Last year there were whispers that Nintendo was planning to bring Game Boy games to its Nintendo Switch Online subscription service to join the existing libraries of NES and SNES titles, plus the Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis catalogues available as part of the Expansion pack subscription tier.
Now, a leak seems to provide evidence that Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games may be hitting the service soon.
According to @trashbandatcoot on Twitter, files have been leaked onto 4chan which include a Nintendo-developed GBA emulator codenamed “Sloop” and a Game Boy emulator called “Hiyoko”, both developed by Nintendo of Europe’s NERD (Nintendo European Research & Development) team, the Paris-based subsidiary responsible for much of the company’s emulation efforts in recent years — including the emulators in the Classic Mini consoles and the N64/GameCube/Wii emulation in Super Mario 3D All-Stars.
There was even video of the said Game Boy (Advance) emulator supposedly running on the console, although the account that posted it was quickly deleted.
Is this surefire proof indicating that we’ll be playing Game Boy and GBA games on Switch in the nearish future? Let us know your thoughts in the usual place.
[source twitter.com]
WOOOOOOO! LET’S GOOOOOOOO!
Y’all know I’m in the minority as a vocal supporter of the Expansion Pass, so this added value just makes it better! It’s no GameCube, but hopefully that is coming down the road! If that happens, I will declare the Nintendo Switch an objectively perfect console.
My theory is that in 2020, Nintendo was working on emulating N64, GCN, and Wii for NSO. They knew at the start of the pandemic there would be internal software delays, so they pushed back their NSO plans to the following year and prioritized compiling 3 of the ROMs into 3D All-Stars to help them meet their earnings for the fiscal year. That would explain a lot of things, like: 1) Why 3D All-Stars was a limited time release, because they always planned to add the individual games later, and 2) Why it only took them 6 months to make. The game came out in September, which means they got to work almost immediately when lockdowns started.
Maybe they’ll add the NES Fire Emblem thing later too. Nintendo has already said in an investor meeting their long-term plan is to keep expanding their online service and carrying it over to their next generation of hardware. Maybe eventually, we’ll have legacy content from all of Nintendo’s past-Gen systems, including 3DS. Some might say this is wishful thinking, but I think there’s a lot pointing toward this. I really need to kick off a YouTube channel and make a video about it.
Anyways, it’ll be really cool to have games like Super Mario Land 1 and 2, the Wario Land trilogy, Donkey Kong Land, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Super Circuit…OH MY GOSH! SUPERSTAR SAGA AND WARIOWARE, INC. AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!
