As they say, all good things must come to an end. It is frustrating to know that games we play as a community online will eventually lose support. We have already seen this happen with Nintendo WFC for the Wii and Nintendo DS. But thanks to fan servers like Wiimfi, the legacy of Mario Kart Wii lives on as if the official servers were never taken offline. Nintendo Network for the Wii U and 3DS doesn’t have that long. The eShop for the two consoles is set to close soon, which means we’ll lose many exclusive titles. This can be seen after the Image Share for both Wii U and 3DS was discontinued, and the discontinuation of Miiverse almost 6 years ago. It is only a matter of time before games start losing their functionality completely. Games like the original Splatoon, Super Mario Maker, SDSW, and several Pokemon titles. Additionally, it is likely to happen sooner rather than later. But we’re fortunate to have a group of dedicated developers who are hard at work getting our new home ready, Pretendo Network. Pretendo has been in development for approximately a number of years. There is still a lot of maintenance that needs to be done, but it allows key Nintendo games to live on well after Nintendo pulls the plug on its servers. As of right now, you can currently play games such as Splatoon completely separate from Nintendo Network. This means that you can play with others on a separate server. This is exactly what we need when the inevitable happens. However, there are a lot of components of Pretendo that make things interesting right now. Not only does Pretendo Network allow games to stay online, but it also allows their features and component Wii U applications to stay online! Features that have since been long gone and forgotten, like Miiverse and Wii U Chat.
Using/Installing Pretendo.
Installing Pretendo is incredibly easy. You’ll either need a Wii U or 3DS on up-to-date Homebrew. From there, it’s simple. All you need is to install some files online to an SD Card. From your Wii U, Pretendo is a temporary hack that searches for the files every time you turn on the system. If the SD Card is not inserted or doesn’t contain the necessary payload files, you’ll be taken to Nintendo Network. Just like normal. However, if everything goes accordingly, you’ll get an error message. (Error Codes starting in 104 or 106) Errors starting in 104 consists of SpotPass and Internet errors, and 106-0102 is an unknown error. To look up the directory of Nintendo Wii U Errors, click here. But this is the first step in connecting to Pretendo. The downside to this right now is that you cannot use your existing Nintendo Network ID. (NNID) The reason being is that your NNID is associated with Nintendo. Instead, you’ll utilize Pretendo Network by creating a new account. This is specifically because it is a “Pretendo Network ID”. Save Files are found on your Nintendo Network ID or regular local user. If you would rather have your Save Files on your Pretendo Network ID, you’ll need to use Homebrew to transfer your data. Or start over your games entirely.
Utilizing Pretendo on the 3DS is quite simple. You just boot an application from The Homebrew Launcher and switch from your Nintendo Network ID to your Pretendo Network ID. The Nintendo 3DS is generally more underdeveloped than the Wii U, but there are still promising things happening.
Most notably, you can use Pretendo through the Wii U’s emulator, Cemu. For those who don’t know, Cemu is a Wii U Emulator that allows you to emulate Wii U and 3DS games and applications on a PC. For more information, click here to view Cemu’s official website.
Playing with Pretendo & its Features.
Right now, Pretendo is not public. But after taking some time to review the beta footage and research, I learned a lot. Within the last 90 days, development has been coming a long way. However, the backbone of Pretendo and many games’ features have since been discontinued. Juxtaposition (or Juxt) is the replacement for Miiverse. It has the same experience, but somewhat of a different user interface. But everything from the music and layout is exactly as you recall. There are a lot of active communities where you can draw masterpieces, ask insightful questions, upload screenshots, and talk with like-minded Nintendo fans. Additionally, there’s a website you can use. Although you must set up your account on the console/emulator first. It is incredibly nostalgic for something that has only been gone for five years. Miiverse was more than just a forum to post messages. The hex is how Miiverse was implemented into games like Nintendo Land, Super Mario Maker, and many more. The functionality does not work across the entire library of games, but it can still be seen. As you may remember after logging in to your user, the WaraWara Plaza would be displayed on the TV. Since Miiverse has been discontinued, posts could no longer be seen. But over time after Pretendo Network’s beta was released, many more posts could be seen. The Wii U can be such a precious console, especially for the blind and visually impaired gaming community who have a hard time seeing the TV. Granted, the console had its imperfections. But features like these made it feel like a community, and it’s back!
Splatoon still has a dedicated fan base with many people playing online. But the main plaza in the game isn’t as fun as it used to be. As you may recall, it was a bustling and energetic environment. After the shutdown, you now have NPCs standing around as if you were not connected to the internet. While using Pretendo Network, you’ll see Juxtaposition successfully displaying posts into the game as if it were Miiverse. Additionally, you’ll have the capability to post from the Miiverse Post Box in the plaza. Furthermore, Pretendo Developers have implemented Splatfests just as Nintendo would! No patch is necessary. This functions just like SpotPass. Pretendo is in control of the topics, images used, and dialogue. So even when Splatoon 3 has no more Splatfests, we can still have fun on Splatoon! Everything that was lost is now back. Not only is playing online preserved but so is the plaza. There’s also yet another game’s functionality that was taken away but is now back.
Last year, Nintendo did a lot of things, like shutting down a multiplayer game, delaying even more titles, and taking away the ability to upload levels in Super Mario Maker for the Wii U. Although you can still play those levels on Nintendo Network, you cannot upload any courses online. As opposed to Mario Maker for the 3DS which has a StreetPass sharing feature. We all were laughing, but who’s laughing now? StreetPass is surprisingly still running on the 3DS though. However, submitting levels on Pretendo works. But you must use Pretendo in order to play levels made by Pretendo users. Nintendo somewhat patched out support in Super Mario Maker’s final update. You can still technically use it. But the UI is completely gone. However, Pretendo developers are currently working on enabling the feature. There are very few 3DS titles that utilized Miiverse, as it was more prominent on Wii U. But Pretendo is still exciting to see for the Nintendo 3DS. Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U is also supported. I’m aware that many have migrated to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. But nothing can replace some of the features of Mario Kart 8.
Do you recall using Wii U Chat? The networking was primarily tied to Miiverse. Meaning it went offline alongside Miiverse in 2017. As of right now, Wii U Chat functionality is normal. The only experience I had with Wii U Chat was back in 2016. I’m not sure if many users will actually use Wii U Chat. The public beta is available, but some bugs should be anticipated.
There are other dream features to be expected. Recently, Wind Waker’s Tingle Bottle feature started working. However, it doesn’t work entirely. You can properly use the item, but in-game bottles could not be found. Similar to Super Mario Maker, Nintendo patched Miiverse in Super Smash Bros. The team is also working on getting this to be functional, but for now, the stage is a blank Battlefield. There’s for sure more that I’d like to see functioning. Such as Twilight Princess and New Super Mario Bros.U. But this is in beta and is impressive. If you’re interested in trying it out for yourself, refer to Pretendo’s official website. Please consider also supporting the team as well. Again, we’re all unsure of when Nintendo Network will be shut down. But we have something that’ll be developed. If you can’t donate, just spread the word and share this article and its links.
