4 Nintendo 64 games that are never coming to Switch Online

The Nintendo Switch Online service has opened up a lot of people to a variety of classic games. Getting the Switch Online Expansion pass grants access to Nintendo 64 titles that are live on the service, letting people play many of the N64 releases that made the console special. All the iconic games and unique experiences from that era are easily available for anyone that has a Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 with a Switch Online account. But while there are a bunch of great games on the service, there are many more that have yet to be added. But certain games on the Nintendo 64 will never be on there, no matter how much people loved them back then.

Whether it's due to licensing or simply because there wouldn't be a big audience for them, some N64 titles are just never going to be added to the Switch Online classics library. But which four games are we guaranteed not to see on it? It was a very different time when the Nintendo 64 was popular, which helped certain games stand out as big titles for the console. But that's exactly what they'll remain, popular titles from back then, nothing more. Here are the 4 Nintendo 64 games that are never coming to Switch Online.

4 WWF No Mercy

Any wrestling game on N64

If you had a Nintendo 64 during the late 90s into the early 2000s, then you may remember just how big wrestling video games were on the console. This was a period where professional wrestling and sports entertainment were at the height of their popularity, with both the WWF and WCW taking over television airwaves. While there were multiple wrestling games for the N64, the biggest and most popular release was WWF No Mercy in 2000. It's a follow-up to WWF WrestleMania 2000, which used the famous AKI Engine for its gameplay, allowing players to execute grapple moves and signature finishers with easy controls. This was the standard for the biggest wrestling games of the time, with many others falling short by opting to use different engines. WWF No Mercy featured the biggest superstars of the time and the most up-to-date match types from the current wrestling PPVs that the WWF broadcast in the 2000s.

It's safe to say this game will never be added to Switch Online under any circumstances, mostly due to the WWF licensing. The same thing could be said for any wrestling game from either WWF or WCW that was a major release for the Nintendo 64, regardless of how much they sold back then. It would most likely be a nightmare trying to get the rights of every wrestler that was active at the time and featured in the game, let alone for any other promotion outside the WWF. It's a major part of the N64's lifecycle that will most likely never be remastered for modern consoles, especially anything Nintendo related. Sadly, this will remain something you just had to be there for in order to truly remember and appreciate.

3 Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire

A disturbance in the Force

One of the first ten games to be released for the Nintendo 64 was Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, and was a major reason many Star Wars fans picked up the console. For a time, it was a console-exclusive game that told the story in-between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, but was later ported over to PC and received a few updates. What made this game stand apart from other Star Wars games of the era was how it included the first 3D playable rendition of The Battle of Hoth, a major event in the Star Wars movies. Although the game was criticized for some of the more generic elements within later sections, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire managed to be a big hit for the console. People just love to play Star Wars games, and will go anywhere they can find ones they'll enjoy.

Despite Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire being one of the major launch window releases for the Nintendo 64, don't count on it showing up on Switch Online. The Star Wars license may be a problem that could prevent it from being added to the service, but also the fact that the game has yet to get the remastered treatment like other Star Wars releases. More than likely, we'll see this game again at some point when a company like Aspyr Media or Nightdive Studios decides to make some sort of collection or remastering of it. It probably isn't worth the trouble of figuring out the licensing issues just to have the game on the Switch classics library anyway. Star Wars fans will just have to wait it out if they want to play Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire again on their Nintendo Switch 2, or somewhere else.

2 NFL Blitz 2000

Dropping the ball on this one

When it comes to NFL football games, one that gets brought up a lot alongside classics like Madden NFL Football is the NFL Blitz series. These were games that were less concerned about simulating American football and more focused on the spectacle and excitement of the game. NFL Blitz 2000 was a follow-up to the first game, but with added roster updates and a few extra changes to make games play better. There weren't many big changes from its predecessor, but that didn't make NFL Blitz 2000 any less fun to play for football enthusiasts. It was heavily inspired by the NBA JAM series and what it did for the game of basketball, taking the best aspects of the game and hyper-exaggerating them. Every first down has football players body slamming someone to the ground, and every big pass feels like a rocket straight to the end zone.

There are definitely sports games that have appeared on the Switch Online service before, including the SNES and NES classics. But there have not been any games included with the service that have licensed sports leagues attached to them. You're not going to see anything NFL, NBA, or MLB licensed appear on any of the Switch Online classics. This is obviously due to the licensing of the leagues to include games like this, but also the specific eras from which they were released. NFL Blitz 2000 was popular at the time in arcades and on the Nintendo 64, but has yet to receive any re-release or collection for the series due to that same reason. It was a very different time for video games and licensing, which, unfortunately, is stuck in the past with little to no way of revisiting certain titles in the modern era.

1 Wipeout 64

Locked out by Sony

Wipeout 64 is a racing game released in 1998 for the N64 by a company called Psygnosis. Today, they are known by a completely different name, SCE Studio Liverpool, and make games exclusively for one platform. But back then, Wipeout 64 was a continuaton of the Wipeout series that began with two titles on the first PlayStation. While it is the third entry in the series, the game reuses a lot of the same racetracks and mechanics as the previous titles. The plot of Wipeout 64 is set about one year after the events of the previous entry, and includes a few extra weapons and teams into the mix.

The most obvious reason why Wipeout 64 will never be on the Switch Online service is because the studio formerly known as Psygnosis is owned by another company, and that's Sony. While it can be said that both Nintendo and Sony could reach some agreement to bring the game to the service, it's very unlikely either side would care enough to do so. At the same time, there are already plenty of other racing games on the Switch Online N64 classics, with other titles missing that have yet to make an appearance. So it's not as if Switch Online is starving for racing games, making any effort to add Wipeout 64 completely unnecessary. The payoff is just not worth it right now, and it's doubtful it ever will be.

Missing N64 games for Switch Online

There are still many other Nintendo 64 games that have yet to appear in the Switch Online catalog. However, most of the ones that are currently missing still have a better chance of doing so over any of these four games. Licensing issues are the biggest culprit that prevent many games from appearing on newer hardware and services, which takes away from those who didn't grow up experiencing them. But with an already robust lineup of titles, and more to eventually come, there's plenty of classic and iconic games to dive into with Nintendo Switch Online.