 Welcome to the dark side of the Nintendo eShop. I am very sick and that's probably because I have spent the last week diving into the blood curdling, spine chilling, shocking and horrifying depths, the secrets that lie beneath the surface of the Nintendo eShop. Typically when I'm talking about eShop games, I'm reviewing them and talking about fun ones that are worth buying and playing, but over the years I've heard stories here or there of games getting removed from the eShop, everything from games breaking the console to crypto mining in games. I decided to look into each and every case of a game being removed from the eShop and I don't know if it's been me diving into the depths of these criminal acts that have infected me and given me a virus and made me sick, but I am sick. I'm so ready to make this video, I just couldn't wait anymore so I'm doing it and I'm sorry that I have the sniffles. So with that said, let's take a look at the unnerving and scary side of the Nintendo eShop. You could put like a spooky music there or something that really sets the tone. And then don't leave this part in of me asking for that because I feel like that would ruin the tone completely. I'm going to start with a game aptly named for this dark video, A Dark Room. A Dark Room was delisted from the Nintendo Switch on April 26th, 2019 for an easter egg that could be used to literally exploit the console software. So A Dark Room is an innovative text-based adventure that aims to challenge the player's perceptions, actions and imagination. But when you consider that, it's really not too out of place that within the game there was a hidden secret that breaks the fourth wall in the weirdest of ways. If you were to plug in a USB keyboard and press the squiggly button, I don't know what it's called, a Ruby interpreter was loaded. A Ruby interpreter is a program that is able to interpret source code written in the Ruby language. Essentially you could do some light programming. The game was giving players a relatively extensive tool set that could be used by anyone to code right on a consumer specced Nintendo Switch. I mean, I couldn't because I have no idea how to code. Clearly Nintendo wasn't happy as they removed the game almost immediately. For perspective, if you want to code on a Switch, typically you would need a dev unit model that has the software built into it to release a video game that has coding in the game for anyone to access on any Switch. It does baffle me that the developers thought that was a good idea. Since then, the game has been re-listed on the eShop but without the Easter egg. The developer of the game was quoted in a Eurogamer article, seemingly only taking partial blame for the mistake and also partially blaming the community for exploiting the Easter egg as much as they did. Have you met the internet? Why are you here? Why is the sponsor of the video here? Oh, probably because it's the sponsor of the video. Fitness and being healthy starts with the food you eat. I mean, you can run and work out every single day. But if you're slamming back fast food, you're probably not going to get very healthy. Factor makes hitting your goals possible with daily nutritious meals. They offer Keto, calorie smart, chef's choice, vegan and veggie options, which include seafood, meat and plant-based meals. I always go for the calorie smart options because every single one of these meals is roughly 500 calories, which it sounds like nothing, but I'm always super full after eating one. Their menus are updated weekly and include over 27 meals and 33 add-on options. I mean, I have so many things I love about Factor, but the no-mess, the no-hassle, I mean, you just open one up, whack it in the microwave for two minutes and you're eating a delicious meal. So if you want to help support the channel and try these delicious factor meals, head to go.factor75.com slash beat-em-ups120 and use my code beat-em-ups120 to get $120 off. 100, if that's a steal. Yeah, back to the back, get back, get back to the video. Go on. Oh, I'm just sitting around eating free food, are you kidding me? Let's move into the next one. This was a recent controversy and it's called Final Sword. I don't know how half the games on the e-shop sneak through Nintendo's quality checks. Apparently it's actually quite a lengthy and difficult process, but every now and then something does sneak through that is just baffling to everyone. The shocking visuals and presentation isn't even what caused Nintendo to strike down the band hammer faster than you can say. Oh, I feel so sick. Final Sword literally plagiarized Nintendo's own music from Ocarina of Time. Actually, whatever remix version this is sounds pretty fire. I like it, but it's so unapologetically exactly the same to Nintendo's own fairy boy soundtrack. It took me hours before players discovered the blatant plagiarism and were tweeting at Nintendo and the game was removed and it has never been real listed. Honestly, I don't think anyone is missing out on not having this game on the e-shop, though. It's making me feel sick of just looking at it. You're going to have to strap yourself in for this next one because it might be the most insane story in the video. That said, watch the whole video. There's many more insane stories. Cooking Mama Cookstar. It feels like a meme. How is this true? Cooking Mama Cookstar was delisted from the Nintendo Switch almost immediately after it was released on March 31st, 2020. This is a complete mess. You're going to have to bear with me here. I've done my best to figure out what happened here. No one really knew why it was removed at first, but there was a lot of theories. The game was confirmed to constantly crash. It wouldn't load up unless you were online, which was suspect for reasons we will get to. It overheated the Switch in about 30 minutes of playing, and the game rapidly drained the Switch's battery life. And if all of that isn't bad enough, shortly before the game's release, there were already rumors floating around that this game would include some form of blockchain technology. Due to some remarks, the head of the development team had made to investors. But the forefront theory was that Cooking Mama Cookstar was crypto mining in the background while you were playing the game. Bananas, after it got delisted, a month passed with no word on what actually happened until April 6th, when ScreenRant received word from a developer of the game who explained the removal was caused by the IP holder Cooking Mama Limited and not because of, well, literally everything else we talked about. I mean, even the overheating issues and all of that should have been reason enough to remove it, but apparently that wasn't why, according to this developer, they explained that the crashes and bugs weren't due to crypto mining, but due to the game being made in Unity, an engine that a lot of games on Switch use with no problem. But apparently the people working on the game had never made a game before. I'll never get when long lasting franchises like Cooking Mama, which isn't, you know, it's a relatively large franchise and IP would just hire a company with no experience. The obvious hilarity of everything I just said aside, the claims of the IP holder removing the game themselves did turn out to be true. They were actually embarrassed by how bad the game was and apparently they had already felt it wasn't up to the series standard and allegedly wanted its release delayed or possibly they wanted the entire game to be scrapped, deleted, nuked and removed from existence. They were so ashamed with how development was going. So when the devs decided to push through and release the game anyway, the IP holder just pulled the plug almost immediately on the game because they could. The last we heard of any of this mess, it was the dev team is suing for removing it and for any possible money loss. By looking at the game, I can't imagine was a lot. The funny thing is though, they did release a physical. I have it somewhere. It's probably in my game collection, but I expect that'll get really rare one day, especially if, you know, I can mine some crypto with it. I mean, the game will essentially make me money. Speaking of mining, Minecraft, did you know Minecraft was removed from the Esha? Kind of. Well, actually, yes, literally, but also kind of. So there is a version of Minecraft that has been removed and we will never get back. There was also Minecraft stories, which was developed by Telltale Games and that's been removed as well. That's completely gone. So before Minecraft became the same but universally connected game across all platforms, it had different separate versions. There was the PC version for computers and then consoles had their own different version of the game. The Nintendo Switch had its own version of Minecraft, which was called Minecraft Nintendo Switch Edition. In fact, even the Wii U had its own version as well, which was way back when I had just joined the Nintendo Ambassador Program and they even had me out to the Nintendo headquarters in Redmond to play the game first before anyone else and that was a time. So to understand how different this version was to the actual Minecraft game that was on PC, it was kind of watered down to be a more console refined version and to make up for any missing content, the Nintendo versions actually had their own Nintendo themed Mario 3D Minecraft mode to make it feel more like its own unique thing. But then when they decided they were just gonna make the PC version universal, they offered players that had the Nintendo Switch version a free upgrade and then that console version was delisted and it's gone. The physical copy of Minecraft is also the newer version and with the Minecraft story series, I mean, those are just gone. They were all delisted due to the developer Telltale Games closing its door and the licensing rights expiring with no one to renew them. That's more of a tame story than say something like crypto mining, but I always find it really interesting when games like that can just disappear because a developer goes out of business and there's no one left to renew the license. Now the only way to experience the story of those two Minecraft games is to watch the show on Netflix, which is like an adapted version of those games and that's why you should always buy physical. Here are a few games that were delisted just to insane licensing issues. Stranger Things 3, the game was pulled from the eShop because Netflix apparently just decided they wanted to. The license expired and Netflix just didn't want to renew it, including the DLC from Dead by Daylight, which was also ripped out of the game. Netflix was like, nope. God's Remastered is a game that I'm sure many of you haven't heard of. The entire game is gone and delisted and removed all because of the opening intro song. Apparently they don't have the right to that one song anymore. Just use a different song. Finally, I was actually surprised to learn that Jump Force was removed from the eShop. I remember this massive fighter mashup being a big deal when it was announced. Fitting that onto the portable Switch, that's huge. How was that even going to work? Well, it barely did. Apparently it didn't run very good or look very good, but it was on there. But for fans that actually liked the port, the fun only lasted a few years. Before Bandai Namco announced they were shutting down the online services and removing the game entirely from sale on February 7th of this year. The thing that did it in was literally the entire point of the game. There were so many different licenses used for the fighters and it's suggested that most of these deals they made on a short term basis. And many of these short term deals couldn't be figured out and couldn't be renewed. So rather than try and hack out half of the roster, they just had to shut down the entire game. Just seems like really bad planning and forethought there. Okay, I know what you're thinking at this point we're like halfway into the video, where are the boobies? You're wearing a shirt, we don't see your boobies. That's what you're asking, right? You're asking to see possibly my boobies. When I think about Nintendo removing games from the eShop and I think about some of the interesting things I see pop up on the eShop from time to time, my first thought is, sure, many games probably got removed because of boobies. Turns out no, there's only ever been one game removed from the eShop for being just a little bit too lewd. For those that don't even know what I'm talking about, I literally went to the eShop to research for this video and the latest game at that point that had been released, it straight up has the H word in the title. I can't even say the name of the game. The description proudly boasts that you can play the game with one hand. Like that's the kind of stuff you see on the eShop and that one's still there. Nintendo does not shy away from lewd content sneaking past its quality seal of approval. That said, the game in question for this video is called or was called Mirror. It was delisted August 31st, 2021 because it contained extreme nudity and SSA content. Well, actually the funny thing is the Steam version did. The devs did do their best for the Switch port to tone down the scantily clad characters but sadly, I guess, the game was still delisted. They probably didn't help that the Switch is trailer for the game. I don't even know what I can say in my video without getting demonetized but it featured a definitely underage girl drinking and like handing you a beverage. I mean, everything else is fine, but the drinking... There was an article I found that pointed out that technically that makes the Switch release its own version of the game. Now because it's unplayable and only can be played by those that downloaded it before it was removed and I would like to know that clientele. It makes it an extinct version of the game. So very rare. If you have that on your Switch it's like a mobile phone in the early 2000s that had Flappy Bird. This next one is a crazy case of back and forth lawsuits. So I loved both It'll Do games early on when they released on Switch. I reviewed them both in my eShop series and I had no idea that It'll Do 2 has been put through the Absolute Ringer. Being delisted and re-listed multiple times and the craziest part is the absolute public display of Venom that the game's publisher has unleashed. The game was first removed on September 19th, 2019 and the CEO of the development team and co-publisher tweeted, I can definitely confirm that Nikalis is a piece of sh** publisher. I'm gonna have to have that bleeped out to publicly tweet that about the company publishing your game. And Nikalis is not a small publisher either. Brutal. Apparently Nikalis had an agreement with the dev team that the dev team would take over full publishing rights of their games. Again, according to the developer, and we're playing a little bit of cat and mouse here, Nikalis just forgot. They ghosted the dev team for weeks and then out of nowhere, they just delisted the game. Which if that's true, to me, that sounds like they just didn't want to hand over rights to publish. They're like, well, if we can't make money off of it if we're not publishing it, then no one can. I don't know the situation, but that just seems really scummy. So the devs did manage to republish the game on March 19th, 2020, but they had to jump through some really weird legal hoops. What they did is they republished the game under a new listing that was separate from the previous one. So now this was kind of like, you know, their listing of the game. But that kind of sucks because that meant for those that owned the game beforehand, maybe they downloaded it, played it, uninstalled it. They want to go and redownload it again. Their listing doesn't exist. They'd have to buy the game again. And if that doesn't suck enough, the new version was again delisted just months later in December. Even the listing for the game on nintendo.com was removed. But then, I know it's such a crazy back and forth. It was re-listed again one year later. The weird thing is though, the listing for the game never came back on Nintendo's website. So the only way to find the game is to manually search within the Switch's eShop. So the game's just getting buried at this point. So it's just a big back and forth of them saying, no, take it down. What? A nightmare. Okay, so quickly I want to take a look at two free-to-play games that were removed from the eShop. I find these interesting because free-to-play games are obviously filled with microtransactions. So if you're playing one of these games and you're pumping money into it and then it just goes offline, that's gotta suck. So the two games I want to look at is Galaxie, Varian S, and Grotopia. Galaxie is actually from Ninjala developers Gungho. I love Ninjala. That game seems to be going really strong. And I guess better than Galaxie was. It was an exciting shooter voyage exploring the farthest reaches of the universe and making new friends. At least that's how the game was described. It lasted a couple years before they shut down and removed the game and it was likely due to low active players and not enough money being spent on in-game purchases. And it's a similar story with Grotopia. And that one's actually a Ubisoft game. It's been around since 2012 but it only lasted on Switch for one year. That's really not unlike Ubisoft. And I love you Ubisoft to just kind of give something a shot and then if it's not working out, yeah, nicks it real quick. They said it did not garner a big enough audience or generate enough income so they decided to turn all their focus and efforts back on the mobile version. So even though this video is filled with things I'm sure none of you knew about or at least for the most part, I couldn't make a video about Nintendo eShop and Nintendo games being removed without talking about Nintendo's own games. To celebrate Mario's 35th anniversary, they released a triple pack called Mario 3D All-Stars. They said right from the start that these will only be available until March 31st, 2021 and many people weren't sure if they would stick to that. Why would they not want to be able to sell them anymore? That makes no sense at all. But sure enough, bye-bye they went. So now the only way to buy the game is to go in a stores and find the physicals lying around. They're not making any more of them so it's just whatever is left is left. There was also Super Mario 35th which was a unique and different way of experiencing the very first Super Mario Brothers game and that too was removed on March 31st and no one is sure if we'll ever see that again either. But the one that some of you might not know about is Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon and The Blade of Light. It was originally released in 1990 for the Famicom. Same year I was born but it never received an English release until 2020 when Nintendo revealed a digital only version which had several quality of life improvements and modernized features and it too quietly disappeared on March 31st, 2021 alongside the Mario titles. There was a limited physical edition but if you don't already have it, good luck. It's very expensive and I wish I had bought it. Some of you might know about those stories but I think it's fun to talk about them too and add them to the video because while we know about them these stories really only get told or remembered by those that experienced them in the time. Five, 10 years from now and people watch this video back this could be a nice little nugget of history. NBA Playgrounds is another Nintendo Switch release that was just a total travesty. Months after launch, online play, free content updates and paid DLC were still missing from the Switch version. Apparently Saber Interactive was struggling with Nintendo's patch and update limitations. If you don't know when you try and push a patch through for your game on the eShop Nintendo can take weeks to approve it and post it. So it's really hard to just update games on the fly for Switch. So after delayed title updates for months the dev team came up with a radical solution that was actually their words at the time stating that a completely different version of the game was going to be switched out instead which was a completely individual new release of the game built specifically for Switch. It was quicker for them to whip that up than to try and push through updates and patches and actually make what they had work. So this new version it obviously completely replaced the original version of the game. So whatever that version was is just gone. Just an insane story of how hard it can be to update a game on Switch. Just make a whole new one instead. And then even Pokemon doesn't escape Nintendo's grasp. You remember this game, huh? Correct? Pokemon Cafe remix? Or is something a little off? Wasn't it just called Pokemon Cafe mix? When was it called remix? Well, it turns out late last year the developers of the game gave it a completely new overhaul. I guess the game was underperforming. So it doesn't surprise me that they wanted to do something radical and change it up. So they did. They completely mixed up, I'm not intended, the formula of the game and added things, changed things and it was way more than just a big DLC update which is why they had to officially change the name and state that this is something different now. And much like we've come to expect from today's video that initial version of the game is lost and was replaced by this new version. And since there is no physical, the only way you would have to play the original just a mixed version of the game was if you had an offline switch that had never updated but I would assume a game that was online and free to play would need to be connected to online to even boot up. So it's probably safe to say that that's one Snorlax that will never wake up. I wrote that in the script and I don't get what the joke was supposed to be. I guess I was very tired and very sick when I wrote that line. I felt like I was reaching on that one when I wrote it but I still think it's as interesting as the other cases and that is the dark, terrifying side of the Nintendo eShop and it's delisted games. Now I really just found it super interesting. Every game I would read the story as to why it was delisted. I was like crypto mining. They had a quota in the game, what? Well, what do you think of it? What do you think of all these stories? Is this kind of video something that you find interesting from me? I had a lot of fun researching, writing and even filming this video and I'm excited to see how the editing turns out. That said, I've been talking for an hour and I am not doing great so I'm just gonna go. If you enjoyed the video, like, subscribe, comment down below.