on a metaphorical shelf.
Claymates, Jelly Boy, and Bombuzal will join Nintendo Switch Online on July 28, 2021.
Source: Nintendo/YouTube