Is Nintendo Switch Online Finally Getting Achievements?

According to nintenderos, citing findings from dataminer Yakumono (LuigiBlood), Nintendo Switch Online could be getting a new challenge and achievement system. The clues come from a major internal update to the development build of Nintendo Classics, the app used for NES, SNES, and Game Boy classics on NSO. Nintendo has not announced anything officially, and the build in question has not been released to users, so for now this remains an industry rumor, not confirmed feature news.

If the leak proves accurate, it would address one of NSO's oldest weaknesses: the lack of meaningful long-term goals. Nintendo has spent years building out a strong retro library, and plenty of players still boot up the NES, SNES, or Game Boy apps out of nostalgia. But for many, that experience ends at "look around, play a bit, close it." A proper challenge system could change that by giving those older games a reason to be replayed, not just sampled.

The more interesting part is that this reportedly goes beyond a basic achievement list. Based on the reported code discoveries, the feature is closer in spirit to NES Remix: players would be given bespoke objectives inside retro games, such as clearing a section in a specific way or under a specific restriction, and unlock that game's achievements. That is much more in line with Nintendo's design instincts than a simple "finish once, get a trophy" system, and it also fits older games whose overall runtimes are relatively short.

Still, the caveat matters. Nintendo has issued no official statement, and the current discussion is entirely based on datamined material from a dev version of Nintendo Classics. That version has not been publicly pushed, so regular users can't try it yet. With Nintendo especially, code references do not guarantee that a feature will launch exactly as found, or that it will launch soon.

Even so, the product logic is easy to see. At this point, subscription services can't rely on a big content library alone; retention depends on giving players a reason to come back tomorrow. PlayStation and Xbox have long turned achievements, trophies, and small rewards and repeatable goals into routine player habits. By contrast, NSO has often felt more like a well-stocked retro archive. If Nintendo really does connect a challenge system to its NES, SNES, and Game Boy classics, the service's perceived value would rise immediately.

Timing is the other obvious question. Industry speculation broadly holds that Nintendo could formally announce the feature at an upcoming Nintendo Direct, and the feature could also easily be folded into the wider conversation about Switch2 membership services. For players planning to renew NSO, the advice is simple: do not upgrade to a pricier membership tier just because of this leak. Wait until Nintendo clarifies the supported game list, the challenge formats, and the achievement scope before deciding whether it's worth paying for long term.

To me, the real question is not whether NSO gets achievements at all, but whether Nintendo is willing to build these challenges as focused, game-specific tests. If the system only tracks background stats like clear counts, it won't change much. But if it genuinely captures the feel of NES Remix by reworking old stages into fresh objective-based runs, then NSO's retro catalog could start to feel newly alive. For now, only one thing is certain: the clues have been found, and everything else depends on whether Nintendo actually ships it.