Nintendo Switch Online Perception: One Year Later

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - It's not a time for celebration.

I don't care for or appreciate anniversaries. I wouldn't have noticed that Nintendo Switch Online has turned one year old today if Nintendo didn't send me an e-mail last week with the subject line, “It’s almost the 1-year anniversary of Nintendo Switch Online!” The call to action was “Check out all of the membership plans.”

Excuse me? You already know I know the membership plans, since I already have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription—I administer a whole Family Group. I even recently renewed it. 

And they sure seem to know that I'm using the online functionality. What, do they want me to just abandon my Family Group:

It's Mario with a party popper. He's the face of Nintendo Switch Online.
...Told you he's evil.

 
It's interesting that Nintendo is seeing this as a celebratory moment—bringing out a Mario party for it. For the whole year Nintendo Switch Online has been around, and the long build-up to it, it's been seen as a reviled monstrosity with massive dislikes on any YouTube video Nintendo uploads dedicated to it. A year ago, KoopaTV published a widely-circulated article documenting that, as well as methods to convince Nintendo to change Nintendo Switch Online to something of more value.

The last time Nintendo uploaded a video on YouTube dedicated to Nintendo Switch Online were the August 2019 NES games for it—niche (to put it mildly) games Kung-Fu Heroes and Vice: Project Doom. That video has along the lines of a 1:4 like:dislike ratio. That's shameful. It's the most recent data I have to go on, and that'd indicate Nintendo is just tone-deaf by being celebratory on something people still despise.

Nintendo has taken the September 4 2019 Nintendo Direct and split it into several different YouTube videos, one for each trailer. They haven't done so for the Nintendo Switch Online announcement regarding SNES games, and I wonder if that's on purpose to avoid the negative engagement that comes with the topic. But I would like to think that we've reached a point where a Nintendo Switch Online subscription is worth your money, especially with the SNES games. SNES games aren't NES games. By that time in gaming history, developers actually knew how to make good console games instead of stupidly-difficult experiences heavily influenced by arcade game design.

Play Yoshi's Island.

The SNES games don't really have anything to do with paying for online multiplayer that should be free due to the lack of Nintendo infrastructure, but if you ignore the principle of it and you're pragmatic for just a moment, it's a good value.

But if you still don't want to pay for Nintendo Switch Online, or you just like free stuff, then I have a pretty good deal for you. You can get a one-year membership to Nintendo Switch Online, at no cost to you, if you win Round 28 of the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program! More specifically, you'll be included in the KoopaTV Family Group I administer and that Nintendo apparently wants me to eliminate by changing my membership plan to something else.

I'm not gonna listen to Nintendo. But I am gonna listen to you, whenever you do something that'll get you points in the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program. (Click the hyperlink in the previous paragraph for all the details on that.)


Have your opinions on Nintendo Switch Online shifted over the past year? Do you think it warrants Mario with a party popper? Why do you think Nintendo wants Ludwig to check out the membership plans? Will Nintendo's next Nintendo Switch Online YouTube video have a positive like:dislike ratio?


Nintendo's next Nintendo Switch Online YouTube video has a very positive like:dislike ratio!
For Nintendo Switch Online two years after its release, Ludwig takes a deep dive into its anti-consumer auto-renewals. This should be the main reason people are upset with it.