On April 8th, 2024, the online services for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U were shutdown. This affects online play across all games, and SpotPass, used in apps like Swapdoodle; this renders online-required games unplayable, most notably Nintendo Badge Arcade.
As of the date I'm writing this not aaall online features are unaccessible, Friends List seem to be working, Pokémon Bank is still running, usable for free and compatible with Pokémon Home, and you can download updates and games from the eShop (only if you bought them before the eShop shutdown from March 27th, 2023...), but there's no guarantee those will last much longer.
anyways
Pretendo Network is a replacement for Nintendo Network that not only aims to restore online play, but also other abandoned features such as Miiverse and the Wara Wara Plaza.
Setting up Pretendo is pretty easy, there's a guide on its website for both Wii U, 3DS and their respective emulators, and you don't even need modding on Wii U for it to work (with some limitations), but you might as well do it since it's so easy (Wii U modding guide - 3DS modding guide)
Currently Pretendo is in a beta state and active development so it's not really a fully realized replacement yet, but a couple of popular games are supported well enough at the moment, like Mario Kart 7, Splatoon and Super Mario Maker (personally i care more about pokemon gen 6 and mh4u and idk if those will be supported aaaa oh well).
Since this is technically a whole different server, some things don't carry over from you Nintendo Network ID to your Pretendo Network ID, like your badges(you should backup your badges before using Pretendo on 3DS) or your Friends List... so I gotta fill it up again! my new 3DS Friend Code is 3878-6726-5312 and my PNID is dibudani (for Wii U), add me right now !!
"Why is the little wifi guy so happy?"
idk. why was toad happy when Club Nintendo was discontinued?
More art like this...
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It's great that you also put out the information about how to get back online onto these devices.
It's kinda weird to me to think how these games now are in preservation tier instead of Piracy these days to me (People can argue it being the big Yarr here but you literally cannot buy any of these things).
But yeah the art you've done is good!
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