When Nintendo announced that Game Boy Advance games would appear on the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack service, I felt a tinge of excitement in my soul. Not because I love Game Boy Advance games, though that is certainly true. Rather, because I could never wrangle together the peripherals and people needed to make many of the system’s unique multiplayer experiences work. So when I saw this morning that Kirby & The Amazing Mirror would be coming to Nintendo’s subscription service next week, I couldn’t help but smile.
For the uninitiated, Kirby & The Amazing Mirror is a unique curiosity of a game. On one hand, it is as much a Kirby platformer as any. It has all the copy abilities and cute characters you could ask for. But instead of the traditional level-by-level structure, it veers towards a Metroidvania format. Maybe nowadays that’s an overdone concept, but for 2004, that was pretty awesome! And moreover, it has full four-player co-op. I could never organize a multiplayer run through this game back in the day, but when this update launches next week, I might finally have that chance.
More multiplayer Game Boy Advance games, please!
As much as I love seeing strong single-player games like Fire Emblem hit the Switch Online service, I really hope we see more multiplayer games like Kirby & The Amazing Mirror. Those experiences are so hard to preserve these days, so having the ability to set them up so easily brings a ton of value to Switch Online as a service. I know that, technically, you could already play Mario Bros. or Mario Kart Super Circuit to this point. But co-op games? Now that’s my jam.
There are so many gems to unearth on this system that would be great fits for Switch Online. Shining Soul 1 and 2 were hack-and-slash RPGs built around multiplayer co-op. Sonic Advance 3 was experimenting with multiplayer almost two decades before Sega would revisit the concept with Sonic Superstars. And then there’s The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, which… I mean, it’s The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords.
Did I take this news story just as an excuse to talk about multiplayer Game Boy Advance games? Maybe. This is just a moment in gaming history that I just thought was gone for so many years, so I’m happy to see it again.
Regardless, Kirby & The Amazing Mirror is a great addition for those who sprung for the Expansion Pack add-on. Subscribers can experience this game on September 29.
