9 ‘Mature’ Games We’d Love To See On Nintendo Switch Online’s New N64 App

Jorge

7 months ago

Image: Nintendo Life

The arrival of Rareware’s traditional Perfect Dark and Acclaim’s Turok: Dinosaur Hunter by way of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack was a really welcome announcement within the June 2024 Nintendo Direct. Both titles are the primary entries in Nintendo’s new, separate N64 app with a ‘MATURE 17+’ label.

Following on from the Japanese model which launched when GoldenEye got here to the service again in 2023, this ‘adults-only’ app will probably be a repository for any M-rated video games with blood, language, or different naughtiness that the ESRB deems unsuitable for youthful players. In the case of Perfect Dark and Turok, it is the blood and violence that units them aside from the opposite family-friendly N64 video games on NSO.

This opens the door for different adult-only N64 video games to return, in fact, so we have rounded up a variety that we might like to see on Nintendo Switch Online. As you may see, not all of them are stone-cold classics, however we would argue that NSO is probably the perfect and most handy venue for video games that you just would not spend cash on, however are nonetheless intriguing ultimately and price investigating. Very few individuals would purchase a standalone launch of, say, Winback, however as a part of a service you already pay for, you is likely to be charmed by it.

It must also be famous that a few the video games beneath have already been ported to Switch. However, as evidenced by Turok’s arrival, that does not preclude them being added to the Expansion Pack and we would nonetheless respect having ‘free’ entry to them. We’ve omitted the Quakes and Doom 64, however we could not resist including others.

Let’s begin with the obvious and celebrated ‘mature’ recreation within the N64’s library…

Another iconic entry within the N64 catalogue from Rare, Conker’s Bad Fur Day stood out proudly from the pack of cutesy platformers as a fouled-mouthed, blood-filled, scatological comedy. We’re nonetheless slightly blindsided {that a} Nintendo second-party dev put out a recreation filled with swears, to be sincere — even the Xbox remake bleeped most of them out. Conker was a technological triumph for the ageing 64-bit system when it launched in 2001, and whereas the film parodies are very a lot of their time and the humour will not hit the spot with everybody, the drunken squirrel nonetheless is aware of the best way to have time.

“I am the Grrreat Mighty Poo, and I’m going to throw my—” Oh expensive.

Look, we’re not suggesting that is going to be troubling any checklist of the highest N64 video games, however Ion Storm’s FPS is a curio price investigating, and never only for its notorious “John Romero’s about to make you…” advertising and marketing. The titular blade was apparently inspired by Zelda’s Master Sword, and the protagonist, Hiro Miyamoto, was, in fact, a homage to Nintendo’s most celebrated design guru, Eiji Aonuma.

What!? Just checking you have been awake.

The level is, regardless of the sport’s fame as an actual steamer, there’s an intent, historical past, and heritage in Daikatana that makes it of scholarly curiosity to online game lovers. It’s a good candidate for an NSO launch in our opinion. We’d prefer to see the Game Boy Color model added, too.

Duke Nukem 3D got here to the N64 because the imaginatively retitled Duke Nukem 64, however 1999’s Zero Hour was an unique for Nintendo’s console and a recreation we would prefer to see turn out to be extra accessible, primarily as a result of we by no means bought round to taking part in it ourselves.

Again, by all accounts, we’re not a traditional right here, however Eurocom’s third-person spin on the Duke’s M-rated escapades was all the time on our If-we-see-it-cheap checklist of outdated. We by no means did, so get it on NSO, please.

Resident Evil 2 is, in a way, the place the fashionable sequence as we all know it started. The first recreation was terrifying, however the manufacturing values of the unique model — with its tacky FMV sequences and questionable dialogue — put it within the realm of the straight-to-video horror style. That would get retconned with REmake, however Resident Evil 2 upped the ante significantly in each approach and established the appear and feel that the sequence embraced from then on.

The Nintendo 64 model of the PlayStation traditional is a technically incredible port in its personal proper, with the GameDice model being sharper, however arguably much less fascinating. Considering the absence of the authentic Resident Evils on Switch, NSO looks like the right alternative to showcase this one.

Another curio that scratches an identical itch to Doom 64, Hexen additionally arrived on Nintendo’s console in 1997 with an affordable port that had the standard cartridge-based caveats (no FMV or CD-style audio). It gives an honest fantasy-themed tackle a Doom-style shooter, though with GoldenEye arriving only a handful of months later and completely disrupt the FPS scene on consoles, Hexen was destined to be neglected, even with a library as slight because the N64’s.

All these years later, we would bounce on the likelihood to offer it one other shot.

Nightdive’s remasters of the Turok trilogy renders this slightly superfluous, however everybody ought to get to expertise wielding the Cerebral Bore a minimum of one time of their lives. If you are not acquainted with the perfect weapon from Iguana’s 1998 sequel, it shoots a homing bullet/drill that burrows into the cranium of the goal and splatters mind goo everywhere in the store.

Oh, and we would take Rage Wars and South Park in the event that they’re simply throwing Turoks and Acclaim/Iguana first-person shooters at NSO.

The N64 wasn’t blessed with many combating video games — and only a few good or nice ones — so we would gladly take a Mortal Kombat or two. Trilogy was an honest abstract of all MK till that time (1996), albeit with a couple of caveats like lacking characters and inferior audio high quality on N64. Mortal Kombat 4 provided some extra fashionable and satisfyingly ugly fighter fare two years later.

Mythologies: Sub-Zero? For completion’s sake, certain. But that is not the one we would decide first. Or second.

This 1998 FPS has been remastered courtesy of Nightdive Studios (who else?), but it surely hasn’t made it to Switch but. You pilot a hoverbike with full 360-degree motion, so whereas Forsaken is technically a first-person shooter, that label may give fashionable players the fallacious thought should you’re anticipating a bloke operating round with a gun. Set in a dystopian future, you fly round underground tunnels capturing scavengers to a soundtrack of drum and bass. Not an all-timer, however there’s rather a lot to love.

The Switch remaster from Nightdive (is there something that studio hasn’t remastered?) is a good way to play, however for a recreation as undeniably dated as this, the asking worth of ‘Has an NSO Expansion Pack sub’ is probably the easiest way to get new gamers to check out this darkish and obtuse gem. Coming from the identical workforce that developed the 64-bit Forsaken — and based mostly on the Valiant Comics sequence — Michael LeRoi (the titular Man o’ Shadow) has an enormous and disturbing world to discover, and the lily-livered amongst us can be grateful to have save states to fall again on as we achieve this.

Have we missed one thing you’d like to see on Switch? Let us know your favorite adults-only N64 video games from the checklist above on this ballot, and remark beneath if there’s one thing else you fancy.

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