The NES, SNES, and Game Boy Nintendo Switch Online apps all received mysterious updates (to versions 9.0.0, 6.0.0, and 4.0.0, respectively), and a prolific dataminer has claimed that these patches are meant to add challenges.
These challenges aren’t accessible yet, but according to LuigiBlood on Bluesky (as spotted by Nintendo Everything), they will be similar to what players saw in the 2013 Wii U game NES Remix.
For the many who skipped out on the Wii U, NES Remix contained quick excerpts of classic NES games, challenging players to complete parts of titles like Super Mario Bros. or The Legend of Zelda with specific objectives or constraints.
NES Remix also contained more outlandish “remixes” of classic games (e.g., completing a level of Donkey Kong as Link), but LuigiBlood doesn’t believe that the Nintendo Switch Online challenges will have anything of the sort.
As of now, there are 84 NES games, 77 SNES games, and 43 Game Boy games on the NSO service in the North American and PAL regions. According to LuigiBlood, these challenges will only be for specific games and will be accessible through the NSO app on the Switch home menu. Any possible rewards that would come with these challenges are unknown at this point.
An announcement of such a feature for Nintendo Classics would be perfectly suited for a Nintendo Direct, and it just so happens that the company confirmed that a presentation will stream on Tuesday, June 9.