GameCube in Nintendo Switch 2

With the addition of the GameCube for the Switch 2, I wonder how worth it is when compared to existing emulation?

This post was originally written on April 3, 2025. I apologize in advance for any outdated information.

The Nintendo Switch 2 Direct is finally upon us, we got a lot of announcements and games featured on it, and we’ve also obtained a price tag and some extra specifications on plenty of official sources and articles. I don’t have a lot to add, but I wanted to ramble about one of the features I’m somewhat mixed about.

As the title says, GameCube games are being added to the Nintendo Switch 2 via Nintendo’s subscription service.

For the most part, I am very excited for this system to be finally available in an official way, even though there’s no way to actually own them. For this reason, when I think about the many ways there are to play GameCube games, I’m afraid I may not enjoy it on Switch as much.

As a fan of retro handheld gaming consoles, I’ve grown used to the control I have over all the games on them. The emulation settings, the bios files, the cover art, the firmware and customization, every file on them is easily accesible by plugging its microSD card on my computer, or even opening up an FTP connection if the hardware supports it.

I’ve been used to this since I got my PSP in 2012, where filesystem access was a built-in feature. Every game and save file can easily be accessed with a cable or Memory Stick adaptor.

The same is true for every game on my retro gaming devices, even more so when everything is RetroArch under the hood.

Of course, Sony paid a heavy price making files so easy to access on the PSP, as hacking it to run custom firmware and game files is literally a matter of drag & drop. It’s not hard to see why Nintendo decided to not allow this on the Switch and its successor.

The one advantage Nintendo has? the ease of use and the dead simple multiplayer support. This alone outweighs the negatives for most regular Switch users, who don’t really care about—or aren’t even aware of—widescreen support¹, HD texture packs, and all the extra customization available to emulation sickos.

All of these limitations have been a thing since the service started though. All the previous systems available to play are just as locked down as the GameCube will be. So why do I feel uneasy until now?

To me, the retro games available via NSO have always just been a nice to have. Everything there is something I could lose at any point in time, and be OK with it. I’ve relegated it to multiplayer party games, beat’em ups and maybe platformers like Yoshi’s Island.

I haven’t really bothered to commit to longer, story-focused games like Ocarina of Time or Breath of Fire, which require a real investment to be put into them, because I could lose access to them, I repeat, at any time.

Obviously, Nintendo should be fine for plenty of years in the future, sure, but I still feel uneasy about making significant progress in a game without being able to back it up or do anything with it.

I know what some of you are thinking, I will literally lose all of my Nintendo Switch data at some point, when my device dies and Nintendo shuts down its servers. But there’s no other way for Switch games at least for now—other than dumping my games with a hacked Switch I guess. But in the case of emulation of older consoles, there are plenty of other options, so why not use them instead?

Another issue with GameCube games is, they take a lot more space. Compared to the max of 32 MB an N64 game could have, or the few kilobytes used by SNES, NES and the rest, the GameCube will eat through storage much faster. I wouldn’t be surprised if they let you download individual GameCube games, instead of the entire package getting installed like on other systems.

The fact that my super expensive MicroSD Express card is going to get filled by old games that I can only play by paying a subscription, is not very enticing to me. Add to that the extra storage needed for proper Switch 2 games because some of them won’t have true physical editions anymore, storage could become a real pain if you can’t afford one of the big 1-2 TB cards that aren’t even in stock right now.

In the end, I already have a lot of games in my backlog, it’s not like I’m eager to play GameCube games right away. I didn’t think of it much until now, but I have never had the itch to setup a GameCube emulator on my phone or computer before, even though it would be nice. As I already said, plenty of other games to tackle first.

In any case, I am still super hyped for the Nintendo Switch 2, and maybe I will end up loving playing the GameCube on it, who knows? I’m only human.

This is day 45 of #100DaysToOffload

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