Nintendo is officially closing the chapter on the Wii U and 3DS. Today is the final day to play online on either console, and it’s kind of making me want to dust off the Wii U just to play the original Splatoon online one last time.
The Wii U was far from Nintendo’s most popular console, but I still have a lot of great memories with the machine. It was the first console I used to play competitively. As someone who never really liked the pressure of playing with complete strangers in games like Halo or Call of Duty, the Wii U allowed me to break through that.
It let me jump right into Mario Kart 8 with players from all over the world while raging behind my TV screen as the blue shell ruined my first-place finish. I didn’t have to worry about muting my mic as a slew of profanities left my lips. I also didn’t need to worry about trash talk coming from other players, either. Some may have viewed that radio silence as a downside of playing Nintendo games online, but I appreciated it at the time.
I had an equally great time playing Splatoon and Super Smash Bros. online (even though the online connection was never that great on the latter). The same goes for the Nintendo 3DS, which I used to visit other towns in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, compete against other players in Kid Icarus: Uprising, and have battles in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.
It’s sad that — after more than a decade — online services for both the Wii U and the 3DS are going away for good. Nintendo first announced the shutdown last year and also closed the online stores for both consoles in March 2023. Despite the shutdown, Nintendo says features like StreetPass, Pokémon Bank, and Poké Transporter will remain online. It is doing away with the Nintendo Badge Arcade and SpotPass services, though. I’m sure the one person who purchased a brand-new Wii U last year must be disappointed.
Still, these Wii U and 3DS games gave me a taste of online play as I went on to play League of Legends, Team Fortress 2, Overwatch, and Halo Infinite. But none of them quite gave me the same rush as scoring a last-minute win in Splatoon or ramming someone out of my way in Mario Kart 8. At least both of these games, along with other popular titles, live on through the Switch.
If you want to go online on the Wii U or 3DS one last time, you have until today at 7PM ET. I’ll see you there.
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