A classic Nintendo 64 game comes to Switch this month
As far as Nintendo 64 games are concerned, Paper Mario is right up there as one of the classics. A spiritual successor to Super Mario RPG on the Super NES, Paper Mario blazed a new trail for Mario role-playing games when it was originally released. Paper Mario is a fantastic game, and if you’re subscribed to Nintendo Switch Online with the Expansion Pack, it’s well worth checking out when it arrives on the service later this month.
Does Paper Mario make NSO’s Expansion Pack worth it?
It’s no secret that the price of Nintendo Switch Online’s Expansion Pack is a tough pill to swallow. A standard Nintendo Switch Online subscription costs $20 a year and allows you to play online multiplayer games, allows access to libraries of NES and SNES games, and includes a few freebies like Tetris 99 and Pac-Man 99. Nintendo’s online service is not great – something we’ve mentioned in reviews for games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Super Mario Maker 2 – but $20 is still a reasonable price considering what a subscription includes.The Expansion Pack, on the other hand, adds collections of Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis games along with access to the Happy Home Paradise DLC for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a DLC that costs $25 to buy outright. The Expansion Pack adds another $30 per year to the Nintendo Switch Online subscription cost, bringing the total to $50 a year. Is the Expansion Pack worth subscribing to?
Simply put: probably not for most. If you’re only interested in playing Nintendo 64 or Sega Genesis games, the Expansion Pack definitely isn’t worth it. It is, admittedly, impossible to play most of the N64 games included in the Switch Online Expansion Pack on modern platforms, but there are plenty of options for revisiting the many of the Sega Genesis games that are included because Sega loves its compilations.
The sole addition of Paper Mario doesn’t really improve the Expansion Pack’s value proposition. Perhaps there will be a point in the future where there are enough Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis games to warrant the extra cost. Still, for now, the Expansion Pack should only really be a consideration for Animal Crossing fans who want the Happy Home Paradise expansion in addition to the N64 and Genesis titles.
Keyword: Paper Mario launches N64 era on Switch Online but doesn’t nail the landing