Nintendo has made an exciting new Nintendo Switch Online announcement – but it raises more questions than you think.
They made this announcement on Twitter:
The future is… forsaken!
FORSAKEN 64 is coming to the Nintendo 64 – Nintendo Classics: Mature app on Sept 4 for #NintendoSwitchOnline + Expansion Pack members!
Wait, Forsaken 64 Is A “Mature” Game?
Forsaken 64 is a special version of the 6DOF shooter game Forsaken, originally released for Windows and PlayStation.
6DOF stands for six degrees of freedom. 6DOF shooters are first-person shooters. But instead of playing as the person on the ground, you navigate a ship that can turn in all six degrees.
Forsaken 64 was remembered in its time as a great looking game with a decent single player campaign. It also boasted a fun split-screen multiplayer experience, for up to four players.
If you’re wondering how that could possibly work on the Nintendo 64 controller, you can check out the manual here. As incredible as it sounds, IGN also has a review from 2012 that compares the PC and Nintendo 64 versions.
The ESRB gave Forsaken 64 a T rating, for Animated Blood and Animated Violence. We’re not sure that it’s that more violent than Winback: Covert Operations and Sin and Punishment. But this is the reason it got sent off to join GoldenEye 007 and Shadow Man.
The Elephant In The Room
Two months ago, dataminers realized the Forsaken 64 cover was hiding behind the Nintendo 64 app background. It was blurred out and reversed but they found a way to identify these covers.
That means the other games in the background could also be in the way. Those games are: Super Smash Bros., Donkey Kong 64, and Glover. So we could expect these games to come to Switch Online in the future as well.
But there’s more to it than that.
The Mouse Behind The Elephant No One Noticed
Nightdive Studios published Forsaken Remastered in 2018 to PC and Xbox One. This was five years before they were acquired by Atari.
At this time, they set aside their big pet project (the System Shock 2 remaster) to make remasters of other classic games, mostly first-person shooters.
They developed their own KEX Engine for these remasters. But beyond that, they bought the rights to these games or licensed them with the current owners.
The Big Question
There is no mention of Nightdive Studios or their parent company Atari in these Forsaken 64 announcements.
Nightdive was asked about bringing Forsaken Remastered to the Switch in 2018.
Network programmer Edward Richardson said this:
The Nintendo Switch looks like a fantastic platform for our games, but I think that the answer that we are supposed to give is “wait and see”.
Nightdive’s CEO Stephen Kick then chimed in:
We can’t discuss specifics of our roadmap, but the short answer is yes, with the understanding that your question included the words “at some point”.
So the question emerges, does Nightdive/Atari own Forsaken? And do they own Forsaken 64?
The answers to these questions could come up in a few hours. It’s certainly an odd little mystery for what is a completely forgotten genre getting its biggest exposure in years.
You can watch the official announcement trailer below:
