What does a Christmas miracle not entail?
It appears that Nintendo has already started to restrict the Wii U and 3DS’s ability to play online, according to multiple users and media outlets like Nintendo Life. This started just before Christmas Eve, which is a real Bowser move. If you were planning to spend the last few days of your holiday break revisiting the original Splatoon for Wii U or Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, you may be out of luck.
This may not affect every player just yet, so head online with your console to give it a try. Jonathan Barrow of Pretendo, a “open-source Nintendo Network replacement,” wrote that this is part of a “slow rollout” of Nintendo’s April plans. Although Pretendo hopes to eventually bring the two consoles back online, we knew this was coming. Originally, Nintendo said the shutdown would not happen until early April.
To be fair, Nintendo never officially stated that the April deadline was written in stone; instead, the firm hinted that it would terminate online services “earlier than planned.” Still, Nintendo could have given people advance notice so they could play one last multiplayer game of Kid Icarus: Uprising.
This revelation comes after Nintendo shut down the eShops for the 3DS and Wii U back in March. As a result, you can no longer purchase new games or play them online. The company’s humorous and entertaining Miiverse social network, which was available on both systems, was shut down in 2017, however there is a post archive.
Entire generations of games simply disappear, like Goomba tears in the rain. On the bright side, maybe we will be able to shell out full price for some more remakes, with a Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon refresh coming to the Switch next year. This is sad, but it happens. Out with the old and in with the new, and all that. Being a gamer is weird that way.