Nintendo pulls Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon offline

There are no better party games than the ones that Nintendo offers. Even when considering third-party games that came to its consoles, there is truly no better way to have a good time on the sofa with your pals than busting out the Wii or the Switch and booting something up that everyone can enjoy.

While Nintendo has its own fantastic single-player adventures, the collaborative aspects of Mario Kart, Mario Party and Splatoon have helped make the company remain a titan of gaming. Without these titles, there's little expectation that they'd be able to pull themselves back from their many brinks over the years.

But, it seems that these games that have helped to keep them afloat might be in trouble.

Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon have gone dark

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You'd hope that being only a single console generation behind wouldn't hinder the Wii U so much, but as it turns out, the console is seeing problems that reach even the highest places in its gaming roster.

Both Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon have had the plugs on their internet connectivity pulled as a result of some security interference, and will be under "extended maintenance" with no word on when they'll come online again.

"We have identified vulnerabilities with online play for [these] network [services] and have begun temporary emergency maintenance," says the Nintendo Network Maintenance website.

"We expect an extended maintenance duration while we address these issues and have not determined when online play will resume. We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your understanding."

It makes sense that Nintendo would take its eye off the older builds of these games to a certain degree, as they're gearing up for the sunsetting of the Nintendo Switch - but to allow for such intense problems isn't a good look.

Mario Kart and Splatoon could let hackers take over your console

Self-professed tinkerer and Nintendo software expert OatmealDome has taken to Twitter to help players to understand exactly what these problems are - and according to them, it could have been incredibly destructive.

"The security vulnerability is almost certainly ENLBufferPwn, which could allow an attacker to take over your console just by connecting to them online," they say. "This exploit affected many of Nintendo's games on the Switch, along with Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS."

It's good news that Nintendo has shut up the servers in this case, but the fact that it has happened at all is concerning. We never expected to be literally punished for using the Wii U. It wasn't that bad, was it?