Nintendo's retro gaming app for Switch has been expanded with three new NES classics that many veterans will remember from the arcades and the Famicom. Pac-Man, Mendel Palace and The Tower of Druaga are now part of the catalog available to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers in Spain and the rest of Europe.
This new batch of titles arrives without much fanfare from the company, following its usual strategy of announce and launch the additions to the service almost simultaneously. All three games can already be found within the Nintendo Classics NES app on Nintendo Switch and the upcoming Switch 2, provided you have an active subscription.
Which NES games are being added to Nintendo Switch Online?
This month's catalog update adds three names to the service that, although very different from each other, share the hallmark of Namco and the classic arcade sceneThe most well known is, without a doubt, Pac-Man, accompanied by the peculiar Mendel Palace and the dungeon crawler The Tower of Druaga.
Nintendo has confirmed that these same titles have been added in both Japan and [other regions]. Western markets, including the European marketTherefore, Spanish players receive exactly the same content as users in other regions. There is no territory-exclusive content this time.
To access the three releases, simply open the Nintendo Classics NES app available on the console, provided you have a valid Nintendo Switch Online membership, whether in the standard plan or in any of the higher modalities.
In addition to expanding the list of games, this wave reinforces the presence of great icons of the 80s within the subscription service. Nintendo continues to gradually expand its retro catalog, alternating well-known titles with others that went more unnoticed in Europe at the time.
Pac-Man: the classic maze game comes to the NES app
Among the new additions, the most striking for the general public is the arrival of Pac-Man in its NES versionA home adaptation of the legendary 1980 arcade game developed by Namco. Despite the years that have passed, it remains one of the historical benchmarks of video games.
In this version for the 8-bit console, players once again take control of the yellow Pac-Man who must clear each maze devouring all the PAC-DOTS while dodging the four ghosts that pursue him. Each of these enemies maintains its characteristic behavior, forcing you to memorize routes and patterns.
The well-known POWER PELLETS are also present in this edition, allowing for a few seconds the roles are reversed and the player becomes the one who hunts the ghostsThe key is deciding the exact moment to eat these power-ups to maximize your score.
Being the NES version, the graphics and sound reproduce the aesthetic of the original console, far removed from the more modern revisions of the series but retaining the same direct and accessible gameplay that made it popular. For those who grew up with the arcades, It offers a simple way to relive classic games from the comfort of the Switch.
Mendel Palace: Game Freak's debut before Pokémon
Beyond Pac-Man, one of the inclusions with the greatest historical interest is Mendel Palace, originally known as Quinty in JapanThis action and puzzle title was the first video game developed by Game Freak, the studio that years later would become world-famous thanks to Pokémon.
Originally published by Namco, this 1989 title offers gameplay quite different from typical arcade games. The player must advance through rooms made up of a grid of tiles, on which the enemies move. The main mechanic involves flipping floor panels. to displace rivals, expel them from the stage, or activate different effects.
The story revolves around rescuing the protagonist's girlfriend, who has been kidnapped by a mysterious young woman. Each stage takes place in a closed room with a layout of 5 tiles long by 7 tiles wide, surrounded by walls that mark the level's boundaries, forcing players to manage the available space effectively.
This combination of simple premise and layers of strategy made the game an interesting rarity within the NES catalogEspecially in the West, where it didn't receive as much attention as other titles of the time. Its arrival on Nintendo Switch Online makes it easier for new users to discover this first playable experiment from the creators of Pokémon.
The Tower of Druaga: action and mazes in the style of a dungeon crawler
The trio is completed by The Tower of Druaga, a classic from Namco originally released in 1984 Originally released for arcades and later adapted for the Famicom, it's an ARPG with a labyrinthine structure that many compare to a fantasy Pac-Man, due to its combination of dungeons, enemies, and doors in top-down environments.
The game puts the player in the role of Gilgamesh, known simply as Gil, whose goal is to rescue his fiancée Ki, kidnapped by the demon DruagaTo achieve this, he must ascend a tower made up of sixty levels filled with traps, monsters, and secrets.
Each floor presents a small puzzle of exploration and combat where you need to find objects, defeat enemies, and locate the exit to continue climbing. Due to its structure, many now classify it within the dungeon crawler genre, although at its release it was described more as an action RPG.
The version included in Nintendo Switch Online remains the same. the essence of the original challengewith labyrinths that demand patience and some trial and error to progress. A title that, despite not being as famous as other names in the NES catalog in Europe, had a great impact in Japan and left its mark on the dungeon design of later role-playing games.
Availability, subscriptions and situation in Europe
The three games have been added to the service simultaneously in Japan and in the western regions, including Spain and the rest of EuropeTherefore, there are no catalog differences between territories in this specific update.
Pac-Man, Mendel Palace, and The Tower of Druaga are included in the Nintendo Classics NES application, accessible from any Nintendo Switch model that has it. an account linked to a Nintendo Switch Online subscriptionThere is no need to pay anything extra beyond the service fee.
The company recalls that all subscription levelsBoth the basic plan and the extended options allow you to enjoy these titles at no extra cost. Simply keep your subscription active to continue accessing the retro catalog, which is constantly expanding with new additions.
While rumors continue to circulate about Nintendo's upcoming hardware, including a possible successor to the hybrid console with a higher refresh rate OLED screen and full backward compatibility, the reality today is... a classic games service that continues to grow little by little and offers new options to those who want to revisit the 80s.
With this batch of releases, Nintendo Switch Online reinforces its nostalgic side by making it available to its European subscribers a universal icon like Pac-Man and two lesser-known but influential gems such as Mendel Palace and The Tower of Druaga. Three titles that expand the possibilities of the NES catalog and give both veterans and new generations the opportunity to discover what labyrinths, puzzles, and dungeons were like in the early days of home video games.
