Nintendo doesn’t put current AAA releases into its subscription the way the pricier Xbox and PlayStation services do. It gives you decades of back catalog instead. That trade works out far better than the price difference suggests.
Yes, a Nintendo Switch Online membership is handy for playing with friends. The library is where the real value sits.
Nintendo has published so many masterpieces over the years that a list like this could run forever. These five aren’t the only inclusions that earn a 10/10. They’re the ones I’d put up against anything.
The Mario sequel where everything kicked into high gear
The original Super Mario Bros. still holds up as a tightly designed, consistently fun platformer. Super Mario Bros. 2 is great too, whether you mean the punishing Japanese sequel known as The Lost Levels or the American version built out of Doki Doki Panic.
Then came Super Mario Bros. 3.
It returns to what made the first game work and then piles on an overwhelming number of new ideas. The Goomba’s Shoe lets Mario stomp spiky enemies. The P-Wing hands him flight. The Tanooki Suit is the cream of the crop, throwing in a tail attack, gliding and invincibility via a stone Tanooki statue.
Coming to it from modern Mario games is a shock if you’re not leaning on save states. There’s a save system, but limited lives mean stringing together several levels at a time to reach key checkpoints, and those levels are packed with hazards that would make the New Super Mario Bros. games shake in their boots.
Worth every retry. NES games often feel like rough drafts for their SNES sequels. This one never does.
The battle royale hiding inside a puzzle game
Most of the Nintendo Switch Online library is classic material, but subscribers get a few modern things too. Tetris 99 is the standout, taking the original formula into 99-player lobbies that give the game its name.
You’re clearing lines, same as always. Clearing them also fires Garbage Blocks at other players, which makes everything faster and meaner than standard Tetris. You’re playing defense and offense at once, trying not to drown while keeping the pressure on.
F-Zero 99 later stretched the idea to racing, and it’s another strong free inclusion.
If every other battle royale has started to feel like a chore, this is the one that resets your palate. Winning is genuinely hard. There are a lot of very good Tetris players out there. The losing is still fun.
The Zelda nobody talks about enough
You could fill this entire list with Zelda and nobody would argue. A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker: all obvious picks. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap isn’t as widely loved, which is precisely why it deserves the shout.
One catch. It’s a Game Boy Advance title, so it’s only free with an NSO + Expansion Pack subscription.
The pixel art is some of the most beautiful ever made. By then the franchise had moved its attention to 3D consoles, and The Minish Cap made the case that the top-down approach still had plenty left. Shrinking into the Lilliputian world of the Minish turns leaves and blades of grass into full environmental features, and that’s before you get to the buildings and interiors.
The story holds up its end too, swapping the usual Ganon business for a villain named Vaati. A Link Between Worlds and Echoes of Wisdom have since sharpened the top-down formula. On pure charm, nothing has caught this one yet.
The SNES RPG that flopped and then ate everything
At some point the best Nintendo Switch Online games start blurring into a sea of familiar faces. From the NES to the GameCube, Mario and Zelda are always in the conversation. Fire Emblem and F-Zero break things up a little. Earthbound breaks them up completely.
It sold poorly in North America and then spent years becoming one of the defining games of the SNES era. The offbeat humor and the constant inversion of RPG tropes made it unlike anything else on the shelf at the time, and that attitude has been copied ever since. Undertale, Omori: the DNA is right there.
Its predecessor, Mother/Earthbound Beginnings, was just as inventive. Earthbound tightened the formula into something faster and more consistently fun. Mother 3 is also great, but it’s never had an official Western release, which leaves Earthbound standing alone here.
Mario’s first 3D game still gets the movement right
Super Mario Bros. 3 already covers the franchise on this list. Doubling up anyway is unavoidable, because Super Mario 64 set a standard its own excellent successors have struggled to clear. It’s another Expansion Pack exclusive, so factor that into your subscription math.
Nintendo didn’t translate Mario’s 2D mechanics into 3D at a 1:1 rate. The studio rebuilt how he moves, pushing momentum to the front and letting him punch enemies directly.
Feels great immediately. The level design is what lifts it higher. The levels are inventive and atmospheric, they give you more freedom than any Mario game before them, and every platform sits exactly where his momentum wants it to be. Reaching the end of a stage stops being the point. Digging out stars through wildly different challenges takes over.
Give the camera a few minutes. Once you’ve stopped fighting it, you’ll notice this platformer hasn’t aged a day in any way that matters.
