NES games are, if you hadn’t noticed, punishingly hard. We’ve been so mollycoddled by generous save states and infinite respawns to the degree that getting to the end of Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels feels thoroughly insurmountable.
Nintendo has a new feature to help. From July 17, NES games on the Switch will be getting a rewind function, allowing you to nail those tricky bits once and for all.
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As you can see from the video above, the Switch will be constantly saving snapshots of your play, allowing you to quickly go back in time and do things differently to stay around that little bit longer. Though if you’re really dying at the second enemy of Super Mario Bros. 3, then you may well be beyond help.
In any case, it’s pretty simple to activate: just press ZL and ZR at the same time, and you’ll be presented with a set of snapshots to select. Yes, it’ll take some of the challenge away, but at least it’ll reduce the ever-present risk of your Switch getting thrown across the room in frustration.
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If this feels familiar to you, you may have used Nintendo’s SNES Classic, which has a similar feature. Given the Switch’s emulator seems to have a lot in common with Nintendo’s retro hardware, it’s perhaps unsurprising to see the feature repeated – but it’s still a very welcome addition. Especially for those still struggling to get through Zelda II: The Adventures of Link.
Rewind isn’t the only thing coming to the Switch on July 17. Two more games will be added to the NES arcade: Wrecking Crew and Donkey Kong 3 will be joining the party, taking the number of classic games available to Switch Online subscribers up to 44.
Will you be using the rewind function, or does that take the fun out of things? Let us know what you think on Twitter: @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.