NSO NES and SNES Libraries (Switch):
I've finally hit a point of pandemic boredom in which I signed up for the free NSO trial to check out the pre-modern game libaries. I've poked around a good bit, and probably would have gotten the $4 worth for the month already. I'll probably let it go at least one billing cycle to pursue a few of the titles further.
The good:
-Fire and Ice (NES): I'd never heard of this before, but it's right up my ally in terms of puzzle platforming, and has a really nice presentation to boot for an 8-bit game.
-Rygar (NES): I'd heard of this, but never played it, and after putting in 30 minutes or so it seems like a smoothly executed and ambitious semi-open adventure.
-Joe and Mac 2 (SNES): Not the deepest experience in the world, but it looks great and plays well, with a pleasing overworld map that lets you chart your own path through the levels.
-Pop'n Twinbee (SNES): This is I think the first official US release? Regardless, I'm really enjoying the atmosphere even if I'm not the biggest shmup guy.
-Super Punch Out (SNES): The greater complexity compared to the NES/Wii game is throwing me off, but I didn't give it long. I intend to give this one the old college try, though, as I really liked the NES game from the Wii virtual console and loved the Wii remake, one of the undersung games of that gen.
-Kirby's Dream Course (SNES): I had a bad rental of this or something as a young one, and wasn't intending to put much time into this, but I surprised myself by clearing the first world, and think I'll enjoy the rest as well now that I "get" golf as an adult (the game does a really lousy job of introducing its mechanics, though, and applies the concept of spin incorrectly).
-Crystalis (NES): Haven't gone too far, but this seems like a promising late-era Zelda-like.
-Nightshade (NES): I don't know how much time I'll put into this, but I'd somehow never heard of this before, an ambitious, wry point and click adventure game (shame about the real-time combat).
-Overall, I really enjoy the texture of these apps. Everything is super-quick and the library presentation reminds me of that game show from my childhood where the winner gets to run through an obstacle course full of game boxes velcroed to wall, grabbing them and sticking them on their jumpsuit. The games all look great to me on a modern screen and the save states and rewind feature make a bunch of these games actually playable in a modern context.
The bad:
-Most of the non-Nintendo games on there. Granted, just having the first-party library up is a very good persistent value, as these are some of the best games ever made to this day, but I've played most of those to death long ago. I'm sure it's a tough sell for Nintendo to get third parties to put their roms up on there compared to the virtual console days, but there are some real headscratchers that would probably be better off not being available on the service at all. It would be a harmless novelty for stuff like Tuff E Nuff or Psycho Dream to be on there if there was 100+ games on the SNES app, but as it is that kind of thing is a real headscratcher and probably not great to have up for a naive audience just checking out the earlier generations for the first time.