Nintendo Switch Online Adds Pac-Man, Mendel Palace, and The Tower of Druaga

Pac-Man is the easy sell, but Nintendo’s latest Switch Online drop works because it pairs the familiar maze-chasing classic with two deeper NES cuts that actually change what the service feels like. The April 9 update added Pac-Man, Mendel Palace, and The Tower of Druaga to the NES - Nintendo Classics lineup, and the mix gives subscribers both a recognizable hit and a reminder that Nintendo’s retro library still has room to surprise.

That matters because Switch Online is no longer just a cheap way to replay one or two marquee nostalgia games. Nintendo says its classic-games offering now spans more than 150 titles across NES, Super NES, Game Boy, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, and Virtual Boy, and the company still requires a paid membership to use the service. In other words, the value case is bigger than it was a few years ago, but the service still lives on the rhythm of regular drops. When Nintendo slows down, the whole pitch feels thinner; when it adds something like Pac-Man, it immediately feels more competitive.

Pac-Man is the obvious anchor here. Nintendo’s description keeps the essentials intact: the maze layout, warp tunnels, power pellets, and the ghosts that still turn a casual run into a panic spiral. It is the kind of addition that works instantly for newer players and still lands for anyone who remembers how clean the arcade logic felt when it translated to home hardware. Nintendo also made the game available right away on both Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, which keeps the rollout simple instead of splitting the audience across systems.

The more interesting grab is Mendel Palace, because it is not just a quirky action-puzzle game. It is Game Freak’s NES debut, a line that matters if you know how far Satoshi Tajiri’s studio later went with Pokémon. The game’s floor-panel-flipping gimmick gives it a strange, physical feel that sets it apart from the usual 8-bit platformer churn, and it is the kind of relic that makes Switch Online more than a dumping ground for old hits.

The Tower of Druaga rounds out the update with the toughest pitch of the three and maybe the most preservation value. Originally released in 1984, the Namco action-role-playing maze game asks players to climb floor by floor, collect keys, and survive traps, timers, and instant-kill hazards. It is also an import in this lineup, which gives the update a little more edge than a standard domestic retro drop. Taken together, these three games do not transform Switch Online, but they do make the subscription feel alive, and that is still the bar Nintendo has to clear.