Three Namco-published NES titles have joined Nintendo Switch Online's classic library, and one of them carries a fascinating piece of gaming history. As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Mendel Palace, Pac-Man, and The Tower of Druaga are all now playable through the Nintendo Switch Online NES catalogue.
The headliner here is Mendel Palace, which holds the distinction of being Game Freak's very first published game. Long before the studio became synonymous with Pokémon, the developer cut its teeth on this quirky action puzzler back in 1989. If you've ever wanted to trace the lineage of one of gaming's most valuable franchises back to its roots, this is as far back as it goes.
What are the games?
Pac-Man needs no introduction - it's the arcade legend that helped define gaming culture, and the NES port is a solid slice of that history. It's the kind of addition that rounds out any retro library nicely, even if most players have already eaten their fill of pellets and ghosts across a dozen other platforms.
The Tower of Druaga is the one that might be flying under the radar for Western audiences. Originally an arcade title from 1984, the game is a significant piece of Japanese gaming heritage - a dungeon-crawler that reportedly influenced later RPG and adventure games, and was developed by Masanobu Endo, who also created Xevious. It's a welcome addition for anyone interested in digging into the deeper roots of game design.
A solid drop for retro fans
Nintendo Switch Online continues to be one of the more underrated aspects of the Switch ecosystem for players who care about gaming history. The NES and SNES libraries in particular have grown into genuinely impressive archives, and additions like these - especially Mendel Palace - are exactly the kind of curated content that makes the service worth keeping around.
For Game Freak fans specifically, Mendel Palace is a genuine curiosity. The studio has become one of the most commercially successful developers on the planet, but Mendel Palace is where that journey started. It's a chance to see what the team was doing before Satoshi Tajiri's monster-catching concept changed everything.
All three games are available now for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers.
