Mendel Palace, Pac-Man Join Nintendo Switch Online

Feels like it’s been a while since the last Nintendo Switch Online update, but we finally got one, and it’s good for all NSO users, both Switch and Switch 2, since it’s an update to the NES section. The most interesting offering this time? Mendel Palace.

It may not look like it, but Mendel Palace is one of the most important games to be released in the 90s. That’s because it was the first game from Game Freak, the then-small pool of programmers who would go on to create Pokemon. Released under the title Quinty in Japan, it’s a unique title for the time period, blending the action and puzzle genres together. You play on a grid of tiles that you flip to knock enemies into walls. Mendel Palace supports one or two players.

The second NES game is Pac-Man, and….do I really have to explain that one? I don’t think so. Moving on.

The third game is another untranslated Japanese Famicom title. The Tower Of Druaga. This game originated in the arcade and never caught on here, but became HUGE in Japan. One of the first action games to blend in RPG elements, Druaga casts you as a knight on a mission to ascend the tower one level at a time. Each floor is its own maze, crawling with monsters, and in arcade fashion most of them can take you out in one hit. So yeah, it’s gonna be hard. But if it was good enough for 1984 Japan, it’s good enough for you.

All three of these games are live now on Nintendo Switch Online.