Switch Online Rare games

Nintendo Announces New Rare Games for Switch Online

The recent Nintendo Direct: Partner Showcase proved the company is playing nice with one of its competitors, Xbox. Rare, which is now owned by Microsoft, is having five of its classic games added to Switch Online.

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You can check out the official announcement from Nintendo below:

There is a good amount of variety being offered. Players will get two games for NES, two for SNES, and one for N64. The titles are Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll, R.C. Pro-Am, Killer Instinct, Battletoads in Battlemaniacs, and Blast Corps. These Rare titles are available for the first time on a Nintendo system since their original launch, and players don’t have to wait because, as the trailer reveals, they’re coming to Switch Online today, Feb. 21.

Related: Is Palworld on Nintendo Switch?

I am stoked that all of these games are now available on Switch, but I’m definitely most excited to play Killer Instinct and Blast Corps again. Killer Instinct, which started as an arcade game in the ’90s, has an amazing soundtrack and ridiculous combos, and Blast Corps provides hours of entertainment through sheer destruction alone as players break things in the way of a nuclear missile carrier. There’s just nothing better than that.

Slowly but surely, Rare Replay‘s catalog is being added to Switch Online. Games like Jet Force Gemini and Banjo-Kazooie are already available on the service. However, I do wonder why Donkey Kong 64 isn’t on it yet. Nintendo seemed to have little trouble bringing the Donkey Kong Country trilogy to the app due to them owning the Donkey Kong brand, after all. In any case, bring in Perfect Dark next, Nintendo – it’s the right thing to do!

If you’re interested in more Nintendo content, here’s an article about how the Switch 2 might have a massive screen.


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Arthur Damian
Arthur Damian has been covering the video game industry for over ten years, and joined The Escapist in 2022. He is a huge fan of platformers, indies, and fighting games, and strives to cover them for The Escapist every chance he gets. Arthur received his Bachelor’s Degree in English from Brooklyn College in 2009. He is also the Editor-in-Chief over at That VideoGame Blog. When he isn’t writing, Arthur enjoys playing games on his Switch and PlayStation 5, and sings the praises of the greatest video game ever, Chrono Trigger, to anyone who will listen.