Switch Online is getting three retro Mario games on March 10

Nintendo is adding three retro titles to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service, a higher tier of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription, on March 10. The update brings the Game Boy Advance puzzle-platformer Mario vs. Donkey Kong alongside two 1995 Virtual Boy releases: Mario Clash and Mario's Tennis.

All three games will be playable starting next week to coincide with Nintendo's annual MAR10 Day promotions. The original Japanese announcement from Game Watch Impress confirms the date, and Nintendo's regional branches have echoed the same schedule globally.

I am still slightly motion sick

We actually just did a quick first impression review of the Virtual Boy catalog on the retro gameclub podcast (listen here). I will probably check these new additions out, but I am still slightly motion sick from the last time I tried playing the system.

The Virtual Boy's red-and-black stereoscopic 3D was notorious for causing eye strain and headaches back in 1995. Translating that visual style to a modern flat screen is an interesting technical challenge. Nintendo's emulation wrappers typically offer a few display options to mitigate the harsh red tones. You can usually swap the color palette to black-and-white or other high-contrast combinations. This makes the games much easier to play now than they were on the original tabletop hardware.

The first 3D Mario game

Mario Clash holds a strange place in Nintendo history. It was the first stereoscopic 3D game in the franchise. The project originally started as a minigame for an unreleased title called VB Mario Land before being spun out into its own standalone release. The hardware only lasted on the market for about a year, which left games like Mario Clash stranded on the platform for decades.

The gameplay loops back to the original 1983 Mario Bros. arcade cabinet. Players knock enemies off platforms using Koopa shells across two different depth planes. You have to throw shells from the background to the foreground and vice versa to clear each stage. The stereoscopic 3D effect was used to help players judge the distance between the two planes.

Mario's Tennis was the pack-in game for the Virtual Boy in North America. It established the foundation for the long-running Mario sports spin-offs that Camelot Software Planning would later popularize on the Nintendo 64. The Virtual Boy game lacks a multiplayer mode entirely because Nintendo never released the planned link cable for the console. You can only play against computer-controlled opponents.

The 2004 Game Boy Advance original

The third game in the update is the 2004 Game Boy Advance release of Mario vs. Donkey Kong. Nintendo just remade this exact game for the Switch in 2024 with updated 3D visuals and co-op support. This drop gives subscribers access to the original pixel-art version.

The game is a spiritual successor to the 1994 Game Boy Donkey Kong. It focuses heavily on switch-flipping puzzles, finding keys, and navigating tight platforming challenges rather than the momentum-based running of the mainline series. Players guide Mario through various toy factory levels to recover stolen Mini-Mario toys from Donkey Kong. Mario has a completely different moveset here compared to his standard platforming outings. He can perform handstands to deflect falling objects and do backflips to reach higher ledges.