Nintendo Switch Online Welcomes Donkey Kong Country To SNES Collection

Another month, another batch of classic Nintendo games being made available to the new generation of gamers. Nintendo has been dutifully filling up its roster of titles from the bygone NES and SNES eras but a few fan favorites are still noticeably missing. The company is starting to fill in those gaps with this month's additions, finally bringing one of the two most iconic gorillas in the world to the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service.

Almost like a parody of the monster classic King Kong, Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto's Donkey Kong would be just as renowned as his other franchises. The groundbreaking and record-breaking franchise would spawn numerous games and spin-offs and Donkey Kong himself would appear in many of Nintendo's games.

While the very first Donkey Kong game was its most iconic, Donkey Kong Country really pushed the boundaries both in gameplay and especially in the use of computer-generated graphics. Now that game will be available on the Nintendo Switch starting July 15 via its Online subscription next week and Nintendo is throwing players a bone (or a banana) by revealing some long-held secrets of the pros.

Of course, Donkey Kong Country isn't the only title coming this month but the other two may not ring a bell. Natsume Championship Wrestling for the SNES is a rather odd "port" of the Japanese original with all the Japanese licensing removed. Immortal, on the other hand, is a NES port of a fantasy RPG that was one of the first games for the Apple IIGS.

Japanese Switch Online subscribers, however, are apparently getting better treats this month. In addition to Donkey Kong Country, which was known in Japan as Super Donkey Kong, gamers are being treated to sci-fi platformer and action game Gandeck from SEGA as well as the first-ever Shin Megami Tensei from ATLUS, a franchise that continues to this day and has given birth to the Persona series that's equally popular in the West.