Footage from September’s Nintendo Direct appears to show different versions of N64 games for NA and EU.
During yesterdays (September 23) Nintendo Direct, Switch owners got to see a new feature. An expansion for the Switch Online Membership will give fans access to N64 games. However, some viewers noticed differences between the European and North American versions of the stream.
When the N64 was initially released, North America and Japan used NTSC televisions while Europe used PAL. While PAL had more scan lines, it ran at a slower refresh rate. This meant that games released in Japan and NA ran at 60 Hz while those released in Europe ran at a slower 50Hz and had black bars to cover the extra scan lines.
One eagle-eyed viewer noticed that specific animations in the EU version of the Nintendo direct appeared to be running at the 50Hz rate. This could cause issues for multiplayer games connecting between the slower EU versions and the 60Hz NA ones.
However, the same user also spotted that only the multilingual games appeared to be running at 50Hz. If a game was only released in English, there is no need to offer the slower version. However, those released with multiple languages appear to be choosing to maintain the accessibility of added languages while sacrificing the refresh rate.
More analysis about N64 NSO: Only multilanguage games are PAL in Europe, games that were english only in Europe are clearly 60hz.
I still hope for choice between PAL and NTSC for the PAL ones. pic.twitter.com/3k30pzi8Yy— LuigiBlood (@LuigiBlood) September 24, 2021
Eurogamer contacted Nintendo UK, who replied saying “We have nothing to announce on this topic.”
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Currently, the games announced for the service are:
- The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time
- Super Mario 64
- Mario Kart 64
- Star Fox64
- Mario 64
- Mario Tennis
- Yoshi’s Story
- WinBack
- Sin And Punishment
Nintendo Switch Online members will also have the opportunity to purchase replicas of the Nintendo 64 and Sega Mega Drive controllers, which will be wireless to connect to the Switch. Both controllers cost £39.99.
Elsewhere, artwork has been released for Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League.