Nintendo Switch Online Adds Ninja Gaiden 3, Ikari Warriors and R.C. Pro-Am II to NES
Three more NES games went live on Nintendo Switch Online today: Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom, Ikari Warriors and R.C. Pro-Am II. All three sit in the base subscription tier, they play on both Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, and nobody needs the Expansion Pack to touch them.
That is the short version, and it is the part most people are searching for. The longer version is that this drop is unusually third-party heavy, which is worth a moment of explanation.
Which Nintendo Switch Online NES games were added
- Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom — Tecmo's 1991 sequel, the last of the NES trilogy. Still the one with the cutscenes and the wall-clinging, and still brutally difficult.
- Ikari Warriors — the NES conversion of SNK's 1986 arcade run-and-gunner. Two players, one screen, tanks you can commandeer.
- R.C. Pro-Am II — Rare's 1992 follow-up to the isometric radio-control racer, which added multiplayer racing the first game never had.
None of these are Nintendo-published franchises. Ninja Gaiden belongs to Koei Tecmo, Ikari Warriors to SNK, and Rare's back catalogue now sits with Xbox Game Studios. Getting three separate rights holders to sign off in one wave is more administrative work than a Mario or Metroid re-release, which is part of why NES additions have slowed to a trickle.
The additions bring the Western NES library on the service to 87 games.
Do you need the Expansion Pack?
No. These land in the standard NES app, which is included with any Nintendo Switch Online membership — individual or family. The Expansion Pack tier is what gates the Nintendo 64, Mega Drive and Game Boy Advance libraries, plus the DLC bundles for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Animal Crossing. NES has always been in the cheaper tier and still is.
If your membership has lapsed, the app itself stays installed but the games will not launch. It is a subscription check, not a licence you keep.
How to actually download them
Open the NES – Nintendo Switch Online app from your Home menu. If it is not there, search for it in the eShop; it is a free download tied to your membership. The app updates its own catalogue, so the three new titles appear in the game list once it refreshes — you are not downloading three separate items from the eShop.
On Switch 2 the app runs through backwards compatibility and behaves identically. There is no separate Switch 2 build of the NES library, and no enhanced version of these three.
What the emulator gives you that a cartridge did not
Every game in the NES app supports suspend points, so you can stop mid-level and resume later. Rewind is also there, which matters more than it sounds for Ninja Gaiden III specifically — a game that was rebalanced to be harder for its North American release and is genuinely unfair in places. Being able to reel back three seconds after a knockback into a pit turns it from a memory test into something playable.
Online play is supported for the games that had simultaneous multiplayer originally, which covers Ikari Warriors and R.C. Pro-Am II. Both players need active memberships.
Where this sits in Nintendo's retro plans
NES drops have become the smallest and least frequent of the classic libraries, which tracks with where Nintendo has been putting effort — the Switch 2 catalogue, and the steady expansion of its music and archive apps rather than the 8-bit shelf. We covered a similar slow-burn addition when Nintendo Music added the SNES SimCity soundtrack, and the pattern is the same: small, cheap-to-ship content that keeps a subscription feeling alive between the big ones.
Today was busier than usual on that front. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe update 4.0.0 also landed with eight-player split-screen on Switch 2, so if you opened your console this morning and saw two things queued, that is why.
Worth knowing if you hit problems logging in: the service takes scheduled downtime fairly often, and we logged the most recent Switch Online maintenance windows and what they knocked offline. The NES app needs a live connection to verify your membership, so maintenance does stop you playing single-player NES games — a quirk that catches people out every time.
And if you want this era of games on a phone rather than a Switch, that is a different and entirely legal route provided you dump your own cartridges. Our rundown of the best GBA games and emulators on Android covers how that works and where the legal line actually sits.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need the Expansion Pack to play the new NES games?
No. Ninja Gaiden III, Ikari Warriors and R.C. Pro-Am II are all in the base Nintendo Switch Online tier, which every individual and family membership includes. The Expansion Pack is only needed for the Nintendo 64, Mega Drive and Game Boy Advance libraries.
Which three NES games were added to Switch Online?
Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom, Ikari Warriors and R.C. Pro-Am II. They are Tecmo's 1991 platformer, the NES conversion of SNK's 1986 arcade shooter, and Rare's 1992 isometric racing sequel respectively.
Can I play the new NES games on Switch 2?
Yes. The NES app runs on Switch 2 through backwards compatibility and works the same as on the original Switch. There is no separate Switch 2 version of the NES library and no enhanced edition of these three games.
How do I download the new NES games?
Open the NES - Nintendo Switch Online app from your Home menu, or grab it free from the eShop if you have not installed it. The three games appear in the app's game list once its catalogue refreshes. You do not download them individually from the eShop.
How many NES games are on Nintendo Switch Online now?
The three additions bring the Western NES library to 87 games. Japan's library differs, since some titles were never released outside Japan and a few Western releases were region-exclusive the other way.
