Nintendo is finally ready to give what its fans want again.
The popular Japan-based game developer and publisher recently announced that it is restoring online services for two of its most-played video games on the Wii U after five months of maintenance.
Nintendo took the online services of these games down due to a certain severe security vulnerability.
Nintendo Keeps Its Promise
Nintendo mentioned in its UK Twitter/X.com account that it is resuming online play for two of its popular Wii U games: Splatoon and Mario Kart 8. This restoration is after a five-month maintenance Nintendo did to solve a severe security vulnerability affecting these games, per Game Rant.
The vulnerability, called ENLBufferPwn, allowed attackers and bad actors to remotely take control of a victim's Wii U console and access the device's microphone and camera. This happened once they established a connection with a potential victim, per Gameranx.
As a result, they use this vulnerability to potentially steal their victims' payment information and violate their privacy while their victim's on the console.
While the vulnerability affected several Wii U and Switch games in March, Nintendo opted to take down the online services it offers on Splatoon and Mario Kart 8 while it worked to resolve the issue. According to Video Games Chronicle, these games include Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Super Mario Maker 3, Nintendo Switch Sports, Arms, and Splatoon 2 and 3.
Nintendo UK explained the outage of Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon 2 on one of its official support pages on the issue. It said the company paused network services for the games in question to address a vulnerability related to online play.
Now that Nintendo has fixed the issue, gamers playing the previously mentioned games could now play with other gamers online. Additionally, Nintendo asks gamers to accept its sincere apologies for the extended waiting period.
However, Nintendo Wii U games must download a new update to restore Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon's online services on their consoles again. While Nintendo UK makes its announcements separate from other branches, Nintendo of America, Nintendo Co Ltd, and Nintendo Europe will make similar announcements in the coming days.
How To Update Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon
The Wii U automatically checks updates to its firmware and the games gamers installed on the device in the background. However, if one wants to play a Wii U game while the device is downloading its update, Wii U gamers must select "Start Software" to play the game in need of updating while the device downloads its update.
However, some features like online multiplayer will be unavailable until they restart the game and install its most recent update, per Nintendo of America's support page.
If a Wii U gamer previously deleted the game in question, the Start Software option may not be available as the game needs to be installed again and updated.
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