Exploring the Nintendo Switch Online #1

Near the end of 2024, I started toying with the idea of getting a subscription to the Nintendo Switch Online and covering the games in there. It’s not like I don’t have a ton of games to discuss already, but this could allow me to expand a bit more. It’s also a way to give me stuff to talk about again, as I’m starting to see a potential end to regular Quick Reviews, as the games I’ve got yet to cover are getting longer and I might need to find an alternative eventually. So hey, why not these instead? That could work, right?

Every month since the start of the year, I played a few games from the list, starting from the quickest and working my way up. Many of the quickest games are so short or have so little content that I wouldn’t feel right having an article just for them; so instead, I’ll discuss them in catch-all articles! A lot of the quickest games here can be finished in under an hour. So, I’m going to start with the quickest, and record my thoughts here. Don’t expect in-depth reviews at first – just a paragraph will do. However, as I progress through that collection, I’ll do larger articles. Eventually, I will indeed turn these into Quick Reviews. But for now, the games are too short for this.

And, bonus, I have enough done to occupy a week when I don't have other reviews ready.

I've collected three months' worth of paragraphs on games, and so I decided to focus on those from a single console today: The Nintendo Entertainment System, the one that didn't quite start it all (so much more came before it), but was truly the beginning of Nintendo's meteoric rise in fame.

The Kong Games

Danger! Construction zone! (And ape, too.)

Donkey Kong: Ah, the classic! The game that featured Mario before he was Mario, rescuing his girlfriend of the time, Pauline. Only three levels, you probably know them already: The ladders and the barrels, 75M with the walking fire and the springs, and the third stage with Jumpman pulling support beams to send the eponymous ape crashing down. It’s a classic for a reason, and like many games of the NES era and prior, it feels like playing a part of History. Yeah, it’s basic, but that’s normal for games of the time. It’s not Nintendo’s first game (they released arcade cabinets, games on Color TV, and Game & Watch prior to this), but it’s the one that took them on the road to massive success.