Nintendo Switch Online

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Nintendo Switch Online is the Switch's online gaming service, ostensibly Nintendo's answer to PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass. It began as a subscription that lets you play multiplayer titles via the internet, enable select cloud saves, and enjoy a handful of other bonuses, including a modest retro game library. Years later, it offers hundreds of games from three retro consoles, three extremely fun battle royale titles, and a streaming music service. Nintendo Switch Online still has annoying quirks—such as inconsistent cloud save support and voice chat that requires a phone—but it's a compelling subscription service for playing your favorite multiplayer Switch games online.

How Much Does Nintendo Switch Online Cost?

A Nintendo Switch Online subscription costs $19.99 per year, or $34.99 per year for the Family plan that supports up to eight accounts. Upgrading to the Expansion Pack ($49.99 per year or $79.99 per year for the Family plan) adds more games and DLC, including add-on tracks for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Nintendo Switch Online is much cheaper than Sony and Microsoft's subscription services, which are required to play online multiplayer games on PlayStation and Xbox systems. PlayStation Plus starts at $9.99 per month (or $79.99 per year) with the Essential plan, which has few extras. However, its $17.99 per month (or $159.99 per year) Premium plan adds free game libraries and cloud-based gaming. Xbox Game Pass Core, formerly Xbox Live, costs $9.99 per month and includes 25 free games. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate adds hundreds of other games and cloud-based gaming on both Xbox and PC for $19.99 per month. Neither service has family options for extending all benefits to additional accounts.

Multiplayer and Cloud Saves

Let's start with the most basic aspect of the service: online multiplayer. Nintendo Switch Online lets you play Switch games with friends and strangers like Microsoft's and Sony's premium services do on their consoles. All three services require a subscription, and to Nintendo's credit, it costs about a third as much as the other two.

The hitch is that online multiplayer was freely available on the Nintendo Switch for a year and a half, and it has been free on all Nintendo consoles and handhelds since the Wii. This change is particularly annoying since the multiplayer structure hasn't been notably improved since payment was required. On the bright side, Nintendo Switch Online isn't required for free-to-play online games, so you don't need to spend dough to play Fortnite.

Nintendo Switch Online enables another important feature: cloud saves. With compatible games, you upload save data to Nintendo's servers as a backup should your local files get corrupted (or the system gets lost or stolen). You can also transfer saves to a new system. The process works well.

There are two caveats to this feature, though. The primary problem is that not all Switch games are compatible. In fact, cloud saves don't work with all first-party Nintendo games. For example, Animal Crossing and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet don't support cloud saves. These are baffling omissions.

The other caveat is less an issue with cloud saving specifically, and more an issue with how the Switch handles save game data. You still cannot back up or transfer your save files to local media. Even after cloud saves are enabled, there's no way to simply copy saves to a USB key or an SD card to keep them safe in case anything happens to your Switch. Since the Switch can be used as a handheld system, the chances of it getting damaged, lost, or stolen are much higher than a game system that only sits near your TV.

Unwieldy Voice Chat

If you subscribe to Nintendo Switch Online, you technically get access to voice chat with some online multiplayer games. However, it implements voice chat in perhaps the most convoluted way possible. You cannot simply speak into a gaming headset connected to your switch. Instead, you must download the Nintendo Switch Online app for Android or iOS and use your smartphone for voice chat.

It's an unwieldy system that requires juggling two devices and audio sources. You can use a mono headset (or just one earphone) connected to your phone, and listen to the game audio through the Switch's speakers or another set of earphones. More powerful communication services like Discord and Guilded provide voice chat and other features without a subscription. Basically, don't bother.

Note: Fortnite has built-in voice chat that works with any wired headset featuring a 3.5mm connector plugged into the system.

Nintendo Music: Big Hits, Missing Tunes

Nintendo recently launched a streaming service, Nintendo Music, which is included with every Nintendo Switch Online subscription. It lets you play tunes from Nintendo's games on your Switch, Android phone, or iPhone, just like Spotify. This is appealing because series like F-Zero, Mario, Pokemon, and Zelda have incredible tracks. Even the Nintendo Wii's smooth menu music resonates with gamers more than a decade after the system was discontinued. It's a fun idea hampered by an incomplete library.

Nintendo Music has several hundred compositions, but they're spread across about 30 games covering Nintendo's history. The Switch is best represented; there are tracks from Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Pikmin 4, Splatoon 3, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Super Mario Odyssey, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Splatoon 1 is missing, along with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the Fire Emblem games, and many other Nintendo-published Switch releases.

Other systems' soundtracks are in even more dire states. Besides Wii Sports, Super Mario Galaxy is the only other Wii game. The DS is represented by Nintendogs and Tomodachi Collection. The GameCube has Metroid Prime, while the GBA has Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade. The most criminal omissions are from earlier systems. The Game Boy, N64, NES, and SNES have about a dozen soundtracks combined. There's no The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros. 3, or Super Metroid. That's like having a Paul Verhoeven festival without showing Robocop.

I understand why Nintendo Music wouldn't have incredible third-party music, but these first-party catalog holes are bewildering. On the upside, the Nintendo Music's Extend feature lets you loop a track for up to an hour. Since launch, Nintendo has consistently dropped one new album onto the service weekly, so the library is improving.

The Retro Catalog: NES, SNES, and Game Boy Games

On top of these features, Nintendo Switch Online offers access to Netflix-like libraries of classic NES, SNES, and Game Boy games, and the closest thing the Switch has to a first-party Virtual Console. It's a fantastic concept that would be well worth the subscription price on its own, though Nintendo continues to frustratingly trickle out games on the service every month instead of simply unloading a massive supply of classics. Nintendo 64, GameCube, Wii, and Wii U games are completely absent from the system (though to be fair, the Switch has gotten or will be getting nearly every Wii U game of note as a port).

The current selection includes 78 NES games, 67 SNES games, and 24 Game Boy/Game Boy Color games. That's a significant upgrade from the initial 20 NES games (and no SNES or Game Boy games) Nintendo Switch Online offered at launch and spans some of the best games on the two systems, including Dr. Mario, The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, StarTropics, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Wario Land 3, and Yoshi's Island.

On one hand, that's a pretty excellent library for a fraction of the price of the NES Classic or SNES Classic. On the other hand, Nintendo trickles out a handful of titles every few months, leaving gaping holes among the countless classics released on those systems.

The game emulation is capable and responsive, reminiscent of the NES Classic and SNES Classic's emulation. The sprites are bright and colorful, and the pictures are crisp. However, the options are limited. You have a choice of three different display modes: 4:3 (a slightly wider than originally built, pillar-boxed view with no filter), pixel perfect (a narrower pillar-boxed view that keeps the native aspect ratio by pixel count), and CRT (a heavy scanline filter over the 4:3 view). That's it. You can't remap controls, choose between different regional versions of the games, or explore supplemental material.

Multiplayer support, however, is surprisingly robust for a collection of NES games. You can play locally with one or two players or online with friends.

Besides the classic NES and SNES games, you can fire up F-Zero 99, Pac-Man 99, and Tetris 99. They're battle royale-style variants of F-Zero, Pac-Man, and Tetris that put you against 99 other players in races to clear dots/line and send obstacles to other players' screens in a bid to be the last one standing. Super Mario Bros. 35, a Super Mario Bros-based battle royale game, was also available for a limited time as part of Mario's 35th anniversary, but Nintendo has inexplicably discontinued it.

Expansion Pack: N64, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy Advance

The Expansion Pack is an optional service that adds more games. Currently, it's 44 Genesis games, 37 N64 games, and 23 Game Boy Advance games, including classics like F-Zero X, Golden Sun and The Lost Age, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, Metroid Fusion, Metroid: Zero Mission, Phantasy Star IV, Sin & Punishment, and Super Mario 64.

It covers virtually all of the best games for the GBA and N64. However, the Genesis library lacks some hits, including Monster World IV, Rocket Knight Adventures, and Sonic The Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles.

Like the NES, SNES, and Game Boy titles, the N64, Genesis, and Advance games are well-emulated on the Switch. The N64 games still show low-resolution textures, but the rendering at least matches the display, so the edges are sharper and not jagged or blurry. Emulation options are still bare-bones, with four slots for save states and not much else; there's no control remapping, rewind, or graphical adjustments beyond choosing between 4:3, pixel perfect, or a single CRT filter.

Besides the retro games, the Expansion Pack includes several DLC packs. The Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass is the biggest inclusion, which adds 48 new tracks to the game. You also get the Happy Home Paradise DLC for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and the Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion DLC, though neither of the Splatoon 3 DLC packs.

After taking a few years to get there, the Expansion Pack's game libraries have become genuinely worthwhile and justify the extra cost. The Mario Kart DLC makes it even more value-filled, as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the biggest Mario Kart game.

Verdict: A Low-Cost Online Service Loaded With Classic Games

Several years of updates and new features have transformed Nintendo Switch Online into a worthwhile platform. Yes, you must subscribe to it in order to play your favorite Switch games online, but its annual price is much easier to swallow than PS Plus or Xbox Game Pass. Plus, it now has a large classic game library, three fun retro-themed battle royales, four dozen Mario Kart 8 tracks (with the Expansion Pack), and a music streaming service. Overall, Nintendo Switch Online is a fun-filled subscription that improves your gaming experience.