That doesn’t make the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack a total bust. As great as some of these Nintendo 64 games are, it can be hard to properly enjoy them on a Switch controller. There’s no easy or graceful way to map control schemes built for that layout onto the standard Switch controller, and although Nintendo has released a Nintendo 64 controller for the Switch, it’s a limited edition novelty that sold out quickly. Part of that is because of the unusual layout of the Nintendo 64 controller, with a single analogue joystick, four small yellow directional buttons next to the traditional A and B face buttons, and a gun-style trigger button on the bottom. It’s true that the Nintendo 64 emulation on Nintendo Switch Online isn’t the best. What Nintendo probably assumed was a fan-friendly move to make its classics playable today instead left a lot of people feeling angry or disappointed. It even inspired another wave of online discourse about the ethics of illegal emulation in a medium that puts little effort in accurately preserving its history. Between a slim roster of Nintendo 64 games, the extra cost (Nintendo Switch Online is $20 a year, whereas the new Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack costs $50), and the inconsistent quality of the emulation, the general reaction to this move has been less than positive.

So when Nintendo added a number of Nintendo 64 games to an upcharged version of the service in 2021, you’d think fans would have been excited. Not all of the emulation is perfect, and some of the games that have been added to the lineup over the years have been unusual selections, but overall it’s added a lot of value to a service that exists mostly to let people play each other online. Think of it as Nintendo’s old Virtual Console concept, but reborn as something sort of like Xbox Game Pass.

Since the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service launched in 2018, it’s included a collection of classic games from the NES and SNES.

Nintendo 64 games online