10 Great Things Nintendo Seemingly Abandoned

Nintendo are a great software and video game company who over the years have released lots of famous consoles and video games that people still enjoy today.

However along the way, Nintendo have come up with some truly great ideas and other times just flat out abandoned other innovative ventures.

In this article I will be talking about 10 of the things I can think of that Nintendo have seemingly abandoned over time, with or without explanation.

10. Miiverse

Miiverse was a hugely successful and ambitious new feature for the Wii U console which launched in 2012. It aimed to contest other sites like Facebook and Twitter. It was Nintendo's own social media platform for games. It was loads of fun at first. There were multiple community groups that you could join, follow and post in. It was kind of like Nintendo's version of Reddit. It heavily focused on Miis and people could share gaming clips or screenshots of what they were doing in games they were playing. It was a really great initiative. Some memorable moments was when the New Super Luigi U page kept on getting hacked. This lead to over-moderation and lots of people getting warned or banned from groups without being able to contest otherwise. There was even a Miiverse stage in Super Smash Bros Wii U, where it would let people post absolutely hilarious and sometimes dark and twisted posts and images, and they'd appear in the background on the stage screen. You could also link your 3DS to it. Miiverse was loads of fun, but sadly it was discontinued in 2017, when the Switch was released. Nintendo felt like Miiverse wasn't worth continuing over on the Switch. What a shame.

 

9. Mario Kart Live Home Circuit

Mario Kart Live - Home Circuit was another ambitious and unique take on the Mario Kart franchise. But sadly I just could not get into this craze. You'd get either a Mario or Luigi remote control kart with AR on it, and you could link them up with your Nintendo Switch console. The AR would capture Mario & Luigi's remote control karts driving around your house and you'd end up having a Mario Kart track in your living room. This did take off quite well on Youtube when it was first announced. I remember a bunch of memes where people were trying to drive the remote control karts down their stairs or make ridiculous set up tracks for them. The concept did seem fun but sadly it didn't last. Though it released in 2020, you can't seem to get them anymore. Despite Mario Kart Live Home Circuit selling well, Nintendo pretty much gave up on distributing new units and now any left over copies seem to be in the hands of scalpers.

 

  

8. Super Mario Maker (Wii U Version)

OK folks, I know that Super Mario Maker is still going on the Switch but the original version on the Wii U did get shut down. Super Mario Maker is a hugely ambitious video game, where players can make their own Mario Bros levels in the simplest and easiest ways possible. The first game was released on the Wii U back in 2015 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Mario. It took off really well, gaining over a million players very quickly. Sadly, Nintendo decided to pull the plug on Super Mario Maker Wii U in March 2021. Players could no longer upload their courses through the share portal in April 2024. The 3DS online was also shut down, but Super Mario Maker 2 still remains active. 

7. Animal Crossing New Horizons

This one is a real bummer. Animal Crossing New Horizons was released on the Switch in 2020. It was one of Nintendo's most ambitious titles, but unfortunately it had a big problem. Nintendo decided to combat cheaters, instead of adding everything to the game at once, they ended up releasing an incomplete game and adding more content in monthly updates. This would happen for about two years. Animal Crossing New Horizons was released during the highpoint of the Coronavirus Pandemic. Many countries had to go through lockdowns so the disease could not spread to people easily. New Horizons quickly became wildly popular during the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2020 and 2021.During this time, Nintendo outlined a plan to support the game with multiple free updates during the course of 3 years. But during 2020 and 2021, it only got twelve free updates and one paid DLC expansion (which required Nintendo Switch Online). After this, Nintendo decided to abandon the game, and not produce any further updates within the next 3 years as originally promised. Therefore a lot of things in this game is incomplete.It''s disappointing as other games in the series have a lot more content than New Horizons. Player counts have been dropping rapidly and the game feels like an empty shell of itself now. Hopefully this doesn't happen again when the next Animal Crossing game comes out and Nintendo just release it with completed features from day one.

6. Miis

What the heck happened to Miis? They used to be a staple feature of the Wii and Wii U. But on Switch they are basically non-existent. We had a port of Miitopia on Switch a couple of years ago, which was great. I was really hoping they would port the wacky smash hit Nintendo 3DS game Tomodachi Life to Switch at one stage, but this never happened. The Miis were a mascot for most Nintendo Wii apps and were also featured in their own sports and party games. On the Wii U they were all over Miiverse. But now on newer Nintendo consoles they have just been reverted to icons with less fun design features. Nintendo Switch Sports was released in April 2022 with somewhat updated Mii designs, but Nintendo really haven't done much else with them since.

5. Virtual Console

Virtual Console was released on the Wii, 3DS and Wii U as a great option to purchase classic Nintendo games from a wide variety of old platforms, from Game Boy, Game Boy Colour, SNES, Game Boy Advance and even the Nintendo 64. Virtual Console was beloved by all. You could actually own the games that you bought rather than playing them on a subscription service. There were more games released on Virtual Console than Nintendo Switch Online, and better options as well. Content updates are really dropping for Nintendo Switch Online's added games. There isn't even any classic Pokemon games for Switch Online Game Boy or Gameboy Advance yet. So many 64 games missing. They used to add them once a month now it's a couple of times a year. NSO has no contest over Virtual Console. Sadly, Virtual Console was shut down when Nintendo WFC ended on the old consoles such as the Wii, 3DS and Wii U. This is why we can't have nice things.

4. Kirby TV Channel 

 

Back in around 2011 Nintendo pleased Wii owners by adding a supported Kirby TV Channel, which included full episodes of the wacky Anime TV series Kirby Right Back At Ya from the early 2000's. Several episodes of the show were added each at a certain time of the week. I had loads of fun with this channel and tuning in constantly to watch more of the episodes. Sadly it was a limited time deal, when the Wii was discontinued Nintendo shut it down. It was also available on 3DS for a short period of time. People have tried in the past to revive the channel using Homebrew but it's just not the same. Thankfully some absolute legend managed to put all the episodes up on the Internet Archive, and you can find them here.

 

3. WiiWare

The Wii was a blast. One really obscure thing about it was a piece of software called WiiWare. It featured exclusive titles made for Wii that isn't available anywhere else. There is a huge list of WiiWare games that I won't post but you can find on this link. Sadly when the Wii Eshop closed down WiiWare was discontinued in 2019.

2. Nintendo WFC

As clunky as it was, Nintendo WFC still remains a nostalgic memory for Nintendo DS, Wii, 3DS and Wii U owners. It ended up being a really fun service because back then, it was free! This was long before that nonsense of Nintendo Switch Online being a paid version. Nintendo WFC provided a lot more opportunities, connected to many exclusive Nintendo Apps on the Wii, 3DS and Wii U and could even get you into a bunch of your favourite games online such as Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. Nintendo WFC was also required to be used with Nintendo Channels that were included on the Wii. Sadly, WFC shut down 10 years ago. But there are many ways to reconnect to unofficial WFC methods that dedicated modders have set up so you can still use some of these old Wii channels.

1. Nintendo Pictures

Don't be surprised if you didn't know about this venture. In early 2022 Nintendo purchased an animation company called Dynamo Pictures. They planned to release official films under this nature, but they decided to change course when 2023's Super Mario Bros movie was developed by Illumination instead. There hasn't been a lot released from Nintendo Pictures since the acquisition. Many people thought we were going to see Nintendo develop more short films like Pikmin Short Movies, which ended up being very successful, but it never took off. They seem to just distribute a couple of animations in Japan locally than anywhere else.