Japanese video game and entertainment titan, Nintendo has recently announced the release of the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack. The new expansion pack is an addition to Nintendo’s already existing Nintendo Switch Online membership pack.
Getting its start in 1889, via its creator Nintendo Karura and his hanafuda playing cards, Nintendo has amassed fame and adoration from children and parents and everything in between. The trillionaire company initially announced the release of the online service, Nintendo Switch Online on the 18th of September in 2018.
Audiences were originally offered individual memberships or family memberships by Nintendo. Customers who opted for an individual membership had the rare choice to either pay every month, every three months or every 12 months. The Nintendo Switch Online cost individual users, $4 every month, $8 tri-monthly, and just $20 annually if a user chose yearly payments. Individual users even had the option of a free trial for 7 days.
Groups of customers that had opted together for the family membership only had the one choice of paying for the membership every year. It costs groups of two to eight users $35 per year.
Although the cost and payment style between the two memberships may be different, all of the same games were still offered. Such as:
- Mario Kart 64 (1997)
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)
- Star Fox 64 (1997)
- Mario Tennis (2000)
- Super Mario 64 (1996)
- Dr. Mario 64 (2001)
- Yoshi’s Story (1998)
- WIN BACK: COVERT OPERATIONS (1999)
- Sin & Punishment (2007)
- All Tetris 99 Games
- All PAC-MAN 99 Games
- NES Games (Nintendo Entertainment System)
- Super NES Games (Nintendo Entertainment System)
These memberships offered Nintendo fanatics the ability to pause and save or pick up and play wherever they were as long as they had an internet connection. Membership holders could also play the same games together and share their screens with each other.
Nintendo even had an option where players could use their cursor on their friends’ screen to point things out during game play. The cursor is reportedly in the shape of a hand that can also clap in celebration.
Nintendo users that were 13 years or older, could speak to each other over voice chat via Nintendo’s online smartphone app.
Now, three years later, Nintendo Entertainment Systems added on the expansion pack. All the original benefits remain along with some new ones. Every Nintendo 64 game can now be played with up to 4 players. Membership holders now have access to not only Nintendo Entertainment System’s vast array of games in their library, but also to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Happy Home Paradise DLC. Of course, aside from that, the following, growing list of SEGA Genesis games are now also available to customers:
- Castlevania: Bloodlines
- Contra: Hard Corps
- Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
- Ecco the Dolphin
- Golden Axe
- Gunstar Heroes
- M.U.S.H.A.
- Phantasy Star IV
- Ristar
- Shining Force
- Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- Streets of Rage 2
- Strider
Users who have a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership will now have to pay $49.99 every year. The new price will cost users slightly more than $4 every month.
Group or “family” memberships consisting of 8 people will now have to pay around $10 per person every year which adds up to around $80. As a given, the more users that the family membership is shared amongst, the less expensive it is for each person.
However, long term aficionados that have been using Nintendo Switch Online since before the release of the Expansion Pack, and who plan to switch, may avail a difference in price according to the amount of time left on the original membership.