Nowadays, any discussions involving Nintendo will inevitably bring up a hypothetical Switch "Pro." Rumored so much that it’s difficult to imagine that it’s not coming, the Switch Pro would bring with it a larger OLED screen and less display lag in handheld mode, potentially with 4K capabilities in docked mode. The hope is that this will have the side effect of allowing every Switch game to have a higher framerate, something that has plagued the Switch hardware since the release of Breath of the Wild in 2017. Aside from the hassle of buying a new console, it seems like a winning situation for Nintendo fans — but Nintendo could do one better.
Throughout the Switch’s lifetime, fans have had an odd relation with the Nintendo Switch Online and its classic game library. It has long felt like a pale imitation of something Nintendo has already done before: the Virtual Console. Now, with the Switch Pro rumors on the rise, it seems like the prime time for Nintendo to resurrect one of its biggest fan-pleasers and relaunch the Virtual Console alongside the Switch Pro.
The New-and-Improved Virtual Console
The Virtual Console would be a great fit for the Switch Pro. Seeing a potentially improved Virtual Console that upgrades the resolution of every game played on it would be delightful, and would give fans a reason to revisit their old favorites. Plenty of old games would benefit from higher resolutions, ranging from NES and SNES games with gorgeous pixel art, to N64 games that need all the help they can get to look better compared to modern 3D graphics.
The recent Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection shows this handily, as its upgraded version of Mario 64 looks impeccable. As the original Virtual Console suffered from occasionally severe input delay, framerate, and resolution issues, a new one on stronger hardware would be a great chance to fix those old issues.
Speaking of which, the resolution wouldn’t be the only thing that improves in a new Virtual Console. Framerates, especially for N64 games, could get bumps from the new hardware, depending on how Nintendo handles it. Seeing certain major games re-released onto a modern console, and a handheld at that, with baked in upgrades would be swell. The Virtual Console is an ideal place to hold remasters, especially if some sort of sticker is applied marking them as a step above the normal emulated release. Nintendo’s library, and plenty of other old games from major Japanese publishers, could shine brightest on a Switch Pro’s Virtual Console.
The Virtual Console Ought To Exist Again
However, setting aside all of the potential upgrades a Switch Pro could bring, Nintendo bringing back the Virtual Console would just make fans happy to have it again. Recent consoles have had a strange reluctance in bringing past generations of games forward en masse. The PlayStation 4 stopped receiving PS2 games in early 2019, leaving it with a paltry 54 re-released games, and even less PS1 titles. While the Xbox One and Series X are backwards compatible with nearly six hundred Xbox 360 games, only forty-two original Xbox games can be played.
The classic game service for Nintendo Switch Online currently holds 86 NES games and 47 Super NES games. While the final totals for North American Virtual Console games are close, those being 94 NES games and 63 SNES games, the game collection could still be doing a lot better.
The number of games isn’t the only major upgrade a proper Virtual Console could have. Across the Wii, the 3DS, and the Wii U’s Virtual Console libraries, the Virtual Console supported 16 different platforms, making the game variety enormous. It even achieved Nintendo DS emulation on the Wii U, even if the way it was handled was awkward and shrunk both screens.
The true return of the Virtual Console would not just be about playing old games better, it would involve discovering old games on consoles many players never owned. If this program was tied to the Switch Online subscription service like the current classic game collection is, then there would be plenty of sign-ups just for it. The Virtual Console had more than 4.7 million titles downloaded seven months after its launch, so on a successful platform like the Switch, losing profits from this effort is out of the question.
Why This Might Not Happen
However, there are reasons why Nintendo wouldn’t want to bring Virtual Console back. For one, the classic game service for NES and SNES games is already a good incentive to join Nintendo Switch Online. Nintendo won’t want to cut into that effort, especially since a Virtual Console would imply the ability to purchase and own games individually. Nintendo may have plans to roll out a N64 collection at some point, perhaps even a GameCube collection, and the game collections it has now certainly have room to grow. A new Virtual Console would be directly compared to past Virtual Console iterations, especially if the game libraries don't match or improve.
When it comes down to it, securing licenses for selling third-party retro games is hard. Nintendo presumably already went through that hassle once, and it’s still working through some deals with the current selection of games. Nintendo might need to start all over again with a new Virtual Console, and trying to get all of its retro consoles' iconic franchises, like Konami's games, could prove inconvenient.
Above all else, Nintendo may not feel like it can bring back some of the extra consoles present on the old Virtual Console, like the MSX and the TurboGrafx-16. The chance to get NeoGeo games is passed, as SNK is already hard at work making its old library available once again. The whole thing is a legal rights nightmare, and Nintendo does deserve some praise for the work it has already done acquiring games for the current classic game collection.
It would be really great if Nintendo brought the Virtual Console back alongside the Switch Pro, but there’s no guarantee it will. An upgraded Virtual Console with a massive retro library would be many a gamer’s dream, and would take some large steps towards solving the game preservation issues that have been plaguing the industry. However, as Nintendo is already offering many NES and SNES titles with the Switch’s online service, it already has an equivalent to it, so it’s up to Nintendo how it chooses to frame re-releasing its back catalogue.