Japanese players mourn the impending loss of Animal Crossing, Mario Kart 7 online modes
With less than a month to go before the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U online servers’ shutdown on April 9, the topic has been attracting attention on Japanese game news outlets and social media. What are the games that Japanese players are going to miss?
Although you will still be able to revisit 3DS and Wii U games after April 9, online functions will no longer be available. Japanese news site Game Watch recently published an article covering key titles that this will impact. The article garnered some shocked responses, suggesting that some players were not aware of the official announcement Nintendo made back in October about the service shutdown.
Games from major franchises on the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS will be impacted by this, including the first Splatoon game, Super Mario Maker, Super Smash Brothers, Monster Hunter, Animal Crossing New Leaf, Mario Kart 7 and the Pokémon series. Of course, many of these games have more up-to-date sequels that can be enjoyed on the Nintendo Switch.
Animal Crossing New Leaf is one of the games that will be deeply affected by the termination of online features. The 3DS exclusive not only has a multiplayer mode, but many other creative online aspects. It allows players to download dream versions of other people’s towns, view other people’s creations and even download custom furnishings and items made by other users. Players could even create QR codes for their designs and have others download them using the 3DS’s camera.
There are games on the list that can’t be 100% completed without accessing the online modes, such as Super Smash Bros. It also seems like some players are making the most of Mario Kart 7’s online mode while they still can.
Another game significantly impacted by the server shutdown is the original Super Mario Maker. The game that lets players create their own Mario stages and share them online does have a Nintendo Switch sequel. However, when the Wii U online service shutdown happens, all levels uploaded by players using the first game will be lost (there are over 41,100 of them). As we previously reported, a team of players from all over the world is currently striving to beat all the user-created stages (Related Article).
Are there any online game modes that you are dusting off your 3DS or Wii U to play before time runs out?
I hope Nintendo and other companies figure out ways to have game preservation exist as a whole with internet, such as maybe private servers, or some other service because some games without the internet just tend not to function at all and just end up being sort of half of the fun of the game.