Super Mario Sunshine arrives on Switch Online's GameCube library, bringing the catalogue to 10 titles
Super Mario Sunshine, the 2002 GameCube platformer that sent Mario armed with a water-propelled backpack to clean up a tropical island, is now playable on Nintendo Switch 2 through the Switch Online subscription service. Nintendo had announced the previous month that the game would arrive in August, and as of 13 August 2026 it is live in the Nintendo GameCube – Nintendo Classics app. VideoGamesChronicle
The addition brings the GameCube catalogue on Switch Online to ten titles. The full lineup: Chibi-Robo!, F-Zero GX, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Luigi's Mansion, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, Soulcalibur II, Super Mario Strikers, Super Mario Sunshine, and Wario World.
To access these games, players need a Switch 2 console and a subscription to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pass, the higher tier of Nintendo's online service. The Expansion Pass costs US$49.99 / £34.99 / €39.99 per year. GameCube titles are not available on the original Switch — only on its successor, the Switch 2, which launched in 2025.
Nintendo has also confirmed that Pokémon Colosseum, a GameCube-era role-playing game set in a desert region rather than the series' usual grassy routes, is coming to the same library. No release date has been announced yet.
For anyone who missed Super Mario Sunshine the first time around, the history on Nintendo's current hardware has been patchy. An HD version was included in the Super Mario 3D All-Stars compilation, released on the original Switch in September 2020. That collection was a limited-time release — Nintendo delisted it roughly seven months later, in March 2021, and it has not returned to the eShop since. The version now on Switch Online is not that HD port but the original GameCube game running through the Classics app's emulation.
The GameCube itself launched in 2001 and used eight-centimetre optical discs, a smaller format than standard CDs or DVDs. That physical format is now two console generations and 25 years in the past. The games, though, keep finding new life through subscription libraries — Nintendo's approach to its back catalogue has been to trickle titles out gradually rather than release them in large batches.
With ten GameCube titles now available and Pokémon Colosseum on the way, the library is still modest in size. But each addition gives Switch 2 owners another reason to keep their Expansion Pass active, and gives players who never owned a GameCube a straightforward way to try games that were, until recently, hard to play without hunting down old hardware and discs.
