Five Rare Games Join Nintendo Switch Online At Once

During their Direct this morning, the usual Nintendo Switch Online update turned out to be rather unexpected. Not only were five additional titles from Rare confirmed for the service, we’re getting them nearly immediately.

The first two are for the NES: RC Pro-Am and Snake, Rattle and Roll. Pro-Am was one of Rare’s first stand-out titles in the US, before anyone here knew who they were…an overhead RC car racing game with smoothly rendered vehicles and support for up to four players at once was quite an achievement back then. Snake, Rattle and Roll wasn’t quite as well known back in the day but has gained a cult following now. If anything, its soundtrack is a bop.

Killer Instinct and Battletoads in Battlemaniacs are the two SNES entries. Killer Instinct was promised as an N64 launch title (the cabinet told us so!) but delays in the launch created the necessity of an SNES port to pad the time. It’s no KI Gold but it does its job. As for Battlemaniacs, some are wondering why we got this instead of the NES Battletoads. To that I reply: like you’d get past Stage Three of that one. You stand a better chance seeing the end of the lesser-known sequel.

The fifth and final game is part of the N64 library: Blast Corps. This unique title, the kind of thing you could only get in the experimental early days of 3D, gives you the simple job of destroying everything in an area before a runaway nuclear-powered truck comes through.

All these games will be playable for anyone with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription later today, or possibly now depending on when you’re reading this.