So with the recent reveal of the price point of the Switch Online expansion, I am seeing people very divided on the service, so I figure I would step in and give my thoughts on it. Just to clarify what it is exactly you are getting and paying for and what you get, I'll go over the price options for a full year.
For the normal Switch Online twenty dollars. This comes with the ability to play online as well as the ability to play any SNES or NES games available in the library. This is updated monthly with a few new games, and they do have a solid list available right now. While there are definitely some missing classics, especially if you are an RPG enthusiast like myself (Though it does have Breath of Fire I and II), you have a lot of must-have SNES and NES games like all the main Mario Titles, all three Donkey Kong Counties, and plenty of others. More so, you can play all of these classics online, something you could never do (officially) before. It's also the cheapest of any online console service. Even if you just want the service to play online, the base value of the Switch is the best deal for any console.
That said, we aren't here to discuss the base package. I will say if you don't care about the older games and just want online, there is going to be no reason to get the Expansion. What we see with the expansion is an increase in price to fifty dollars, so an extra thirty a year. The offering here is the ability to stream N64 games and Genesis games. For an opening appetizer, this is definitely coming front-loaded with some great games. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of TimeSuper Mario 64, Starfox 64, and Mario Kart 64 for the N64 game. Remember also, these will be playable online (I believe, I will edit in a note if I end up being wrong). I would love to play some Mario Kart 64 with some of my long-distance friends, along with other games that may potentially drop in the future (Licensing issues could cause problems for games like GoldenEye and Conkers, but with Banjo coming in the near future it's not entirely unfeasible, just don't get your hopes up for those two). The Genesis games also have a good list, but to be honest, Sega has whored out so many collections of their games over the years this is almost not worth talking about. If you don't happen to have one of the twenty collection releases they have done over the years, it's a nice bonus to take into account. If it's all you care about you're better off grabbing one of the many collections I feel, though it remains to be seen what gets added in the future.
I want to point out that even at fifty dollars, Nintendo Online Expansion is still going to be the cheapest of the online services, beating out the cheapest offerings of sixty for either Microsoft or Sony (Again, I'm only looking at the year-long offers, which are the best value per month). That said, Sony and Microsoft offer free games of their own while you are subscribed to their services. If you are having to pick between online services, it comes down to which one is offering the better selection of games, and if that ten dollars a year difference is enough to matter to you. I think ten dollars is a small enough difference that for most people the best service to get will rely purely on the games available.
Without comparing the competition, right now the only major draw to the Expansion is going to be the available N64 games, and to a lesser extent Genesis games (If we didn't have so many collections already It would be a bigger deal). And this is where I am going to be a bit of a downer and say right now, out of the gate, I don't think I'd say the expansion is worth it. Don't get me wrong, while it's only a few games there are some absolute bangers, but right now there just aren't enough games to make it worthwhile. Even if Majora's Mask dropped, which it will be soon they said, I would really be hard-pressed to say it would make it worth it, and that is my favorite Zelda game. There are two things that are going to decide whether or not this is going to be worth it.
Streaming games of a certain size stops working well, an issue that occurred with Playstion Now. The question is, are the N64 games going to stream well? If not, will there be partial downloads available to help compensate? If they don't stream well, this entire service will be worthless. An extra thirty dollars for games that are difficult to play is not something I can justify. The second is whether or not the games to come are going to make it worthwhile. We already know a few that are coming that are fantastic, but will there be enough to keep that up? I will tell you if we get Golden Eye and Conkers, this pass will immediately become a must for me. I would love to play Conkers multiplayer again, especially online with a lot of my friends.
There is also the question of if they add more consoles to their online streaming services, will that be part of Expansion as well? If so, it will definitely be some great added value. Though there is no word on that.
In the end, it comes down to if the N64 and Genesis will continue to get some great titles released for them to decide if it's worth it. So as of now, I don't think it's worth it, but come six months' time? We may have a list of titles that will make it worth your while.
The truth is I had not heard about this news until I saw your post, in my opinion I think that any retro compatible option should be free, no matter what console it is or what era, I say this because it is the same company who made those other games, so it seems absurd to me that you pay for the same console twice. 😵
You don't have to buy them twice if you already own those older consoles and games though, so.... I'm not really sure what your point here is. Not saying you're wrong, I just really don't know what you're trying to say.
I mean, the backward compatibility of the old consoles should be in the Swith because it is the newest Nintendo console no matter the cost, that's what I mean.
Even if that were the case, it wouldn't have anything to do with the streaming service. Backwards compatibility would mean you could use your old cartridge's or disks. This is something that has only been done on three consoles, and now it's happening on a fourth, in a limited degree, with the XBox one X. Either way, even on all of those systems you still have to pay for the games. Even if the Switch were backwards compatible, that isn't going to mean the online service should then also be free for the game streaming.
Are you saying that games from older generations should just always be free on the newest consoles? Cause if not, I still don't understand the point you are trying to make.