Nintendo has added a trio of classic Game Boy titles to Nintendo Switch Online with Super Mario Land, Alley, and Baseball all hitting the subscription service.
Nintendo shared the news via social media this morning, with a simple post that includes brief snippets of each newly added game in action.
Super Mario Land first appeared on the Game Boy in Japan and North America back in 1989 before finally arriving in Europe a little over a year later and is a landmark title in Nintendo’s back catalogue, being the first Mario title to appear on the original DMG.
Alleyway, another Game Boy launch title is little more than a clone of Atari’s Breakout, albeit one that sees Mario piloting the paddle at the bottom of the screen as they deflect and rebound a perpetually bouncing ball into score blocks at the top of the play area. Despite Nintendo copying Atari’s homework with Alleyway’s premise, the Game Boy version still holds up incredibly well thanks to its level variety and addictive, instantaneously gratifying gameplay.
Baseball joined Tennis as the available sports game for the launch of the Game Boy in 1989 and provides a basic recreation of America’s favourite bat-and-ball game. While Baseball lacks the depth of its real-life counterpart and is especially bare-boned compared to modern videogame versions of the sport, Baseball on the Game Boy’s simplicity allows players to quickly jump into a game and start hitting home runs without much fuss at all.
Nintendo Switch On Time
Fan reactions to the announcement of Super Mario Land, Alleyway, and Baseball arriving on Nintendo Switch Online have so far seemed overwhelmingly positive, with the majority of the five hundred replies to the announcement on Twitter praising the new additions.
Unsurprisingly, there’s also a small minority of players questioning why Nintendo took so long to add Super Mario Land to its Switch Online service. As a launch title for the Game Boy that stars Mario, the absence of Super Mario Land from Nintendo Switch Online has been rather curious.
At this point in time, we know better than to question the logic behind Nintendo’s decision making and we’re just glad that more players can now experience these groundbreaking titles on a modern platform.
