Switch Online NES games will let you rewind to the time before you died

Gamers from yesteryears might say that today's players are spoiled. The games that we call classics today are entertaining but they are also notorious for being unforgiving. Sometimes, you just wish you could back in time, just a few seconds to undo the mistake you've made. Thanks to modern technology, that's now possible and Nintendo is bringing it to those classic NES titles on the Nintendo Switch as well.

Due to technical limitations, the idea of save games was almost unheard of back in the good ol' NES games. Much less having multiple save games or save states. These days, though, that's no longer a problem, especially when using emulators that aren't constrained by ancient technology.

It just so happens that the Nintendo Switch is practically using an emulator to support playing old games on new hardware. Of course, Nintendo isn't exposing the full capabilities of whatever emulation software it's using but it is at least making one convenience available to Switch owners: save states.

Nintendo is announcing it as a "Rewind" feature and, at least based on its promo video, it seems mostly automatic. That is you don't get to choose which parts of the game you're saving but you can at least choose a certain point back in time to repeat.

Nintendo Switch's Rewind feature will go live on July 17. Of course, it's only applicable to the 40 or so NES games available only to Switch Online subscribers.