Nintendo has revealed the latest batch of games joining Nintendo Switch Online, and one game stands out in particular as a surprising, but welcome, addition.
The big game for this batch is Devil World, which holds the distinction of being the only video game developed by Shigeru Miyamoto that was never released in North America. This is because of the game’s Christian iconography, that violated Nintendo of America’s early rules on video game content.
Devil World first came out for the Famicom in 1984, and American rules didn’t stop its release in Europe in 1987. Subsequently Devil World had seen rereleases in Virtual Console, but Nintendo had never published the game in North America, even long after doing away with those rules banning religious imagery or content.
But let’s talk about the game itself. You play a dragon named Tamagon who is attacking the ‘Devil’s World.’ Like Pac-Man, Tamagon moves around a maze, collecting dots, as well as crosses to power up and fight the monsters on screen. Unlike Pac-Man, a figure called “The Devil” float overhead as he restricts Tamagon’s movement to a small section of the maze. The Devil keeps moving the boundaries around, in an attempt to get Tamagon squeezed between the walls.
Devil World demonstrates the competence of its designers, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Takashi Tezuka, who most recently helped in making Super Mario Bros. Wonder. This game, however, is more of a curious oddity than a real lost masterpiece, but Americans can officially play the game for the first time.
Now many gamers will call The Mysterious Murasame Castle, also released on the Famicom,an actual masterpiece. Like The Legend of Zelda, it is a top down action game, but it moves its fantasy setting from Europe to Japan.Yyou play a swordsman named Takamaru leading a one-man siege against the eponymous castle. This game already debuted in North America on the 3DS eShop in 2014, but it is available once again to play on the Switch, this time as part of the Switch Online subscription.
Finally, joining these two games is Konami’s Castlevania Legends. Released in 1997 on the Game Boy, it was intended to be a prequel to all the previous Castlevania games, and it featured Sonia Belmont, a character who has been completely removed from the Castlevania franchise canon.
As shocking as that sounds, there’s nothing particularly unusual or shocking about Castlevania Legends. This is a conventional Castlevania action game, where Sonia whips Dracula and his minions for five levels. The only reason Sonia has become non-canon is that Koji Igarashi came up with a new origin story for the Belmonts in Castlevania: Lament of Innoncence, and neither he nor anyone else thought of adding her back in.
For this reason, Castlevania Legends was also not part of 2019’s Castlevania Anniversary Collection, nor 2021’s Castlevania Advance Collection. The original Game Boy cartridge is highly sought after, but that may change now that it has seen its first official rerelease after 25 years.
You can watch the latest Nintendo Switch Online trailer below.
