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Another trio of classic games has just been announced for the Nintendo subscriber-only Virtual Console replacement, this time Claymates, Jelly Boy and Bombuzal. They all have one very special thing in common: They are all games that no one asked for and that no one wanted.
Nintendo could have released anything – like… let’s say Tied to the earth, just to pull a random name and certainly not loaded with a hat – and instead they gave us a selection of titles that a lot of people must have bothered to research just to be able to determine what they needed. to get angry on social media in the first place.
I’ll say it loud and clear, though: Nintendo made the right choice, and hopefully other versions of Nintendo Switch Online contain games like these.
Between naturally hazy memories and the internet providing an endless font of ‘Best of’ items to browse at your leisure through the best of the SNES library (to which we contribute with pleasure and enthusiasm, of course), the point is that these games that we judge to stand the test of time reflects only a tiny fraction of all the titles available for Nintendo’s 16-bit wonder.
We found ourselves stuck in a highly organized rut of all-too-familiar classics alongside a sprinkle of rarities that no one had bought back then, weird and misunderstood games that were renamed as innovative and experimental decades later. (now that no one had to pay for them), import games that most people couldn’t buy back then, let alone play, and titles that your region might not have never existed. Chrono Trigger is officially a DS game for European Nintendo fans, to give a notable example.
And the unfortunate side effect of all of this is that the best of the best has become our expected benchmark; headlights that shape the genre, oh-so-very-ordinary; the incredibly rare ever more than a few occasional mouse clicks. This latest example is an incredible boon, but it skewed our thinking not only about what SNES was, but also what it could be.
The Nintendo Switch Online library is imbued with an honesty we have lost over the years as we have actively expanded our palettes and wowed our taste buds with retro obscurities.
The Super Nintendo has always been more than Squaresoft’s RPG toy or Rare’s pre-rendered powerhouse, more than something to revere or enjoy, everyone nodded with a uniform and silent awe of the ‘good guys’ games and did not even watch the rest. It was a machine for everyone; for the people who played FIFA, for children captivated by the latest linked cartoon (which at the time would have been something like Animaniacs or Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose), for teens desperate to play Loss it doesn’t matter what their parents say. Bedroom shelves weren’t tilting under the weight of Super Famicom-worthy imports or translation-only oddities in Europe like Pop’n TwinBee and Firefighters in the ’90s, and Nintendo’s “unusual” choice of NSO offerings reflect the larger reality in a way that our own retro discussions rarely do.
The Nintendo Switch Online library is imbued with an honesty that we have lost over the years as we have actively widened our palettes and wowed our taste buds with retro obscurities with all the speed and eagerness that we have already displayed during of taking a new console and voluntarily leaving the previous generations behind. Bombuzal didn’t set the world on fire with its SNES release in 1990 and it’s fair to say it won’t be now either, but it’s something different, something unusual, something that a brother or a school friend would have bought secondhand and placed next to their copy of Wing Commander or Jurassic Park.
Bringing this game back to life on the Switch is a chance for us to reset and readjust, not to play the same best SNES games of all time. Again – games that everyone knew were the best of all time last year, the year before and the decade (s) before this – but to play a wider and “truer” selection of SNES games. To play games that we have never heard of, games that we always intended to try but never quite got right, games that can deliver the most valuable retro experience of all of them: a new experience connected to something old and familiar, something that makes us stop and think, a game we haven’t made up our mind about until the download is complete.
You don’t have to like any of the SNES games from Nintendo’s latest NSO offering or pretend they’re previously hidden gems. They’re not awful, but they’re not that great, and I’m not claiming the opposite. But maybe if you give them a try you’ll find they’re a fun way to kill an afternoon. Or a horrible new experience to whine at a friend the next time you talk to them. Or a happy reminder of how special and ahead of the pack your favorite classic has always been. These versions provide at the very least the context for all the legends already there and the others that you still hope they will add later; a chance to see the ups, downs and more honest examples of “ordinary” available on the hardware.
This article would take a very it would be different if the retro Nintendo Switch selection was offered in turn, swapping out treasured favorites like Yoshi’s Island or Donkey Kong Country for relative unknowns, but as it is, there are now over a hundred games to choose from on the service, including some of the biggest and best Nintendo games of the time, games that offered high prices when new or were so hard to find back then, those that were fortunate enough to do so still tell stories of long drives or incredibly lucky exchanges with friends. These games are always there and ready to play anywhere, anytime for as long as your subscription lasts.
What about those who are not? You can still buy Earthbound direct from Nintendo for 3DS and Wii U right now if you really want to, and for a lot less than even the prettiest cart bought on eBay will set you back as well. If that’s too hard to overcome for some reason, other less legitimate avenues exist – and Jelly Boy will always be ready and waiting for you when you’re done.
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