Animal Crossing fans were excited to discover that the New Horizons 3.0 update brought back one of the original's most beloved features… only this time it's hidden behind a Nintendo Switch Online paywall.
Animal Crossing for the GameCube included one of the absolute best things in the series' history – especially in a pre-Virtual Console world – when it allowed you to collect NES consoles and play the likes of Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, and Punch Out in the game. And after disappearing from the series in every entry since, Nintendo confirmed that the feature would return with Animal Crossing: New Horizons update 3.0, with SNES and Game Boy joining the party.
Unfortunately this comes with a catch, as players will need to have a Nintendo Switch Online membership to play the games – all of which are already available in their respective Nintendo Switch Online apps. This was confirmed when the 3.0 Update was announced, but a post from Twitter user @AndreSegers has reignited the backlash somewhat. Nintendo decided it needs to grab that subscription from you if you want the opportunity to play Ice Hockey for NES.
Naturally fans are upset, with one calling it "fucking pathetic." Meanwhile another says, "Yeah. It looked like it would've been such a cute nod to the GameCube game but requiring NSO just makes it stupid."
Another writes: "One of the things that upset me the most after the original game allowed you to. I wasn't surprised because they finally figured out how to monetize it via Virtual Console stuff, but still super disappointing."
But even without that subscription issue, it's a disappointing addition anyway. Not only are there fewer games than the GameCube edition had, but the game selection itself is not up to snuff. The Game Boy and SNES consoles have Dr. Mario, F-Zero, and Panel de Pon (released as Tetris Attack outside of Japan), which, granted, are all bangers, but when it comes to the three NES games available, it's frankly embarrassing. Rather than include actual classics like Super Mario Bros, Metroid, or The Legend of Zelda, you're treated to the bottom of the NES barrel with one of the worst first-party games, Ice Climber, and the extremely middle-of-the-road Clu Clu Land and Ice Hockey.
At that point I question what the point of this addition even was. It would make some sense – both in the lack of major hits in the game collection and the small amount of available games – if these didn't require a Switch Online subscription, but with that barrier of entry, these just feel absolutely useless outside of having the consoles as decor. Nintendo turned one of the coolest things in the series into one of the most disappointing.
