It’s a well-known fact that online services offer different content in different countries. The new Switch online service has a curious restriction for German customers: Super Mario 64 does not offer a rumble function here, which is limited to Japan.
Nintendo didn’t feel like offering the Rumble version globally
The expansion pack for Switch Online has recently been available and offers access to Nintendo 64 and Sega Mega Drive or Genesis games for an additional charge – we had informed you in detail. As was to be expected, there are discrepancies in the catalog between Japan and Western countries for the service. In combination with Super Mario 64, you probably have to accept the most noticeable deviation at the moment: while the game is available with a rumble function in Japan, you have to do without this feature in the West.
Nintendo Switch: Online membership gets expansion pack
As VGC writes, there is a rather interesting reason for this curious restriction. Only in Japan do users access the so-called “Shindou Pak Taiou” edition of Super Mario 64. This was distributed exclusively in the country as a new edition in 1997 and brought an important innovation with it: Support for the Rumble Pak. Since the Switch Online app can also handle rumble signals, Super Mario 64 on the Switch is accompanied by vibrations in Japan.
However, Nintendo ships the standard version without Rumble support when it is accessed from Germany and other Western countries, so the function is simply missing here. Here, we have to note that Nintendo apparently did not make any efforts to make the feature available outside of Japan.
Workaround possible
A workaround is relatively easy here. First, a Japanese Nintendo account must be created and the country’s e-shop must be accessed. Here, the region-specific N64 app can then be downloaded. “Then simply open the Japanese version of the app with your normal NSO Expansion Pack-enabled account to play the alternate versions,” according to Nintendolife.
