One of the perks of Nintendo’s online subscription service for Switch is access to a selection of various legacy titles. Like the virtual console on Wii and Wii-U, games from older Nintendo platforms would periodically be added to the legacy library. Unlike those consoles where players could purchase these virtual console titles, none of these games are available for purchase but can be played as long as the player has an active subscription to the online service. Today the Super Nintendo Entertainment System library has increased by three games: Marvelous: Mōhitotsu no Takarajima, Super R-Type and Wrecking Crew ‘98. Super R-Type seems to be the most noteworthy title, but all of them could be worth checking out.
What Are These Games?
Marvelous: Mōhitotsu no Takarajima, which translates to Marvelous: Another Treasure Island, was only released in Japan on Super Famicom in 1996. It stars three twelve-year-old boys who go on a treasure hunt inspired by tales of pirates and buried treasure. The player controls these three boys in a top-down adventure inspired by The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past where menus pop up whenever they encounter an item with which they can interact. It’s not a game that most westerners are familiar with, but it is nice when Nintendo makes a Famicom game available.
Nintendo Adds a Trio of Titles for NES, SNES Switch Online
Super R-Type was originally released for SNES back in 1991. It was a time when roughly half the SNES titles had Super as part of their title. Super R-Type is a port of the arcade game R-Type II with some additional levels. It’s a challenging horizontally-scrolling spaceship shooter that is marred by issues with slowdown, but still manages to be an enjoyable title for fans of the genre.
Wrecking Crew ‘98 is another Japanese only title making its western debut on Switch’s virtual console. It’s a sequel to the 1984 Wrecking Crew, a game where Mario is the hero before he had his big breakthrough as the mushroom munching plumber in Super Mario Bros. Wrecking Crew ‘98 is an action puzzle game that capitalizes on Mario’s many roles in Nintendo’s catalog. In this action puzzler, Mario returns to the Mushroom Kingdom only to find out Bowser has begun construction on multiple high rise buildings. It’s now hammer time, as Mario can’t have Bower’s buildings blocking out all the sun in the Mushroom Kingdom. The only practical solution is to smash up all the new construction.
