Donkey Kong 64 is coming to Nintendo Switch Online more than 25 years after its original release. Learn more about the Nintendo 64 title here.
Donkey Kong 64 Nintendo Switch Online Launches Next Week
Coming June 3
Nintendo has officially announced that the classic Nintendo 64 (N64) platforming game, Donkey Kong 64 (DK64), will be added to the Nintendo Switch Online service. Subscribers who pay for the higher-tier Expansion Pack plan will gain access to the title starting on June 3, 2026, in Western regions. Fittingly, due to time zone differences, Japan will get the title on June 4th (6/4).
To access the game when it launches next week, users must have an active subscription to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service. This premium tier costs $49.99 per year for an individual membership, or $79.99 per year for a Family plan that covers up to eight accounts. This costs more than the standard $19.99 annual subscription but provides access to legacy software libraries from the N64, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy Advance, as well as select downloadable content packages for modern Switch games.
This is the first time the game is officially playable on modern consoles. Although Nintendo previously made the game available on the Wii U Virtual Console back in April 2015, it had been absent from modern digital storefronts since that console generation ended.
The intellectual property rights surrounding the game have occasionally been viewed as complex by consumers, given that the original developer, Rare, was acquired by Microsoft in 2002. However, Nintendo retains full ownership of the Donkey Kong franchise and the characters introduced in the game. This has allowed other Rare-developed N64 titles, such as Banjo-Kazooie and GoldenEye 007, to successfully arrive on Nintendo Switch Online in recent years.
What is Donkey Kong 64?
Originally developed by Rare and published by Nintendo in 1999, Donkey Kong 64 was the first game to absolutely require the N64 Expansion Pak hardware add-on that doubled the system’s random-access memory (RAM) from four megabytes to eight megabytes. At the time of its release, the peripheral was packaged directly with the game retail box because the software could not boot up or run without the extra memory.
The game is a 3D platformer in which players control a variety of characters from the Kong family to progress through levels. It centers on King K. Rool and his recurring antagonistic group, the Kremlings. The villains position a mechanical island fortress near Donkey Kong Island and kidnap several members of the Kong family to distract the main protagonist. Donkey Kong, then, must free his captured relatives and recover his stolen collection of Golden Bananas to secure his homeland.
This Switch Online release includes battle arenas that support up to four players simultaneously using a split-screen perspective. The Nintendo Switch Online version will preserve these local multiplayer options while using the application's built-in netcode to allow subscribers to play with friends online.
With Donkey Kong 64 finally joining the Nintendo Classics lineup, one of the N64’s most recognizable first-party platformers is now available again through Nintendo’s subscription service for a new generation of players.
Source:
IGN | PSA: The Wii U and 3DS eShops Close Tomorrow
Microsoft | Microsoft Acquires Video Game Powerhouse Rare Ltd.
Game Developer | Microsoft Buys Rare
