Daylight Savings must have thrown Nintendo for a loop, because they’ve released March’s new additions to the NES library on Switch a day earlier than scheduled.
As part of Nintendo’s premium online service, the publisher offers Switch owners access to an app that serves as a digital arcade of classic games. They typically add two new old-school games to the library each month and occasionally throw in some special editions (SP) of previously-launched games to sweeten the pot. This month, Nintendo is throwing in two standard games and two SP versions.
In the “normal-ass game” category, we’ve got Kid Icarus and StarTropics. The former is a tough but fun platformer pretty much any Nintendo fan is familiar with, while the latter is an action title with something of a cult following. Both are welcome additions to the NES roster, though I’m still holding out for freaking BurgerTime. Give it, you cowards!
As for the SP editions, we’ve got a couple of bangers this month that actually make a couple of classics worth revisiting. Some of the past SP versions simply give you a bunch of upgrades and drop you into a game’s final level so you can finally experience a victory. In my book, that’s not too exciting.
This month, the Kirby’s Adventure SP version lets you jump directly into the games Extra Game mode, something you usually have to beat the regular game to discover. For those looking for more of a challenge, it’s nice to be able to just dive straight into the deep end.
The other SP version is for Zelda II: The Adventures of Link. This version will let you start the game with your Attack, Magic and Life maxed out, which should be a super nice head-start for those who have never managed to clear the game’s seven castles.
If you have Nintendo’s online service and have downloaded the NES app, you can start playing all of these right now. Again, it’s a bit odd that these are a day early, but that’s nothing to complain about.