When you think of Nintendo, you tend to think of games for the whole family. You think of Link and Mario, of the sun and the smiling stars. The word “adult” probably doesn’t come up when you reflect on gaming on the Switch, but apparently that’s about to change. The company is adding a new 18+ app to its subscription service. Nintendo Switch onlinealthough only in Japan.
According an official video published by Nintendo Japan (through VGC) company is launching an adults-only NSO app to launch Nintendo 64 games. Not all games, of course, just two specific ones for now: the 1997 spy shooter. Golden Eye 007 and the 1999 space shooter Gemini Jet Forcethe latter Announced for its international NSO launch on November 21. Random, I know, but there’s a reason Nintendo made this decision. While the two games are rated “T” here in the US, in Japan, the shooters are rated “Z.” The Computer Entertainment Rating Organization (CERO), the Japanese government’s ratings board, rates “Z” as “Only for over 18 years”, and prohibits Z-rated games from being sold to younger people.
Japan restricts Z-rated games
Golden Eye 007 is now available through Nintendo’s subscription service in the US, Having joined NSO in January 2023. through $50 annual expansion pack. Gemini Jet Force comes soon, with Nintendo tweeted on November 21 which will arrive at NSO in December. Here, both are rated “T,” meaning there were probably no government regulatory hurdles the company had to jump through to launch them in the US.
However, considering that Z-rated entertainment is the only legally restricted rating in Japan, it makes sense for the company to remove an “adults only” NSO app. That’s probably the only way these N64 games could come out in Japan.
kotaku contacted Nintendo for comment.
Nintendo Switch online has been running for five years and made its debut in September 2018. For $4 a month or $20 a year, you get access to online functionality (to trample or be trampled Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, for example), as well as an ever-growing library of Game Boy, NES, and SNES games. The company has since expanded the service to offer a $50 membership that includes Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, and Sega Genesis games with the upgraded expansion pack tier. It hasn’t always worked The N64 games were particularly buggy when they came out a couple of years ago.but Nintendo has committed to continue improving the service so they work as advertised.
