Switch Online N64 emulation is a bit rough

Nintendo rolled out their new “Expansion Pack” for Switch Online this week. Unfortunately, the release has not gone as smoothly as many retro game fans would have liked.

The problems come down to how emulation is being handled specifically with Nintendo 64 titles. While most games are perfectly playable, many suffer from graphics issues. Notably when it comes to processing special effects. In some cases, these effects are missing entirely, which ruins the aesthetics of certain games. One particularly notorious example is the lack of fog and reflections in Ocarina of Time’s iconic Shadow Link fight.

Players have also noticed other random graphical glitches, as well as significant input lag. Modern Vintage Gamer did a detailed breakdown of the emulation being used in a recent video, along with a discussion of the above issues. Dataminers have discovered it to be the same emulator used for Mario 64 in the Mario 3D All Stars collection. While the code with tightly optimized for that game,, it appears that the same treatment has not been given to other titles.

Early complaints seem to be coming primarily from the speed running community. However, most who have used the service agree that it falls short of original hardware, third party emulators, as well as past N64 releases on the Wii U Virtual Console.

Online comments have expressed disappointment at the quality of the service. Especially considering it costs extra on top of a standard NSO subscription, and that added cost is not exactly trivial. People were already upset at how much the Expansion Pack is, given how little it adds. Now, it would appear that Nintendo has only put the bare minimum of effort into the service, further fanning the flames of discontent. Overall, the service feels very unpolished.

Nintendo has yet to comment on the issues with the Expansion Pack, or whether they will be addressed in future updates.