Have you played these extremely obscure new Switch Online NES games?


Kung-Fu Heroes and Vice: Project Doom

Well Nintendo, this is definitely a strategy.

I've always said, even before a paid Nintendo service was announced, that Nintendo could benefit from putting all of their first-party games onto an on-demand service. Take the ROMs they already have the full rights to, slap "every first-party NES game playable with a subscription!" on the box, and be done with it: drip-feed SNES games after that. A $20 Switch Online subscription so people can buy their nostalgia back is an impulse POS (point of sale) buy if I ever saw one.

Instead, in a cadence that gets absolutely roasted constantly, Nintendo is doling out a select few NES games a month, and many of which are not those quality first-party classics you remember. Like this month for example, when the publisher unleashes Kung-Fu Heroes and Vice: Project Doom onto the service. I didn't play Kung-Fu Heroes until several generations later, and when I did, it made me glad I missed out and didn't waste a rental on it. For me, Vice: Project Doom will always be the "game with the Die Hard cover." But Project Doom doesn't feature a building full of hostages: it's actually about aliens.

Project Doom is a much more interesting release in that it was developed by Aicom (of Pulstar fame), and actually isn't bad? Considering that Ninja Gaiden is also on the service it makes for a nice follow-up, and some elements actually remind me of Sunsoft's rad Batman NES game. But Project Doom is ultimately just one 28 year old game on a paid service: if people didn't care about it then, they probably won't now.

I think the time for Nintendo to "step it up" in terms of their NES program is over, but they still have time to get the long-rumored SNES portion right.

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Chris Carter
Chris CarterReviews Director, Co-EIC   gamer profile




Filed under... #NES #Nintendo #Nintendo Switch #Nintendo Switch Online #retro


