Bundled in the fire hose of news regarding the Switch 2 Direct is one update sure to please Nintendo Switch Online subscribers: GameCube games are finally arriving on the service.
A number of GameCube games will launch on the subscription service, including The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Soul Calibur 2, F-Zero GX. Nintendo says they will have “clearer image quality” and higher resolution than the original releases.
Nintendo also promised games like Super Mario Sunshine, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, Super Mario Strikers, Chibi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure, Luigi’s Mansion, and Pokémon Colosseum will be available on the service.
The GameCube game library will launch on the same day as the Switch 2, June 5th, and will be available as part of the Nintendo Switch Online: Expansion Pack.
Since its launch in 2018, Nintendo’s slowly built up its online subscription service by offering games from console generations past, alongside other neat features. In addition to enabling cloud saves and online play, the base service offers players access to games from the NES, SNES, and Game Boy libraries, along with the recently added Nintendo Music app. The more expensive Expansion Pack subscription adds games from the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, and Sega Genesis, plus DLC from Mario Kart 8, Animal Crossing, and Splatoon 3.
Before this addition, GameCube games weren’t totally absent from the Switch. Nintendo has remastered or ported a handful of games to the system over the years, including Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and Super Mario Sunshine (before yanking the collection that contained Sunshine from stores).
Last year, Nintendo conducted a secretive online playtest that was initially thought to be for GameCube games with online multiplayer features. That test was actually for an MMO, but at least Nintendo was a little late in adding GameCube games, rather than never doing it at all.