Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon online functionalities taken offline due to security vulnerabilities

Nintendo has taken down the online features for two of its popular Wii U games, Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon, due to a security vulnerability that was discovered. The vulnerability is speculated to be ‘ENLBufferPwn’ that we reported on before, which allowed attackers to gain full access to the players’ Wii U system once they connected with them, which could cause a wide range of issues for the user. This has prompted an emergency maintenance by Nintendo, and there is currently no end date in sight. So you’ll have to wait until the issue is resolved before you can resume playing online.

As a reminder, the Nintendo eShop for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS is scheduled to shut down on March 27th, 2023. So you have less than a month to make any purchases you want before the eShop closure date.