The Switch 2’s latest update improves the console’s GBA emulator

We’re now several months into a brand new Nintendo generation, and waiting impatiently for important information such as the release date for Metroid Prime 4 and the whereabouts of the next 3D Mario game. But in the meantime, the company has been gradually updating its various retro console emulators on Nintendo Switch Online, with the latest being the Game Boy Advance.

As spotted by Nintendo Everything, the 3.0.0 update to the GBA app adds button remapping, which is already possible with the N64 and SNES emulators. Accessible from the menu while playing a game, this allows you to mess around with controls if you’re not happy with the default option, which admittedly does feel like something that should have been there from the beginning, but hey.

Nintendo Everything adds that GBA games in the Nintendo Switch Online library are also now playable in 1080p in handheld mode on the Switch 2, which is hard to verify as there’s no option to toggle video quality. Presumably any game booted on the newer hardware now just defaults to the higher resolution, where before they’d have been stretched from the original Switch’s 720p maximum output. Of course, if the idea of playing a game from the early 2000s with pin-sharp clarity on a huge display appalls you, there is still the option of enabling a bordered small screen, as well as the “classic feel” filter, which adds analog-y scanlines.

Perhaps the most enjoyable addition of all, though, is the hidden original GBA startup screen, which you can activate by wiggling the analogue stick when booting the app. I tested this, and it is (obviously) delightful. Nintendo added a similar Easter egg to its GameCube app earlier this year.

Unfortunately, the updated GBA emulator doesn’t include any new game drops. The most recent title to join the service was Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones back in April, which means the arduous wait for Nintendo to give us Mario Golf: Advance Tour continues. For me at least. Sigh.