Nintendo just released seven games on their Nintendo Switch Online Nintendo Entertainment System app. Let’s have a look at them!
Here’s what I thought of each:
Nintendo Entertainment System App
| Game | Genre | # of Players | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cobra Triangle | Isometric Racing / Action | 1 | C |
tl;drThere’s some good variety in mission types here, some of which are extremely creative, but the isometric viewpoint makes it difficult to judge where things are, the hit detection is spotty, and some missions are extremely unclear about how you’re meant to do them. The result is a real mixed bag. | |||
| Donkey Kong Jr. Math | Educational | 1-2 Competitive (Local / Online) | C- |
tl;drLoosely based on the original Arcade game Donkey Kong Jr., this game has players climbing vines and jumping across islands to get the numbers and functions to solve math problems. It’s not as bad as you might think. The single-player modes here are all dull, but the core multiplayer can be fun for a little while, once you get used to the controls. However, it’s not very deep, so don’t expect this game to last you long. | |||
| Golf | Sports (Golf) | 1-2 Competitive (Local Alternating / Online Alternating) | F |
tl;drGolf is Nintendo’s first take on the Sport, and by far the worst. By today’s standards this game is virtually unplayable | |||
| Mach Rider | Racing / Action | 1 | D |
tl;drThis Racing Action game with faux 3D visuals is overly difficult, with players needing to track enemies in front of them and in the rear view mirror. While it was visually advanced for its time, the gameplay has not aged well at all. | |||
| Solar Jetman | 2D Space Shooter | 1 | C+ |
tl;drThis game seems like it was intended as a then-modern update on the Atari classic Gravitar, and it largely succeeds at this, though it’s absurdly difficult. Expect to use the rewind feature a lot here. | |||
| The Mystery of Atlantis | Action-Platformer | 1 | D- |
tl;drThis previously Japan-only Action-Platformer is absurdly dated, with terrible platforming and an attack so terrible you’ll prefer to just avoid most enemies rather than fight them. | |||
| Urban Champion | Fighting Game | 1-2 Competitive (Local / Online) | F |
tl;drThis is an absolutely miserable Fighting game with terrible controls and a complete lack of depth. There’s a reason this game has been the butt of jokes every time Nintendo re-releases it instead of countless other, better games in its backlog. | |||
The name of the game in this batch of releases in quantity over quality, because wow there are some stinkers in here. Golf and Urban Champion are easily two of the worst early games Nintendo released in the NES era, and the big mystery of The Mystery of Atlantis is why Nintendo would dredge up this game from the Japan-only Famicom lineup to bring to the US.
I suppose Mach Rider is seen as a cult classic by some Nintendo fans, but its appeal is extremely limited. And Donkey Kong Jr. Math is best viewed as an interesting curio from a time when platform-makers put minimal effort into educational titles to launch with their game system so they could play at the pretense of their videogame platform being good for kids.
The closest this group of releases comes to quality are the two Rare developed games. Cobra Triangle would actually be a pretty good game if it wasn’t for all the issues plaguing it, from poor hit detection to difficulty judging where things are to sudden difficulty spikes to stages where it’s not clear how you’re meant to play them… it’s like this game keeps getting in its own way. As for Solar Jetman, this is a game that I do think is genuinely good, but it’s also so frustratingly tough that I don’t think it’s likely to appeal to most players.
Overall, I think some players may find something in here to like, but for the most part this is a batch of sub-par games. As a reminder, the NES app is still missing solid games like Yoshi’s Cookie and Zoda’s Revenge: StarTropics II, not to mention countless great third-party and licensed games. Instead we’re getting this junk.
tl;dr – The NES app gets seven games this month, and most of them are stinkers. Two Rare developed games are by far the best of the bunch here, but even those games aren’t great. This definitely feels like a way to bulk out the Nintendo Entertainment System app’s number of games rather than its quality of games.
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