After many long months of rumors SNES games are finally available on the Nintendo Switch! Announced during the Nintendo Direct, SNES games were revealed to be coming to the system on September 5th. And finally they did after a long wait. Some parts of the world didn’t get them till the 6th! Initially 20 titles are included for all Nintendo Switch Online subscribers including high profile games like Super Mario World, A Link to the past, Super Metroid and for the first time ever Stunt Racer FX has been made available on a new system!
I was eagerly awaiting SNES games as I have a higher fondness for the platform than the NES, sorry NES, and couldn’t wait to see how games played. After downloading the SNES app I was off on a run through of Super Mario World, a game I have beat so many times I have lost count, and I was quickly able to beat the game using the short route. I didn’t notice any huge offenders when it came to the emulation quality or latency which led to a very solid experience!
After this initial test I took some time with other games in the app like Star Fox which utilizes the Super FX chip. Star Fox is an interesting beast for Nintendo since the last time they tried to emulate the game on the SNES Classic it ran both slower and faster than the retail cartridge. Results on the Switch are definitely better than the low powered mini thankfully and from cursory examination it felt like the real deal. While this was hardly a conclusive test study it did leave me and my high-end emulation self happy.
Sadly it doesn’t look likely we will be getting more SNES or NES titles on the Switch soon as Nintendo has stated more titles “will be added after launch, but those releases will not adhere to a regular schedule.” Unfortunate really, a constant influx of classic titles was one of the main selling points of the Nintendo Switch Online service to me. I have all the games I want still on the original systems but a legit portable version is awesome! Who knows maybe Nintendo will surprise us all and actually release more games at a faster interval! Hey, I can dream stop it!!
Even if the release schedule does slow down at least there are some really solid titles now available for Switch owners to play. This might also be the first time someone might be able to experience the games as well!
What have you thought of the SNES games performance so far?
