{"id":456457,"date":"2026-02-05T23:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T23:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/456457\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T23:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T23:40:08","slug":"the-switch-2-is-getting-a-new-virtual-console-kind-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/456457\/","title":{"rendered":"The Switch 2 is getting a new Virtual Console (kind of)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2018, we lamented<\/a> as Nintendo officially replaced the Virtual Console\u2014its long-running line<\/a> of downloadable classic games on the Wii and Wii U\u2014with time-limited access to a set of games through a paid Nintendo Switch Online subscription<\/a>. Now, Hamster Corporation is doing what Nintendo no longer will, by offering downloadable versions of retro console games for direct individual purchase on the Switch 2.<\/p>\n

As part of today\u2019s Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase<\/a>, Hamster announced a new Console Archives line<\/a> of emulated classics available for download starting today on the Switch 2 and next week on the PlayStation 5 (sorry, Xbox and OG Switch fans). So far that lineup only includes the original PlayStation snowboarding title Cool Boarders for $12<\/a> and the NES action platformer Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos for $8<\/a>, but Hamster promises more obscure games, including Doraemon and Sonic Wings Special, will be available in the future.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

If the name Hamster Corporation sounds familiar, it\u2019s because the company is behind the Arcade Archive series<\/a>, which has repackaged individual arcade games for purchase and emulated play on modern consoles since 2014. That effort, which celebrated its 500th release in December<\/a>, even includes some of Nintendo\u2019s classic arcade titles<\/a>, which the Switch-maker never officially released on the original Virtual Console.<\/p>\n

Now Hamster\u2019s says it is expanding its efforts \u201cwith the concept of faithfully reproducing masterpieces released on various home game consoles, allowing players to easily enjoy them on the latest hardware.\u201d While these new offerings are more bare-bones than the full-fledged interactive museums released by the likes of Digital Eclipse<\/a>, they still include a few modern features, such as customizable button layouts, screen settings, and the ability to save and load at any time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2018, we lamented as Nintendo officially replaced the Virtual Console\u2014its long-running line of downloadable classic games on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,61],"class_list":["post-456457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}