Out in May
Nintendo’s Switch NES suite is expanding yet again this month with three games, according to a listing on the official site: Donkey Kong Jr., Vs. Excitebike, and Clu Clu Land.
There’s a bit of history with all three of these games, so I’ll go over them for a second for all five of you who still care about NES games on modern systems (I salute you). Vs. Excitebike is basically akin to a “Super Turbo” fighting game expansion. In fact that comparison is more apt than usual here, as the core addition is a two-player versus mode on top of new music and the option to save created tracks (imagine that being a big deal back in the day).
Donkey Kong Jr. flipped everything upside down as you actually squared off against Mario/Jumpman, who is now the villain. With wildly different vine-based controls it was a pretty amazing follow-up to what has since become one of the most iconic arcade releases of all time.Clu Clu Land might not be as impactful as the former two, but I actually managed to experience its maze navigation gameplay before I got my hands on Pac-Man back in the day, so it has a special place in my own personal history book.
As a reminder, three NES releases on Switch in the west is not normal: it only started happening recently. Previously, three NES drops were related to Japan-only, whereas the west got two. That said, you can easily just log in with a region-free Japanese eShop account and peruse whatever library you want.
Switch Online [Nintendo via Nintendo Life]