It's been 101 days since Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS servers were meant to go offline for good, ending online play on the likes of Splatoon and Pokemon X and Y. However, some fans managed to stay connected for way longer than they were supposed to, and we're now down to the final server survivor, who says it's a "bittersweet moment" to have gotten this far.
The survivor in question is Twitter user @fishguy6564, who has remained connected to Mario Kart 7's online mode for over three months. Up until May 13, fishguy6564 wasn't left alone in racing game purgatory, as a second racer, Marioiscool246, had also managed to stay online, with the two setting up bots to race against each other repeatedly. Tragedy struck after 13,151 races, though, as Marioiscool246's 3DS crashed, leaving poor fishguy6564 to watch victory laps solo.
At that point, there were still three people other than fishguy6564 hanging in there, but two months later, they've all but disconnected, leaving the final Mario Kart 7 player behind. As announced by Nintendo Network After Hours Discord server owner @GaffsNotLaffs, the most recent to fall was SlitherySheep, who went offline from the Wii U version of Super Mario Maker earlier this week, "marking the true end" of online play on Nintendo's previous-gen home console. Now, just fishguy6564 remains.
- After shutting down the Wii U online services last year, Nintendo asks players not to use "unauthorized services" to replace them as they might pose "security risks"
- Wii U online replacement Pretendo says "we are committed to user safety" as Nintendo warns against using third-party alternatives to its dead servers
"It's definitely a bittersweet moment becoming the final person connected," fishguy6564 writes on Twitter. "Thank you SlitherySheep for staying on with me for this long."
So now the question remains, just how long will the final Mario Kart 7 player be able to keep online play sort of alive on the 3DS servers? Back in May, the Nintendo Network After Hours group managed to beat a 14-year-old record previously held by Halo 2 fans who kept clinging to the FPS for 25 days after the original Xbox Live servers were meant to go down. With that in mind, at this point, it's now up to fishguy6564 alone to set that new record. No pressure, huh?
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