Nintendo has hidden NES classic Golf in every Nintendo Switch

Vaughn Highfield September 18, 2017

Nintendo has left a treat hidden away in the depths of every Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo has hidden NES classic Golf in every Nintendo Switch

Tucked away within the Nintendo Switch OS, the entirety of the NES game Golf is sitting waiting to be played. It’s not just a simple port, either: Nintendo has invested time and money into making Golf truly Switch-compatible, adding support for multiplayer with two Joy-Cons. Golf also supports motion-control play and, possibly, HD Rumble. The trouble is, nobody knows just how to get at it.

Spotted by Nintendo Switch hacking wiki, SwitchBrew.org, a group of avid hackers tore apart the Switch OS in pursuit of understanding how to turn it into a homebrew machine. In the process they uncovered Golf.

It’s not news that the Switch had capabilities for NES emulation: that was discovered in July when another set of hackers found the code for “Flog”, which was assumed to be a NES emulator. In fact, it turns out Flog wasn’t a NES emulator, it was actually NES Golf (flog is golf spelled backwards).

nintendo_switch_nes_golf_main_screen

READ NEXT: Best Nintendo Switch games

The big deal about this hidden title isn’t that it’s locked away in the Switch OS, but the fact Nintendo has put so much effort into updating it for Switch hardware. This isn’t simply an emulation; Nintendo is up to something with this inclusion, and the fact it’s locked away suggests it could be a freebie for Switch users at some point down the line.

We currently don’t know any details around Nintendo’s Virtual Console plans for Switch. It’s possible Nintendo’s silence around Virtual Console indicates that the company is hard at work adding new features into classic games to differentiate them from NES and SNES mini console releases.

With this hidden within Nintendo Switch’s OS, it’s likely that Golf will surface as Nintendo’s first free NES game as part of its online subscription service next year. It could even surface as a freebie to tempt players into purchasing other updated classics once Nintendo goes live with the eShop at some point in the future.

I’ve reached out to Nintendo for comment and clarification on the matter and will update this story accordingly when we know more.