GoldenEye can’t distract from Switch retro games’ most annoying pitfall

Nintendo's promotional key art for the launch of <em>GoldenEye 007</em> on Switch.

Enlarge / Nintendo's promotional key art for the launch of GoldenEye 007 on Switch. (credit: Nintendo)

Today marks the long-awaited rerelease of the Nintendo 64 classic GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo Switch. As was announced before the launch, the game supports widescreen. When I learned that, my first thought wasn't "Oh, nice!" Rather, it was "OK, but what about the rest of the library?"

To be clear, there's no easy way to make old 4:3 games fill up a modern 16:9 aspect ratio, and that's not something I would recommend in this case. But the solution used by the rest of the library of old games running within the Nintendo Switch Online service—enclosing every game in horribly distracting and potentially destructive gray borders—is, well, awful.

So as Nintendo finally adds one of the most beloved Nintendo 64 games to Switch Online, allow me a moment to vent some frustration on behalf of many players.

Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Nintendo's promotional key art for the launch of <em>GoldenEye 007</em> on Switch.

Enlarge / Nintendo's promotional key art for the launch of GoldenEye 007 on Switch. (credit: Nintendo)

Today marks the long-awaited rerelease of the Nintendo 64 classic GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo Switch. As was announced before the launch, the game supports widescreen. When I learned that, my first thought wasn't "Oh, nice!" Rather, it was "OK, but what about the rest of the library?"

To be clear, there's no easy way to make old 4:3 games fill up a modern 16:9 aspect ratio, and that's not something I would recommend in this case. But the solution used by the rest of the library of old games running within the Nintendo Switch Online service—enclosing every game in horribly distracting and potentially destructive gray borders—is, well, awful.

So as Nintendo finally adds one of the most beloved Nintendo 64 games to Switch Online, allow me a moment to vent some frustration on behalf of many players.

Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments


January 28, 2023 at 12:20AM

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