Nintendo Switch Online Freebie Surprises Nostalgic NES Fans

Nostalgic NES fans with a Nintendo Switch Online membership have a little free surprise as of this week. Narrowing down a list of the greatest NES games isn’t easy. There are many games you could choose from such as The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros. 3, Tetris, Mega Man 2, Bionic Commando, Duck Hunt, Excitebike, Punch-Out, Contra, and Metroid. This just scratches the surface though. While the SNES is the favored console of many, many of the greatest series of all time got their start on the NES, including EarthBound. 

As of last year, Nintendo Switch Online subscribers across Switch, Switch Lite, and Switch OLED have been able to enjoy EarthBound Beginnings. And now Mother 3 is being added it to the subscription service, but only in Japan. Unfortunately, those in North America and Europe will have to wait longer for the classic. There is a little something to ease this pain though. There are now EarthBound Beginnings icons available to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers for the first time. And unlike some offers made available via the subscription service, these are not locked behind the Expansion Pack tier. In other words, they are available to all Switch Online subscribers on Switch. 

You will technically need more than just a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to access these free icons. You will also need to fork over 10 Platinum Points per each icon, which there are 20 of. All of these are only accessible for a limited time though. More specifically, these icons are only available until February 28. And once they are gone there is no guarantee they will ever return. In fact, they probably won’t, as it is very rare for icons to be released more than once. 

For those unfamiliar with EarthBound Beginnings, known as Mother in Japan, is a 1989 role-playing game developed by Ape and Pax Softnica. The first entry in the Mother series, the Nintendo-published game is obviously well-known within Nintendo fandom as a very important release, however, much like the series as a whole, it failed to light the world on fire commercially. Minus a Japan-only re-release for the Game Boy Advance in 2003, the game has been left to the NES, though it has been playable over the years via official and unofficial emulation. 

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