Today I'm going to be giving you guys my review of the new Nintendo switch online service that came out.
I bought it got it up and running on my switch and do I have some thoughts?
This article is going to be an analysis of the quality of the various new features that we're getting through this online service and at the end of this article, I will ultimately suggest if whether or not you guys should buy it right now.
I made many articles that kind of gave an in-depth overview of all of the new features that you can expect whenever you pick up this new online service. If you want to see that you can see that right here. Let's just jump into the review.
Downloading the new online service was fairly straightforward. You can download it from the Nintendo eShop on the switch console itself. I mean, let's be real if you play your switch a lot and you play it online a lot and you don't have the service yet.
You've probably seen a prompt to come up on your switch passive-aggressively being like hey pay us more money, you can keep playing. I bet you guys have seen it.
For me, I had a Best Buy gift card. I ended up just purchasing the physical download copy since I already had that money set aside in the gift card.
Read more Which Is Better, Physical Or Digital Nintendo Switch Games
Anyways side note, I actually attempted to purchase the digital download code off of Best Buy's website and then it got cancelled. I attempted to do it again. The next day it got cancelled again.
It's probably some weird policy regarding using a Best Buy gift card to buy a digital download code. I kept fighting and I went to my Best Buy's physical location to see if they had the download codes out on the floor.
They did not yet. It was apparently in the back warehouse in one of the hundreds of boxes. They hadn't opened yet and so I had to wait a day and then there it was and I could go to the store and pick it up. I got it it took me like three days just to use my Best Buy gift card.
I'm ready to review as soon as I went into the Nintendo eShop entered my 16 digit code and began downloading. I began to notice some key, shoes one of the very first questions that
I was asked right out of the gate. It just popped up on the screen was, do you want to enable automatic subscription renewal next year? Whenever my subscription runs out.
So I looked into this a little bit further to figure out if I needed to do that and turns out that. If you don't renew your subscription immediately it will actually delete all of your cloud save data.
So let's just say that you broke your Nintendo switch the day that your subscription ended and your card number had changed well.
There goes all of your safe data and in terms of cloud save data, I was indeed able to confirm that most of the games I had, I was able to go in and save them to the cloud, no problem.
There was one notable exception, I was not able to save fortnight to the cloud. It was grayed out and said I couldn't use cloud same data for fortnight kind of makes sense. Whenever you consider that fortnight itself is a cloud-based save game. It's not a big deal. It's worth noting.
Read more Nintendo Switch Lite - Before You Buy From My Perspective
Once you have the subscription in place the new switch online tab on the left side of the Nintendo eShop is kind of like the new hub for all things Nintendo switch online here.
You can find the free download that allows you to play NES games, more membership options information about your subscription as well as a list of games that currently support online play.
There wasn't really a list of special offers yet on this hub
page.
Overall I would describe the layout as very dull the whole thing.
Honestly seemed very half-baked and I was especially disappointed considering that all of these features are really something that we should have gotten on day one of the switches launch.
We are over a year and a half later and it's still lacking and when you consider that the whole thing cost about 20 bucks a year. The value proposition isn't necessarily awful.
But still it just seems like it was an afterthought rather than Nintendo actually trying to make a viable competitor and the online gaming space.
Next, talking about the NES games. This is kind of where I found the largest amount of my enjoyment with the new service as well as the largest amount of my frustration with the new service.
The 20 nes games run very smoothly, they look wonderful and colorful on the switch.
Especially in handheld mode. They have the ability to be saved for later and some of them even offer new online multiplayer options that you can experience with people on your friends list.
Read more Nintendo Switch Mario Red & Blue Special Edition Review
I really enjoyed getting to just sit down and play the very first Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros 3 again.
But that's just the problem the word again. Nintendo has
once again required us to pay for games that we have played hundreds of times
gamers bought them originally back in the 80s.
Then again on the Wii Virtual Console, then again maybe with Nintendo entertainment center classic console that came out a few years back and now again with this $20 subscription service.
I scrolled through the colorful menu kind of played. A lot of the different games and after about an hour, I began to feel some disappointment creeping up as I began to realize what had been omitted with this service.
Where the Super Nintendo games, where are the Nintendo 64 games, where are even the GameCube and Game Boy Advance games?
There was such a large opportunity to just knock this
service out of the park.
If Nintendo had included even just a few of the best games from these various systems libraries.
But once again Nintendo has kept their tight grips securely around. A lot of these games that haven't seen the light of day in years.
Also if you don't log in at least once a week, you lose the ability to play these NES games without an internet connection, so pretty lame.
One new feature that I haven't to try it are the new NES controllers that Nintendo released alongside this new online service.
Buy Super Nintendo Controller for SNES Nintendo Switch Online : https://amzn.to/33z3gJO
Buy 8Bitdo SN30 Pro Controller : https://amzn.to/3bdTNMb
The controllers look awesome, but they're just too expensive at $60 that's as much as the NES classic system itself costs just go out and buy that. I personally think that $30 maybe even 35 or $40 would have been a much better number to throw out. There as the price.
One last thing to know is that voice chat is still built into the Nintendo switch online app rather than into the system itself.
I think that this is a poor decision on Nintendo's part as a lot of the features in the app could easily be imported into the switch system itself.
Because just being honest that smartphone app is still very bare-bones a year and a half later.
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They haven't done much to beef it up. So just bring it on to the switch give us one last step.
I don't want to have to take my smart phone out of my pocket and have it sitting next to me just put it on the switch Nintendo.
Please, it's important that fans keep talking about this. Because it'll help improve the functionality of the switch, just put it on the switch.
Even though I've been kind of ripping on this new service. I'm a huge fan of Nintendo and I don't want to just leave you all in a state of negativity about it.
I think that this service has huge potential going forward if Nintendo can listen to the fans and really hone in on those few key areas that are lacking like allowing all games to be saved to the cloud.
They need to bring more classic games from different eras of Nintendo and they need to give the online service hub with an eShop and more complete feel.
But at the end of the day the service only costs $20 which is a
solid $40 less than the competition on the ps4 and Xbox one, feel like most
people will view $20 a year as worth.
It just for the ability to play online games.
At the end of the day even if all of these new features that are being added on to online seemed kind of half-baked. They are just add-ons.
If Nintendo can just keep on improving this service it might just end up being one of the most valuable $20 you've ever spent.
So should you just rush out right now? The new subscription service for most people probably buy this service to play multiplayer online game in switch. Because that's going to be what most people are playing online.
Anyways the science fortnight which is still free to play without the subscription service, so also the service may see some improvements.
I think if you buy this service right now, you are probably a very specific type of person. Maybe you're someone who plays splatoon too every single week or you're an avid Mario Cart online gamer and just paying the $20 would be worth it to you.
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So you can keep on gaming and you get those added features on that you know. What are honestly kind of nice in the end the new Nintendo switch online subscription service, feels kind of like well.
Nintendo itself it's got one foot in the future and one foot
in the past.
Which is often to its detriment as fans keep wanting the latest and greatest and most cutting-edge.
But at the end of the day, you could just say no to your next three or four Starbucks drinks.
You were gonna order and voila there's your $20 for the subscription service.
Thank you guys so much for reading this article today, if you're new visit my blog, I make review nintendo switch games, tips for nintendo switch gamer and you can reading some of my Nintendo switch article that I've made in the past right here.
You guys are so awesome, you're the best. I hope you have a great week I'll see you in the next one.
