The first game update for Nintendo Switch Online’s pricier Expansion Pack has been announced, as the original N64 Paper Mario will be joining the subscription service on 10th December.
That’s it. Just Paper Mario. There’s a solitary game being added to the Expansion Pack’s selection of N64 games when I’m sure many would have hoped for a somewhat more generous set of additions.
Paper Mario first released in 2000, toward the end of the N64 console’s life, and it was immediately popular amongst critics and gamers. The original game tells a fun story, with Bowser cooking up yet another dastardly plot, but it’s all skewed through the lens of Mario and all the other characters being 2D paper cutouts.
The Paper Mario franchise has become a staple of Nintendo’s consoles since its N64 debut, a stylish successor the Super Mario RPG and with the Mario & Luigi series coming along during the Game Boy Advance era as a handheld RPG counterpart. Just last year, Paper Mario returned with Paper Mario: The Origami King, though for many fans, it’s the N64 original and GameCube sequel that remain the true high-points of the franchise.
Further Reading: Is Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack’s N64 emulation good enough?
It’s a fan-pleasing addition to Expansion Pack, but not the kind of update that people will have been hoping for. Nintendo Switch Online – Expansion Pack launched at the end of October, featuring a higher price point than the regular Switch Online subscription but promising a growing library of N64 and Sega Mega Drive games. The initial offering included nine N64 titles, with games like Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Lylat Wars and more included.
However, as soon as Expansion Pack launched, users complained about the quality of the game emulation that Nintendo was providing, with graphical deficiencies compared to previous efforts that weren’t always consistent or authentic to the original games. Nintendo has yet to address these complaints, though it’s doubtful that they’ll make a big song and dance about it, because that would mean admitting anything was wrong in the first place. Still, we’re holding out hope that they will go back and improve the emulation quality, and that Paper Mario comes out the door in as fine a form as you could hope.
Source: YouTube
