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For too long, when a new generation of consoles begins, the ones that came before it have quickly been left behind. That not being the norm is only a relatively recent phenomenon. ThePS5and theXbox Series X|Sare backwards compatible and remasters and remakes are all the rage. All three of the console world’s biggest hitters are preserving select games via their respective libraries too.PlayStationhasPS Plus,XboxhasGame Pass, andNintendohasNintendo Switch Online.
In typical Nintendo fashion, NSO is a little different from its competitors' equivalents. The library is broken down into consoles. Anyone with an active NSO subscription can play anything in theNES,SNES, andGame Boylibraries. If you want access to theNintendo 64,Game Boy Advance, and Sega Genesis libraries, you will need to up your subscription to the Expansion Pack level. If you’re not sure whether NSO is worth it for you, or which level of the subscription would benefit you most, below is every game that has been added to the service so far in 2024 to help you make an informed decision
Updated at 12:00 pm EST on Friday, July 05, 2025, by Josh Coulson: F-Zero Climax and F-Zero: GP Legend are now available to play in the GBA library included with the NSO Expansion Pack.
Urban Champion
July 02, 2025
Nintendo’s NSO journey understandably began with its first home console, the NES. Six years later, the NES games keep on coming, but some of the stuff that has been added to the iconic console’s library so far in 2024 demonstrates the NES well is starting to run dry. As happy as I am to see it getting some love all these years later, Donkey Kong Jr. Math is the best example of that so far.
Some of 2024’s NES additions also demonstrate how much simpler naming a video game was 35 years ago. On July 4, Nintendo added games that are literally just called Golf and Mahjong. Back when those games were released, there were so few video games that sometimes a title didn’t need to be anything more than what you can do in that game. Now both of them can be enjoyed by an entirely new generation thanks to NSO.
Kunio-kun no Dodgeball da yo Zen’in Shūgō!
Jul 15, 2025
Moving through Nintendo’s console history, but sticking with the libraries that are included with all NSO subscriptions, we arrive at the SNES. Nine games from the Super Nintendo have been added to NSO so far in 2024, and most of them are pretty obscure titles. That’ll happen five years into building a library of retro games, although there are still some relatively big titles missing.
Less of what’s missing and more of what’s here. Killer Instinct, a fighting game that was largely overshadowed since it hit whenStreet FighterandMortal Kombatwere really leaving their marks, is now available on NSO. Wrecking Crew ‘98 joins it, a sequel that never officially made it to the US since it launched after SNES games were being released outside of Japan. A Mario game worth your time if you love the plumber and want to play absolutely everything the mustachioed protagonist has ever starred in.
A somewhat quiet year for the SNES on NSO up until September, Nintendo almost doubled the number of games added to that particular console’s library on September 18 and more Battletoads led the way. A Battletoads crossover you might not know existed as Battletoads Double Dragon is now on NSO. Joining it is Big Run which has you driving across Africa in two dimensions, as well as a colorful Cosmo Gang puzzler. Last but not least is Kunio-kun no Dodgeball da yo Zen’in Shūgō. My sympathies to anyone who had to rely on their parents remembering that title for their 1993 Christmas haul.
Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (Japan-Only)
Mega Man 5
June 08, 2025
Since Nintendo has only been adding Game Boy titles to NSO for less than two years, it still has the luxury of picking games that most people have actually played, or at least heard of. That will likely be the case for its Game Boy andGame Boy Colorlibrary for a while since games were made for the handheld consoles for so long. 12 Game Boy titles have been added to NSO already in 2024, and quite a few of them are games you likely played years ago that you’d love to play again.
Three big Mario titles from Nintendo’s Game Boy era kicked off the platform’s additions to NSO this year.Mario GolfandMario Tennis, installments in series that have continued into the Switch era, andDr. Mario, a variant of the mascot so popular that he’s a playable character on theSuper Smash Bros. Ultimateroster.
Super Mario Land, a lesser-celebrated installment in the 2D platforming series, joined them in May, as did another game that came early enough to simply be named after a sport - Baseball. Then came the influx ofMega Mangames in June. Five Mega Man games were released on the original Game Boy in the space of three years between 1991 and 1994, and you can currently play through all of them if you have NSO.
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
July 22, 2025
Nintendo adding N64 games to NSO was highly anticipated, and the wait was likely an extended one for a couple of reasons. Nintendo needed to figure out how it was going to make people pay more for its N64 library, eventually settling on the Expansion Pack for NSO. However, there’s also a limited number of N64 games to choose from.
The N64’s run came to an end with less than 400 titles released for the iconic console. For comparison, there are more than 4,500 titles available onNintendo Switchright now. Even though the N64 NSO library is still young, some of its titles are already pretty obscure. Iggy’s Reckin’ Balls, for example, is available now after finding its way onto the Expansion Pack in April.
Nintendo is clearly being more strategic with its N64 NSO rollout than it has been with other platforms due to the limited pool from which it has to pull from. It demonstrated that when it addedPerfect Darkand Turok: Dinosaur Hunter to the service in June. Two games a lot of N64 fans were likely waiting to come to Switch, and both are available now provided you have the Expansion Pack tier of NSO.
F-Zero: Maximum Velocity
May 13, 2025
The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past and Four Swords
Densetsu no Starfy 2
Densetsu no Starfy 3
F-Zero: GP Legend
July 10, 2025
The Game Boy Advance had a heck of an act to follow when it arrived in 2001 and looking back on its run, it duly delivered. Arguably in a way that no other Nintendo home console has managed to do. Whatever follows the Switch will feel a similar amount of pressure. Here’s hoping it can pull off what the GBA did 20 years ago and provide a worthy successor.
As for classic GBA titles that have joined the Switch’s library this year, there has been a lot of good so far. BothGolden Sungames on the GBA kicked off the platform’s 2024 on NSO, and F-Zero: Maximum Velocity followed it. Another way to experienceF-Zeroon a Switch in 2024 following the release of the fantastic F-Zero 99 last year.
The best day for GBA on NSO so far, however, was June 18. Metroid: Zero Mission and A Link To The Past dropping on the same day. I imagine many of you agonized over which one to play first the same way I did. The somewhat obscure Densetsu no Starfy trilogy followed. Not quite as exciting, but well worth your time if you’re looking for something new to play on NSO rather than a game you want to be reacquainted with.
In August, a glimmer of hope for those of us hoping mainlinePokemongames will eventually be added to NSO found its way onto the Expansion pack.Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Teamis now on the service, an installment from the series in which you become the Pokemon rather than catch and train them. Yes, it’s a spinoff, and a good one, but it makes me hopeful some of the bigger Pokemon games from the past will one day be added to NSO.
F-Zerohas been noticeably overlooked by Nintendo for the past two decades, with fans having to rely on cameo appearances from characters and tracks in other games to get their fix. F-Zero 99 changed that in 2023, and it seems the live service game has been popular enough to warrant the series getting a little more attention. A little more than a year on from F-Zero 99’s release, F-Zero Climax and F-Zero: GP Legend have made their way to the GBA corner of NSO. Notable because until 99, they were the last new F-Zero games released, and this marks the first time Climax has been playable outside of Japan.
Sega Genesis (Expansion Pack)
It might be my love for the Sega Genesis talking since it was my first proper console, but the platform’s library has been somewhat neglected compared to the others available on NSO. The lack of attention it’s had so far in 2024 proves it’s not just my love for the console clouding my judgment as so far NSO’s Genesis library hasn’t received any new games in 2024.
That doesn’t mean the console that launchedSonicandSegainto the video game stratosphere isn’t worth your time if you have an Expansion Pack subscription, though. It took most by surprise when Nintendo announced the Genesis was coming to NSO and it remains the only non-Nintendo platform to have been given that honor. Among the classic games you’re able to play in the Genesis wing of the NSO library are Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts, Ecco The Dolphin, Golden Axe, and one of the greatest video games ever made,Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
