What’s new in April for Nintendo Switch Online members?

Nintendo Switch announced its free April games for Switch Online members. Get ready to play a lot of NES games in the next 30 days!

Another month, another offering of free games for Nintendo Switch Online members. This month, Switch Online members get three NES offerings! Starting April 10, you have access to Punch-Out!!, Super Mario Brothers: The Lost Levels, and Star Soldier.

Below is the announcement video from Nintendo:

So let’s break it down, especially if you’re looking into becoming a Nintendo Switch Online member.

Firstly, don’t expect this version of Punch-Out!! to include Mike Tyson. That one hasn’t been released since the ’80s, so be prepared for Mr. Dream. Play as Little Mac and fight your way through the ranks of the World Video Boxing Association. It’s a fairly standard boxing game that has solid positive reviews. And defeating the final boss still takes excellent timing and skill. It’s trickier than you remember.

Star Soldier is a game that I rented once from Blockbuster and never rented again. It was far too infuriating for a 10-year-old me to handle. It’s a vertical space shooter video game and you have to pilot your spacecraft through 16 different levels while dodging bad guys, laser cannon fodder, and defeat the boss at the end.

It’s incredibly difficult, especially in today’s day and age when video game advancements happen so frequently. If you don’t defeat the boss, you have to do the entire level over again. If you get killed in the middle of the level, you start at a relatively arbitrary point way earlier than necessary.

Now, to probably the best (and most infuriating) offering this month: Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels. These are notoriously difficult. Every level has been redesigned to be even more challenging than the original ones in Super Mario Bros.. Less power ups and more negative gameplay additions (this introduced the poison mushroom!).

This also introduced “Luigi Mode” and got rid of the two-player mode from the original. He jumps higher than Mario and slides a little farther, so that can factor into your strategy while playing as well.

In other words, you may want to prepare yourself to get a little more than frustrated with this month’s Nintendo Switch Online offerings.