Nintendo 64 Online App's problems (input lag, controller layout) angering Expansion Pass customers.

[HustleBun]

Seeing across the board on multiple gaming forums and publications, Nintendo 64 Online from the new Expansion Pass has a lot of problems.
It deserves it's own thread since the conversation is starting to take over the other discussions around the Nintendo Online EP.

From a high level, what we're seeing:

• Input lag ranging from "slightly noticeable" to "I can't play Mario 64 or Mario Kart 64 like this".
• Bizarre button layout that essentially reverses the placement of A and B, and has weird C-Button placement above them.
• Framerate issues and more input lag hindering games like Yoshi's Island and Star Fox 64.
• Sound delay in addition to input lag, most reports of this happening are related to Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64.
• Texture issues in Mario Kart 64
• Controller Pack error in certain games (Winback, Mario Kart 64) since they didn't emulate any version of it.
• Music issues where the tracks sound sped up or garbled

Considering the aggressive price tag on Expansion Pass, it's understandable why people would be so put off by the myriad of problems that are being seen here. At best, people are paying for a BETA of sorts. And that's if Nintendo addresses any of the problems.

Really hope Nintendo responds in some way. This is very disappointing.

Some of the assorted comments from other threads:

the audio delay was super noticeable when I was scrolling through the menus (select cc and select character) you can easily (well it stood out instantly for me just because I play these games fairly regularly on OG hardware or retroarch pc) so the audio delay was reallllly obvious there and even when you run over the power ups the sound effect for it stood out being delayed

Jumping in Mario 64 feels superrrrrr heavy to me has to be at least half a second delay there

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I regret my purchase

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These controls just aint doing it for me in any game that I've tried. I need my N64 controller to get here soon. Guess I'll play Genesis until then.

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Pretty noticeable input lag and audio delay in all n64 stuff so far.

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Watching ZFG stream OoT and he is pretty disappointed.
He is saying that OoT is the same as it was on WiiU which was not well received.

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I don't think the emulator is quite up to scratch though. Played Mario 64 and Kart and noticed some performance/frametime issues. I fired up my actual N64 with Kart and it was smoother on original hardware. Have also noticed some textures in Kart are not bilinear filtered whereas they are on original hardware.

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input lag in OoT is so bad :(

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I don't know if it's the emulation or the controls but Mario 64 just doesn't feel quite right, he doesn't turn corners like he should. Climbing the mountain in Bob-Omb Battlefield was more difficult than it should be.

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ok the star fox controls are fucking me up so bad. like obviously i want the 64 controller but why the fuck is Brake mapped to X and Boost to Y? feels like it should be the opposite. Or break to A instead of bomb, and bomb be Y. Gotta see if I can customize controls, its messin with me hard

crap is there no way to edit controls? noooo

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[Porygon]

This is unacceptable even if it was part of the 20USD tier

 

[Radarscope1]

What a disaster.

 

[Disco Stu]

Thanks Obama.

 

[Atheerios]

 

[RBH]

Ah, I'll buy it at a high price!

 

[jph139]

That's a bummer - and kind of surprising? I remember there being some issues with the Wii U versions, but it was mostly limited to the visuals. It's like they get worse at it every time they try.

Wasn't going to bite until they got more content anyways, so I'll hold out hope they actually fix it. (They won't.)

 

[Perkin_Warbeck]

Weird. They should just let you straight up remap all the buttons. Nothing is going to be perfect when trying to map the N64 pad to modern controllers, so just let people choose what they want and even let them change on a per game basis.

Has anyone tried the Sega games with an M30 from 8bitdo? I wonder how those buttons would map.

 

[ThatsMyTrunks]

Yeah, the controls being unmappable and the input latency are pretty fucking awful.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

I'm shocked

 

[NinjaScooter]

Nintendo fucking up an emulator and charging more for it is pretty on brand tbh.

 

[Dark Ninja]

Not gonna lie the sound issues are hilarious watching people try to play online.

 

[Gentlemen]

some people paid more than $100 for this privilege. what an utter ripoff

 

[Fat4all]

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woof

 

[Android Sophia]

That's a bummer - and kind of surprising? I remember there being some issues with the Wii U versions, but it was mostly limited to the visuals. It's like they get worse at it every time they try.

Wasn't going to bite until they got more content anyways, so I'll hold out hope they actually fix it. (They won't.)

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These control issues with N64 games have been an issue as far back as the Wii. I remember having a lot of difficulty playing Sin and Punishment because the controls were mapped so awkwardly.

 

[Anth0ny]

nintendo fucked it up

*shock*


inb4 "haven't had any problems, playing the games totally fine"

 

[Gentlemen]

It was predictable that they'd just upload roms onto a third rate emulator platform but somehow they managed to betray even those low expectations.

 

[Vamphuntr]

I guess this was rushed out. N64 emulation is fairly excellent and has been for a while as even mobile phones run games at 100%. No excuse for the no buttons remapping, the controller pak errors (I guess no one tried these modes?) and input lag.

 

[Z-Beat]

It was never about the price itself, it was what they expected you to pay money for. If the online was awesome and these emulated like a dream with no lag and you got to keep them like Games with Gold it would've been fine.

But it's ASS.

 

[Glabados]

I've only dipped into OoT and did find the controls a bit annoying, but nothing game-ruining. These clips and reports are absolutely horrendous though. How can they possibly mess something up this badly? It makes no sense.

 

[Perkin_Warbeck]

If they offered a month-to-month, I would try it out of morbid curiosity. I'm not paying them $50 for a few laughs though.

Does anyone know if the 7 day free trial can be used for the expansion pack?

 

[Stopdoor]

I never really thought much about it before but not even emulating the controller memory pak is such an eyeroll. We're literally never going to see Nintendo emulate a crazy feature like Game Boy multiplayer (across the board), that's for sure.

 

[oakenhild]

Might be time for the expansion pack.

 

[Zebesian-X]

Yeah this sucks :/

 

[Theiea]

Are the N64 games streamed?

I thought it was a download.

 

[Mario_Bones]

Haven't encountered input lag in my short time in the games so far but the lack of remappable controls and emulation of the 'Pak' features stood out right away. Not a good look for this being the premium service, and it's kind of funny to think about Pokemon Stadium getting on here with only the rental Pokemon available. I mean, we'd be playing for the minigames anyway but y'know ;)

 

[SuperBanana]

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wtf is this layout. Up is down? What??

 

[Laserbeam]

I was worried there wouldn't be full button remapping for N64. It's the kind of controller that really needs it on a game by game basis if you aren't using the original, in my opinion.

I guess we can hope they fix this and other shit ASAP.

 

[THube]

Hate to hear this. The NES/SNES emulation on Switch Online are pretty spot-on, I've always felt (aside from the lack of input remapping...).

 

[delete12345]

Might be time for the memory pack.

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You can't insert memory paks into the NSO N64 controllers anyway.

 

[Dead Man Typing]

The online stutter is to be expected with the way they're syncing play sessions. You need a really solid and fast connection between players for that not to happen. It's the same for the NES and SNES systems. Although I suppose it'll be worse on N64 if you can have 3 or 4 separate consoles to sync up instead of just 2.

The rest sounds more disappointing than expected. Input lag and the controller pack errors are problems I wouldn't have anticipated. Guess anyone who was put off by the price has dodged a bullet.

 

[Aarglefarg]

I expected the user guide to have something individualised to each game, like which button is jump etc. Not the same picture across every game only saying what switch button corresponds to which physical N64 button.

 

[Crushed]

Is it just me, or has the relative quality of N64 emulation from Nintendo just dropped consistently since the Wii VC days?

 

[MJForum Poster]

Yeah I have to say I regret ponying up for it tonight. Not enjoying it at all

 

[oakenhild]

You can't insert memory paks into the NSO N64 controllers anyway.

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That wasn't a controller memory pack, for what it's worth. It's the N64 4MB expansion pack. You insert it into the console for better performance or visuals...

 

[Dougieflesh]

I'm absolutely shocked that Nintendo rolled this out in the cheapest and dumbest way possible.

 

[Giga Man]

Nintendo not providing options, especially controller mapping? How shocking!

 

[Villa]

This whole expansion pack thing has just been bizarrely terrible in so many ways. It seriously blows my mind how bad it is for the price they're asking. But then it is Nintendo, so I shouldn't be surprised.

 

[Anth0ny]

Is it just me, or has the relative quality of N64 emulation from Nintendo just dropped consistently since the Wii VC days?

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not just you lol

shit is ridiculous

 

[Jaded Alyx]

The online stutter is to be expected with the way they're syncing play sessions. You need a really solid and fast connection between players for that not to happen.

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which includes not using wifi, preferably.

 

[Android Sophia]

Can you even save the game in Winback?

I'm... pretty sure that requires the Controller Pak for saving.

 

[Zutrax]

What a damn bummer. I just want to play these games without compromises. I can always emulate or whip out my N64 straight up, but I want to just conveniently pull them up on my Switch to play handheld.

Why is it so damn hard to at least not have input/audio latency? It drives me absolutely nuts.

 

[Madao]

this seems to be worse than Wii U VC minus the dark filter.

i wondered why i was having trouble with some Mario 64 tricks and guess it was the input lag. i didn't notice too much since i haven't played the game much recently and last time i did was in 3D All Stars which also had some level of lag.

 

[Ambient]

Majority of people here will still pay for it so Nintendo doesn't care.

 

[Deleted member 17210]

Gross and unacceptable. Is the Genesis emulation at least good?

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

My controller hasn't arrived yet but I'll be selling it as soon as it does to recover the cost I paid to mainly get the n64 games which feel so bad with the input lag and the sound lag. The games look fine from what I've tested, visually, especially on oled handheld 720p. But to me they just don't feel good at all.

 

[Fat4all]

You can't insert memory paks into the NSO N64 controllers anyway.

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yea you need one of these

 

[THube]

The online stutter is to be expected with the way they're syncing play sessions. You need a really solid and fast connection between players for that not to happen. It's the same for the NES and SNES systems. Although I suppose it'll be worse on N64 if you can have 3 or 4 separate consoles to sync up instead of just 2.

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I will say that they aren't syncing the same way NES and SNES emulators are... Implementing rollback on N64 online as they did on NES/SNES would be kind of an impractical thing to attempt from what I've been able to gather.

edit: Reading over your post again, I suppose that wasn't exactly the point :P

 

[Phendrana]

This is hilarious. They put out an overpriced, under-featured service, and it doesn't even work properly.

It's the most Nintendo thing ever.

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

Gross and unacceptable. Is the Genesis emulation at least good?

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its fantastic from what I've played so far!!!!