Nintendo has dropped four new games into the Nintendo Switch Online SNES catalog. It’s quite a surprising lineup, especially if you’re digging the Japanese games on the service.
The one that I assume the most people reading this will recognize is Battletoads and Double Dragon (or just Battletoads Double Dragon; the logo isn’t clear). It’s another early Rare game for the pile. As the name implies, it crosses over Technos’ Double Dragon with Rare’s Battletoads. It was developed by Rare with very little input from Technos, but they sort of tried to find a mid-point between the two series. I did a full write-up of it a while ago, but I think this summarizes it: “It’s not a great Battletoads title (if one happens to exist), and it’s not a very good Double Dragon game, but there are enough appreciable factors here to keep it from being a bad game.”
The other three games are Japan-only titles. There’s an SNES port of Big Run, a raster racing game that was originally released in arcades in 1989. It’s based on the Paris-Dakar Rally event. By many accounts, it’s not great, but I have a soft spot for raster racers. There’s also a falling block puzzle game called Cosmo Gang: The Puzzle. It’s a cute falling blocks-style puzzle game It was also originally an arcade game (1992). I have less context with this one, but the trailer makes it look cute.
Finally, there is Kunio-kun no Dodgeball da yo: Zen’in Shūgō! This is sort of one of Super Dodgeball’s sequels. As a Kunio/Nekketsu/River City/Downtown fan, I actually have the Super Famicom cartridge for this. It’s… Like, it’s Super Dodgeball but on more powerful hardware. As such, it’s still fun, but the single-player is massively unbalanced. You assign skill points to your team, and it’s incredibly easy to overpower your team. On the plus side, it’s four-player, and if I remember correctly, you can play the main campaign coop.
These four games are now available on the Nintendo Switch Online Super Nintendo app.
Published: Sep 18, 2024 08:41 am