Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack is the upper-tier online subscription available for the Nintendo Switch. The $49.99 yearly price tag is more than double the rate of the basic tier of Nintendo Switch Online, but it brings the service’s offering more in line with its cousins on PlayStation and Xbox. It’s all about giving players access to more games, including beloved classics from older consoles like the N64, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy Advance.
Here’s a primer on Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, the fine print of signing up for it, and everything you get when you sign up.
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Nintendo Switch Online launched in 2018, giving subscribers the means to play games online. Some might argue that the biggest perk is the service’s large (and growing) library of NES, SNES, and Game Boy games that members can play. You’ll also get cloud saves, voice chat, and a smartphone companion app. Not to mention, Switch Online members are eligible to buy a two-pack of Game Vouchers for $99.98, which can be used on new and upcoming first-party titles.
Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack offers all that, plus a collection of titles for Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy Advance (some of which offer new online multiplayer). It also gives subscribers access to DLC that would otherwise cost money, including Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ premium expansion, Happy Home Paradise, and the entirety of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s Booster Course Pass that adds 48 courses, plus new characters, to the base game (a $25 value).
There’s a catch: Like PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass, you only get access to the DLC and the classic games as long as your subscription is active. If you cancel your subscription, you lose access when the membership ends.
The Nintendo 64 games currently offered are:
There’s also a suite of Mature-rated N64 games that you can play via a separate, age-restricted app that’s included with the subscription. Here are the games included so far:
The Sega Genesis games currently offered are:
The Game Boy Advance games currently offered are:
If you’d like to sign up for Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, Nintendo will let you cash in your remaining number of days as a discount (five cents per day) on the upgraded tier of service. So, if you have 300 days left of your annual subscription, you’d get $15 back that can be applied to the cost of the Expansion Pack tier. From that point, your previous membership will end and your new one will begin.
Those who have bought a family membership for Nintendo Switch Online can upgrade to a family plan for Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, which is $79.99 instead of the $49.99 cost for an individual account. You’ll be discounted based on however much you have left in your subscription, at a rate of nine cents per day of service remaining. So, if you have 300 days left, you’ll have $27 knocked off the total for the upgraded service.
This also means that, if you’re a member of a family plan, you can’t simply buy the Expansion Pack upgrade for yourself, either. You’d have to drop out of the family plan and buy a new subscription altogether at $49.99.
This FAQ has more, but the basic rules are:
The short answer is no. You’d have to let the subscription run its course. Then, turn off auto-renewal to make sure you aren’t charged again. Once it ends, you can subscribe to whichever tier of service you’d like.
The value you get out of Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack will greatly depend on your enjoyment of Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, and Sega Genesis games. If you’re buying it just for the Animal Crossing: New Horizons DLC and plan on downgrading once you’re tired of it, remember, that content will disappear from your game. You might be better off making a one-time purchase of the DLC for $24.99.
The Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, and Sega Genesis games comprise some greatest hits with a wide fandom, for sure — Mario Kart 64, Star Fox 64, Super Mario 64, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time highlight the N64 side of things; Sega Genesis gets you Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Streets of Rage 2, Ecco the Dolphin, Strider and others. For the Game Boy Advance section of the service, it’s great to be able to play both Golden Sun games, as well as some classic Metroid adventures. And, as mentioned above, some games feature multiplayer functionality.
And there’s the opportunity to play these games with wireless replicas of their consoles’ original controllers. Those controllers (N64, Genesis) are $49.99 each.
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