N64 collection goes live on Nintendo Switch, and it’s-a me, disappointment

Enlarge / We wish we had better news to report about Nintendo's first easy-to-access N64 collection in a long time. Alas. (credit: Aurich Lawson | Nintendo)

On Monday, Nintendo released its latest collection of emulated N64 games-and its first since the Wii U's Virtual Console-as a package of games exclusively available on its Switch consoles. Unfortunately, the result isn't exactly the Super Mario 64-styled "wa-hoo!" we'd been hoping for.

After years of "N64 mini" rumors (which have yet to come to fruition), Nintendo announced plans to honor its first fully 3D gaming system late last month in the form of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. Pay a bit extra, the company said, and you'd get a select library of N64 classics, emulated by the company that made them, on Switch consoles as part of an active NSO subscription.

One month later, however, Nintendo's sales proposition grew more sour. That "bit extra" ballooned to $30 more per year, on top of the existing $20/year fee-a 150 percent jump in annual price. Never mind that the price also included an Animal Crossing expansion pack (which retro gaming fans may not want) and Sega Genesis games (which have been mostly released ad nauseam on every gaming system of the past decade). For many interested fans, that price jump was about the N64 collection.

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