Nintendo Switch Online Gets Street Fighter, Flicky & More

We were kind of surprised by the latest addition to Nintendo Switch Online because generally, the stuff that winds up here is not stuff third-party publishers consider valuable enough to sell elsewhere. The Castlevania series, for example, will not appear on NSO because Konami would rather sell those games in their own packages. Street Fighter is another brand that’s too hot for NSO, or so we thought. NSO just got one. It’s the Genesis version of Street Fighter II, not the SNES version, but hey, it’s playable.

Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition has been joined by three other titles. The first is Pulseman, a sidescroller designed by Game Freak (you can really see the Sugimori in Pulseman himself). You also get Kid Chameleon, a relic from those early Genesis days when Sega thought kids would sell instead of animals. But never mind the weird dated ‘tude that packages this product, Kid Chameleon is a solid game where the protagonist can utilize nine different power-ups by donning helmets he finds around each stage.

The fourth and last game is Flicky. Originally appearing as an arcade game, the Genesis version has the same mechanics: you are a blue bird collecting yellow chicks and guiding them to an open door while avoiding hazards. Flicky might have been totally forgotten if not for one lucky break: the bird was folded into Sonic the Hedgehog’s world when that game made its debut. Flickies are among the animals Sonic freed from Robotnik’s bots and in Sonic 3D Blast, the ‘hog visited an island populated entirely by Flickies.

All four games are playable now, though you must be a subscriber of the Expansion Pass to play Genesis games on NSO.