The Nintendo 64 games have issues on Switch Online

The Nintendo Switch online expansion pack was released yesterday, allowing fans to play Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis games for a higher fee than the console’s regular online price. Unfortunately, players have taken issues with the emulation for the N64 games.

This service had already sparked controversy due to the contents on offer, N64 ROMs, and Animal Crossing DLC not being seen as worth the extra $30 dollar price point Nintendo is asking for.

But now that people have their hands on the Nintendo 64 games, some are noticing that they aren’t playing right.

The biggest issues seem to be with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Speedrunner zfg111 took to Twitter to say that the Switch version lacks the game’s fog and has more janky-looking textures making the game seem a bit awkward compared to the N64 original. This is important as fog in these older games was often used to mask the lower quality models in the game. Now, they’re just out in the open.

Players have also found that there is an input lag between the game and the controller, with fans estimating that there are around  200+ milliseconds of lag. zfg111 has made a video documenting the issues he found in the game:

In addition to Ocarina of Time, there have been issues with a couple of other games. Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64 are reported to have frame rate issues, with Mario 64’s Mario face beginning coming across as especially demonic as a result.

In the case of Maro Kart, the game has experienced frames drop on the title screen and lag during online play which doesn’t bode well considering playing N64 games online was meant to be a selling point for the expansion pack.

Enjoy the nightmare. #Nintendo64 #NintendoSwitchOnline #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/cdio7PJTKX

— Daan Koopman (@NintenDaan) October 26, 2021

50 dollars for this 🙂 #Nintendo64 #NintendoSwitchOnline #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/flHFpTfQFk

— fuck it phrog phone (@kirbolotl) October 26, 2021

There have also been reported issues due to the change in consoles from the Nintendo 64 to the Nintendo Switch online. Mario Kart 64 requires a controller pack inserted into the controller in order to save time trial data and race against ghosts. Since this Switch doesn’t have this, the mode is unavailable. It just asks for you to insert the controller pack.

The button layout has also been contested particularly with the rail shooter Sin and Punishment. In this game, you’re supposed to strafed with the yellow direction button and shoot by moving a cursor with the analog stick in the middle of the N64 controller. As Eurogamer points out, on the switch version, the strafing is mapped to the face buttons on the right of the switch, and shooting is done by using the right analog stick to move the cursor. This makes it near impossible to shoot and strafe to the right at the same time.

Of course, not every person playing the N64 games on Switch have experienced these issues but that doesn’t change the fact that they exist and it doesn’t place the Switch online service in a good light. Hopefully, these issues will be patched at some point but it’s not the best first impression for an already divisive online experience.