Nintendo Switch Online Adds Another GBA Classic This Week

Nintendo Switch Online, the subscription service that gives players access to a library of games for consoles and handhelds from the company’s past, will receive its latest Game Boy Advance title this week. F-Zero: Maximum Velocity is dropping onto the service this Friday, March 29.

The game will be accessible to anyone with a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership, which costs $49.99 for an annual subscription. Maximum Velocity was developed by NDcube (the team responsible most recently for Everybody 1-2 Switch) as a launch title for the Game Boy Advance in 2001. The game takes place 25 years after the original F-Zero, and while the story isn’t the main draw of the series, that does mean you won’t see some of the more iconic characters like Captain Falcon. Still, F-Zero: Maximum Velocity offers the speedy, sci-fi racing gameplay that fans of the series have come to expect, with 20 courses to master across four different difficulty levels.

With the addition of F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack will have a total of 15 GBA games. With the likes of Golden Sun, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and The Legend of Zelda; The Minish Cap, it’s one of the strongest collections of games on the service and shines a light on how truly great the Game Boy Advance was as a platform. If Maximum Velocity leaves you wanting more racing action, you can also try out the free multiplayer game F-Zero 99 on Switch (which does require a Nintendo Switch Online subscription). That’s in addition to two lost F-Zero titles being recreated by fans and made playable just last month. It turns out that 2024 is a pretty good time to be an F-Zero fan. Now if Nintendo is looking for some more GBA classics to add to Nintendo Switch Online, we already have some ideas of what gems for the handheld deserve to make the cut.