Some players who have upgraded their Nintendo Switch Online subscriptions to access the new Expansion Pack are upset about the performance of the service's Nintendo 64 games. Fans are reporting issues of input lag, sound delays, frame rate issues, and incorrect controller layouts.
Many issues have been collated into a ResetEra thread, which has attracted further submissions from players who are unhappy with the service. Common complaints focus on input lag; user paftree said "input lag in OoT is so bad". User nogoodnamesleft echoed this, saying "Pretty noticeable input lag and audio delay in all n64 stuff so far."
Famed Zelda: Ocarina of Time speedrunner ZFG posted his thoughts to Twitter, noting that this version is "worse" than the one featured on the WiiU's Virtual Console.
Holy shit OoT on Switch is so bad it might actually be worse than WiiU VC
— CLG ZFG (@zfg111) October 26, 2021
Alongside input lag, players are reporting sound effect delays and issues with music playback, as well as a strange button layout problem that reverses the placement of the A and B buttons, with no option to re-map.
"Considering the aggressive price tag on Expansion Pass, it's understandable why people would be so put off by the myriad of problems that are being seen here," said thread creator HustleBun.
Over on Twitter, user @OatmealDome reports that the emulator being used for Nintendo Switch Online's N64 games is the same one that was used for Super Mario 3D All-Stars' Super Mario 64, albeit stripped of its specific elements designed for just Super Mario 64. The results of that emulation was generally praised, or at least seen as sufficient, in reviews for Super Mario 3D All-Stars. Despite this, it seems as if there is an emulation problem for the Expansion Pack games.
[Expansion Pack – Nintendo 64]
The emulator used in Super Mario 3D All-Stars for Super Mario 64 makes its return.
– Possibly codenamed “Hovercraft”?
– Uses JIT dynarec to emulate the N64 CPU.
– Uses Vulkan as its graphics API.
– ROM files are zlib-compressed .n64 files.— SpookmealDome 🎃 (@OatmealDome) October 26, 2021
The new Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack is available as of yesterday, and costs $49.99 per year. Hopefully Nintendo will be able to address the issues that players are reporting. Despite the performance problems, Nintendo recently announced that all N64 games on the service can be played at 60Hz, even in PAL regions.
Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.