If Nintendo Switch Online Adds Game Boy, Why Not Throw In GBA, Too? – Talking Point

Our pictured GBA has a fancy screen mod, think of it as a GBA ‘OLED Model’ (Image: Nintendo Life)

Nintendo Switch Online has been relatively static, as a service, for quite some time. We have had some turnover of free online games, most recently with Pac-Man 99, and a slow and steady influx of NES and SNES titles, but generally it’s been a quiet time. Aside from some oft-demanded stand-outs that remain absent, the NES and SNES apps have looked rather bereft of ideas, adding little-heard-of games that are certainly worth a play but, ultimately, don’t get the pulse racing.

With Switch selling so well and the company being in a ludicrously strong financial position, Nintendo isn’t exactly under pressure to make headlines and win over long-time fans with more retro games in NSO. Yet reports of Game Boy and Game Boy Color being on the way soon aren’t necessarily surprising – emulation for these titles won’t present any problems, and it’ll help shift the narrative a little around the service. It can follow a similar pattern to that seen with the NES and SNES apps, moving us away from the Virtual Console past — where the original GB and its Color brethren featured on 3DS — and into the subscription app world.

The Game Boy library will be welcome on Switch, of course
The Game Boy library will be welcome on Switch, of course (Image: Nintendo Life)

Of course, plenty will continue to want Nintendo 64 and GameCube, but let’s park that for now as, let’s be honest, Nintendo is evidently in no rush to offer those libraries, at least not beyond one-off limited time releases.

Game Boy Advance, though, will be a disappointing absentee if it does turn out to be missing from a potential update in the coming months. The online chatter is that GBA isn’t planned to arrive alongside its predecessors, which would be a missed opportunity for various reasons. One big reason is Metroid Dread.

Nintendo is in the middle of giving Metroid Dread a major marketing push ahead of its release on 8th October, and that’s likely to ramp up further close to release. A big part of the marketing has been the regular ‘reports’ that give background on the series, mechanics and lore. These reports are so notable that the most recent trailer was tied directly to one of them, focusing on some of the foes coming in Dread.

What’s been clear from marketing and promotion is that Metroid Dread, also sort-of called ‘Metroid 5’, will be directly following on from ‘Metroid 4’, or Metroid Fusion as most of us know it.

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