Every Game Added To NSO's Many Libraries So Far In 2024

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. The PS5 and the Xbox Series X|S are 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. PlayStation has PS Plus, Xbox has Game Pass, and Nintendo has Nintendo Switch Online.

Best Nintendo Switch Games To Play In 2025

Stop endlessly scrolling through the eShop and just pick something from this much more succinct list of great games.

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 the NES, SNES, and Game Boy libraries. If you want access to the Nintendo 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, October 11, 2024, 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.

NES

RC Pro-Am

February 21, 2024

Snake Rattle 'n' Roll

February 21, 2024

Cobra Triangle

July 4, 2024

Donkey Kong Jr. Math

July 4, 2024

Famicom Mukashibanashi: Shin Onigashima (Japan-Only)

July 4, 2024

Golf

July 4, 2024

Gomoku Norabi Renju (Japan-Only)

July 4, 2024

Mach Rider

July 4, 2024

Mahjong (Japan-Only)

July 4, 2024

Solar Jetman

July 4, 2024

Urban Champion

July 4, 2024

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.

SNES

Battletoads In Battlemaniacs

February 21, 2024

Killer Instinct

February 21, 2024

Marvelous: Mohitotsu no Takarajima (Japan-Only)

April 12, 2024

Super R-Type

April 12, 2024

Wrecking Crew '98

April 12, 2024

Big Run

September 18, 2024

Battletoads Double Dragon

September 18, 2024

Cosmo Gang The Puzzle

September 18, 2024

Kunio-kun no Dodgeball da yo Zen’in Shūgō!

September 18, 2024

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 when Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat were 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.

Game Boy And Game Boy Color

Dr. Mario

March 12, 2024

Mario Golf

March 12, 2024

Mario Tennis

March 12, 2024

Alleyway

May 15, 2024

Baseball

May 15, 2024

Super Mario Land

May 15, 2024

Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (Japan-Only)

May 15, 2024

Mega Man: Dr. Wiley's Revenge

June 7, 2024

Mega Man 2

June 7, 2024

Mega Man 3

June 7, 2024

Mega Man 4

June 7, 2024

Mega Man 5

June 7, 2024

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 and Game Boy Color library 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 Golf and Mario Tennis, installments in series that have continued into the Switch era, and Dr. Mario, a variant of the mascot so popular that he's a playable character on the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster.

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 of Mega Man games 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.

Nintendo 64 (Expansion Pack)

Blast Corps

February 21, 2024

Extreme-G

April 24, 2024

Iggy's Reckin' Balls

April 24, 2024

Perfect Dark

June 18, 2024

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

June 18, 2024

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 on Nintendo Switch right 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 added Perfect Dark and 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.

Game Boy Advance (Expansion Pack)

Golden Sun

January 17, 2024

Golden Sun: The Lost Age

January 17, 2024

Mother 3 (Japan-Only)

February 21, 2024

F-Zero: Maximum Velocity

March 29, 2024

The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past and Four Swords

June 18, 2024

Metroid: Zero Mission

June 18, 2024

Densetsu no Starfy

July 12, 2024

Densetsu no Starfy 2

July 12, 2024

Densetsu no Starfy 3

July 12, 2024

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team

August 9, 2024

F-Zero Climax

October 11, 2024

F-Zero: GP Legend

October 11, 2024

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. Both Golden Sun games on the GBA kicked off the platform's 2024 on NSO, and F-Zero: Maximum Velocity followed it. Another way to experience F-Zero on 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 mainline Pokemon games will eventually be added to NSO found its way onto the Expansion pack. Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team is 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-Zero has 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 launched Sonic and Sega into 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 can 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.

Nintendo Switch Online

Nintendo Switch Online not only lets you play various games online with other NSO subscribers, but also grants you access to growing libraries of classic games. Upgrade to the Expansion Pack and you'll unlock other perks including even more console libraries and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's Booster Course Pass.

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