9 ‘Mature’ Games We’d Like To See On Nintendo Switch Online’s New N64 App

Image: Nintendo Life

The arrival of Rareware’s classic Perfect Dark and Acclaim’s Turok: Dinosaur Hunter via the Nintendo Switch Online expansion pack was a much-welcomed announcement at the June 2024 Nintendo Direct. Both titles are the first entries in the new, exclusive N64 app of Nintendo labeled ‘MATURE 17+’.

Following on from the Japanese version which launched when GoldenEye came to service in 2023, this ‘adults only’ app will be a repository for any M-rated games with blood, language or other gore that the ESRB deems not suitable for younger people. players. In the case of Perfect Dark and Turok, it’s the blood and violence that sets them apart from the other family-friendly N64 games in NSO.

This opens the door for other adult-only N64 games to come, of course, so we’ve rounded up a selection we’d love to see on Nintendo Switch Online. As you’ll see, not all of them are cool classics, but we’d argue that NSO is probably the best and most suitable place for games that you wouldn’t spend money on, but are still intriguing in some way and worth investigating. Very few people would buy a standalone version of, say, Winback, but as part of a service you’re already paying for, you might be charmed by it.

It should also be noted that some of the following games have already ported to Switch. However, as evidenced by the arrival of Turok, this does not prevent them from being added to the Expansion Pack, and we would appreciate having ‘free’ access to them. We’ve removed Quakes and Doom 64, but we couldn’t resist adding others.

Let’s start with the most obvious and famous ‘mature’ game in the N64 library…

Look, we’re not suggesting this will upset any best N64 games list, but Ion Storm’s FPS is a curiosity worth investigating, and not just for its notoriety. “John Romero will make you . . .” marketing. The title blade was apparently inspired by the Master Zelda sword, and the protagonist, Hiro Miyamoto, was, of course, an homage to Nintendo’s most famous design guru, Eiji Aonuma.

What!? Just checking you’re awake.

The point is that despite the game’s reputation as a true steamer, there is a purpose, history, and legacy to Daikatana that makes it of scholarly interest to video game fans. Is one perfect candidate for an NGO release in our opinion. We’d like to see the Game Boy Color version added as well.

Duke Nukem 3D came to the N64 as the fictionally retitled Duke Nukem 64, but 1999’s Zero Hour was a Nintendo console exclusive and a game we’d love to see made more accessible, mostly because we never got around to it. we played by ourselves.

Again, by all accounts, we’re not looking at a classic here, but Eurocom’s third-person spin on Duke’s M-rated espada was always on our side. If-we-see-free list of old ones. We never did, so take it to NSO, please.

Resident Evil 2 is, in a sense, where the modern series as we know it began. The first game was scary, but the production values of the original – with its crummy FMV sequences and questionable dialogue – put it in the realm of direct-to-video horror. This would be rebuilt with the REmake, but Resident Evil 2 upped the ante significantly in every way and created the look and feel that the series has embraced ever since.

The Nintendo 64 version of the PlayStation classic is a technically incredible port in its own right, with the GameCube version being sharper but perhaps less interesting. Considering the lack of the original Resident Evils on Switch, NSO feels like the perfect opportunity to showcase this.

Another curiosity that scratches a Doom 64-like itch, Hexen also arrived on the Nintendo console in 1997 with a reasonable port that had the usual cartridge-based caveats (no FMV or CD audio). It offers a decent fantasy-themed take on a Doom-style shooter, though with GoldenEye arriving just a few months later and completely disrupting the FPS scene on consoles, Hexen was destined to be overlooked, even with a library as small as that of the N64.

All these years later, we would get the chance to give it another shot.

The N64 wasn’t blessed with many fighting games – and very few good or great ones – so we’d happily pick up a Mortal Kombat or two. The trilogy was a good compilation of all of MK up to that point (1996), albeit with some caveats such as missing characters and inferior audio quality on the N64. Mortal Kombat 4 offered some more modern and satisfying fighting fare two years later.

Mythologies: Sub-Zero? For the sake of completion, of course. But that’s not what we would choose first. Or the second.

This 1998 FPS has been remastered courtesy of Nightdive Studios (who else?), but it hasn’t made it to the Switch yet. You pilot a motorcycle with full 360-degree movement, so while Forsaken is technically a first-person shooter, that label might give modern gamers the wrong idea if you’re expecting a guy to run around with guns. Set in a dystopian future, you fly around underground tunnels shooting scavengers to a drum and bass soundtrack. Not always, but there’s a lot to like.

Switch remaster by Nightdive (is there anything in that studio there is no remastered?) is a great way to play, but for a game as undeniably dated as this, the asking price of ‘There’s an NSO expansion sub-pack’ is probably the best way to go about it New players try this dark and thick gem. Coming from the same team that developed the 64-bit Forsaken – and based on the Valiant Comics series – Michael LeRoi (the titular Man o’ Shadow) has a large and disturbing world to explore, and the lily among us would be grateful to have saved states to return to as we do so.

Did we miss something you’d like to see on Switch? Tell us your favorite adult-only N64 games from the list above in this poll, and comment below if you have anything else you like.

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