Underrated SNES game Congo’s Caper comes to Switch Online

Also Rival Turf and Pinball

The SNES Nintendo Switch Online offerings just got a little more lively this week, as Nintendo just did a customary late-night content drop that involves three more retro games (two SNES, one NES). There are no Expansion Pack offerings (Genesis/N64) this week.

Following a maintenance announcement that most certainly tipped folks off that more games would be coming, Nintendo unleashed three new games into the mix:

• Congo’s Caper (SNES)
• Rival Turf (SNES)
• Pinball (NES)

Pinball will likely trigger some nostalgia, but it’s been far surpassed in the arena — despite being one of the first home console pinball games in 1984 (just five years later we’d get Pinball Quest). Rival Turf is a serviceable beat ’em up that’s part of the Rushing Beat saga, and joins the already existing Brawl Brothers on the Switch Online service.

But Congo’s Caper is the real star here of the weekly SNES Switch Online drops, at least for me. I remember renting it because of a gaming magazine feature, and I couldn’t be happier. As one of many “dinosaur/prehistoric”-angled games of that era (and the preceding NES generation), it had a vibrant visual style that still sticks out; a wild plotline involving demon kidnappers; and a protagonist that evolves and devolves from a monkey to a boy as part of the gameplay (similar to Ghosts’N Goblins).

Alongside of a good platforming foundation, the stark aesthetic style and goofy premise will still hold up today for a lot of people: give it a shot!