Nintendo Switch has been a huge hit for Nintendo with great new first-party games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Then there are the great video game portals from the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 generation that breathed new life into them with the move to handhelds.
Skyrim, for example, now feels like a brand new title that we can use on the go. However, it’s not just these (relatively) modern games that have found an unlikely home on the Nintendo Switch. If you know where to look, you’ll also find some great classic titles from the 8-16 and 32-bit console generations.
There are even a few classic PC ports included! If you’re feeling a little nostalgic for how games used to be, here are the best Nintendo Switch classic games in our opinion.
DEATH first, 2 & sixty four
Every major Doom item is available on Nintendo Switch. That includes Doom 1,2,3, 64, Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal. Only Dooms 1,2 and 64 are considered nostalgic for you, but we think you should know the extent of the games available. Yes, this entry has three headings. Just pretend we used the Konami code to cheat more entries into the list.
Doom 1 and 2 not only include great ports of the original game, Bethesda and ID have also added some of the best Doom mods and transitions and keep adding more as time goes on. This makes the first two games extremely good value for money. Doom 64 was only ever available on the official Nintendo 64. In 2020, it received ports to PC and consoles, including the Switch. It’s also a good and evil classic Doom experience.
All three of these games are great classic shooters where you fill the bloody boots of a lone space-fighting sea demon on Mars, the moon of Mars, in Hell and on the earth. Best of all, you can shoot your friends over LAN or play split screen. It was a “hell” of an explosion!
Another classic shooter from the 32-bit era, this Duke Nukem 3D version is probably our favorite. It is undoubtedly the best handheld version, replacing the game’s excellent but overlooked Sony Vita port.
Duke Nukem 3D is a loud, boisterous shooter that doesn’t take itself too seriously but still offers a perfect shooter experience. Duke must deal with an alien invasion and the mass abduction of babies on Earth.
This version of the game offers the classic Duke experience, but also has a new realistic 3D rendering mode as well as a brand new original episode! It’s a great way to play Duke Nukem on the big screen or on the go.
Instead of reselling us their classic classic games on Switch, Nintendo decided to make their library of NES and SNES games available to anyone who subscribes to the Nintendo Online service. The service is pretty cheap, especially if you’re using a family plan to include multiple consoles, but you can also get a 7-day trial if you haven’t signed up before.
It’s worth it just for the backup functionality to the cloud, but locked in these two apps are some of the best 8-bit and 16-bit games ever made. These include well-known titles like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Super Metroid, but also quirky titles like Zelda 2 and StarTropics. It’s excellent value for money, and every Switch owner should try these Nintendo Switch classics at least once. There’s a very good chance you’ll discover (or rediscover) an unforgettable title.
Not to be outdone by previous rival Nintendo, Sega has brought out their own massive collection of classic titles for the Sega Genesis console (or Mega Drive, depending on where you go).
However, instead of charging a monthly fee, you can buy the entire collection and keep it forever. This isn’t just a collection of ROMs, you can access the games through a period-accurate virtual bedroom, with a shelf filled with some of the best games from that generation. That includes Sega’s lead roles like Sonic the Hedgehog and Golden Ax, but almost every title is worth it.
Simulation is great, but not perfect. However, all but the pickiest purists will not enjoy this stellar collection. It’s worth the wait to go on sale, with 50% off happening once or twice a year. Simply the game’s wish list to receive notifications when prices drop.
This is the last collection on the list, but certainly not the least. Castlevania is half responsible for the birth of the “metroidvania” genre, and this commemorative collection includes no less than eight classic Castlevania games, starting with the first title.
It also includes Kid Dracula, a game that was released in Japanese just for the GameBoy, but is now available in English. The collection includes a “History of Castlevania” book and features like quick save. So you don’t have to go back to the beginning of a level if a boss wipes you out. Which they will!
While this arcade hit received a lackluster port for the Sega Genesis and Sega 32X, it was the first time a perfect port had been released for home systems. Not only is it perfect, but it’s actually a significant improvement over the arcade original, with much sharper graphics and perfect frame rates.
Virtual racing may be short, but it’s addictive and fun to play with friends. It’s also a historically important Nintendo Switch classic, heralding the advent of true 3D graphics in video games. Definitely choose this one.
Phantasy Star is an important title in Japanese RPG history, but this first title is oddly hard to find. The three sequels were all part of the Genesis Collection mentioned above, but Sega finally got it right and released a perfectly emulated version of the game as part of the Sega Ages series.
This is a good, pure old dungeon crawler that originally paved the way for the fork of this JRPG family tree. It’s still an enticing game to play today, and the graphics preserve the best of what the 8-bit Sega Master System can produce.
Classic fantasy game
[9 FF8]
There’s a long list of major Final Fantasy games on the Switch, but the only ones we feel deserve the “retro” label are the numbers. 7, 8 and 9. Assume that the older headers are not on the system yet.
All three have received quality-of-life improvements (such as cheats and fast forwards) with Final Fantasy 8 receiving a complete remaster. All of these games represent the best of the series in different ways, although 8 and 9 don’t get as much love as they deserve. Three epic adventures for very little money, who can say?
The last game on our list isn’t the best in its series, but we think it should be here because it’s actually a re-release of an old MS-DOS platform. dictionary. While consoles tend to give most of the attention to this genre of games, ID Software (of the famous Doom) has actually made a bunch of great platform games with him in it. Commander Keen genius kid.
For our money sequel Goodbye Galaxy It’s a better game, but Keen Dreams is still a lot of fun, and maybe if enough people buy it, Goodbye Galaxy will get the same treatment. Fair warning, there’s also a “The final versionof this game on the Switch eShop. This version of the classic Nintendo Switch game is more modernized and makes major changes to the title. It’s a good game in its own right, but if you want the original experience, go for this one.
What is your favorite Nintendo Switch classic game? Let us know in the comments and share the love of the retro game!
