Last week’s Nintendo Direct hit us with some exciting news and more gameplay footage for upcoming titles. Super Mario Odyssey is set for release in just over a month’s time along side its new Nintendo Switch bundle and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 finally got an official release date. The company is also planning to start porting its classic arcade titles over to the Switch and is even bringing the NES Classic Edition back from the dead.
Speaking of retro Nintendo, keen data miners have unearthed some odd files laying deep within the Switch operating system. On top of what appears to be an NES emulator, hackers have also found an old NES game that looks an awful lot like the 1984 classic: Golf.
While there have been rumors floating around regarding the existence of an NES emulator and a fair amount of theories as to why it is on there, this might be our first hard evidence of it. The game itself doesn’t sound like it can be accessed very easily. Although data miner yellowS8 has been able to pull up some screenshots from the Switch-hacked NES Golf. It is listed under the file name “flog”. Yellows8 also says these files have been on the Switch ever since it hit store shelves in version 1.0 of its software.
We can see the title screen and even some gameplay in the screenshots (below). But we can also see on-screen motion control instructions. As far as we can tell, no previous, “official” NES ROMS have ever supported Nintendo’s motion controls.
Nonetheless, the implications of an official NES ROM on every Switch is certainly exciting to say the least. We will have to wait until well into 2018 for the next run of NES Classic Editions and we are yet to see a proper virtual console setup for Switch, despite Nintendo saying it’s on the way.
Just keep in mind there is no way to know what exactly we are seeing here, as Nintendo is yet to confirm anything. Last we heard, its only statement was it was “looking into the matter”. This could be anything from the product of developer tests, to an indication that this may have been a launch title idea for Switch, hard to say at this point. Here’s to hoping for a complete digital library of Nintendo classics with motion controls!
More Nintendo News and Updates:
- Nintendo unveils the new Super Mario Odyssey Switch Bundle + more [Video]
- Nintendo brings its classic arcade games to Switch: Mario Bros, Punch Out, more
- Nintendo is resurrecting the NES Classic, more SNES
- Review: Mario, Link and other classics come to life as Pixel Pals
- Super Mario 64 now has up to 24-player online + more [Video]
- Review: Nyko’s ChargeBlocks keep your Nintendo Switch controllers ready for action
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