Hackers Confirm Switch's Not-So-Secret Golf Game Has Vanished

Sad, because all this made it feel like Iwata was watching over every Switch unit or something. I wonder why they removed it...

Oh, well...

Indian Givers

@hylian-pudding they removed it because it was found. it lost its use

Well, if this tribute followed as suspected the Japanese tradition of omamori, it was not supposed to be found. So it would be logical to remove it since the effect of the charm vanished.

Is a shame, but no one could play it, so to be fair we have even more useless garbage filling up your switch for no reason, why didn't they just actually delete it.

I think it's safe to say Golf will be one of the games that will receive online play when the online service rolls out.Balloon Fight and Dr Mario are, no doubt the Nintendo favourite Urban Champion will too. The removal of Golf from the Switch suggests the paid online service is starting real soon,I'm not believing that other website that suggests it's been delayed till autumn.

Because of course, who would ever want to leave a freebie in the console any longer? Reggie said the Switch shouldn't be bundled with any kind of software and things must stay that way.
Personally, if the Switch came with Super Mario Bros., I wouldn't have minded it in the slightest. I mean, the game has made enough money as-is, they could give console owners a free copy while they're at it...

It was speculated that this was meant to serve as a kind of digital "Omamori", a Japanese talisman for good luck. If this is true then it doesn't surprise me that it's gone now, because before a year is through Omamori are supposed to be returned to the temple or shrine where you got them from... I had been wondering about this and how such a digital "Omamori" could be "returned" after a year... (Omamori aren't supposed to be opened either, lest they loose effectiveness, btw).

Raise your hand if you don’t know what an Omamori charm is?

If this is true then we gamers are to blame for this.

Fantastic news. More space for us. Power to the people

I'm sure it wasn't meant to be found.

Hackers: Take that Iwata!

Well, at least we still have Galf

I suspect it wasn't meant to be found. Nonetheless it was a nice tribute.

@the8thark Google helps.

@AlternateButtons lol. I'm sorry if it offended you. It must be a small rom but what's the point of having it there if we can't use it.

Iwata has done his job, Switch is selling well... let him go.

Why NES titles? It's about dang time that Nintendo starts digging through their GameCube catalogue and starts bringing games from that machine back. The fact that they never did that with the Wii is a damn shame and just goes to show that no matter how successful something might be for Nintendo they still can and will be lazy.

@1UP_MARIO If you had actually read the article you'd know that the code is still there taking up space-- it's just no longer executable.

I don't know why the writers for this site keep trying to twist everything into speculation about an upcoming Virtual Console, which to any reasonable person, Nintendo has already made perfectly clear isn't part of their plans for Switch. Stop this madness, accept the facts and move on.

@thatawesomedude yeah I'd prefer it they take it all out maybe in the next update

@1UP_MARIO Why? It takes up virually no space and aparently serves a purpose as a tribute to Iwata.

So lame.

I would have paid you to have unlocked it and let me play, Nintendo.

@thatawesomedude oh okay.

Meh, at least we got Golf Story so not really that big of a loss.

@Bustacap Dammit

VC incoming then???????????????????????????

@Roam85 It wasn't the point of it, it was meant as a memento of Iwata in the Switch. It wasn't meant to be opened or played. It loses the magic by opening it.

@Dom For greater clarification you should add this video into the article to explain why it was there in the first place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbSilk9ERvQ

"Customarily, omamori are not opened in order to avoid losing their protective benefits. They're carried on one's person, or tied to something like a backpack or a purse. Amulets are replaced once a year to ward off bad luck from the previous year. Old amulets are usually returned to the same shrine or temple they were purchased at so they can be disposed of properly."

I love the internet - where the removal of a game that could never be played causes such an outrage (not saying that’s exclusive to this comments page on this site)

@AlternateButtons there there. It's time to let go

@AlternateButtons nice. Like I said I apologised if what I wrote offended you. It's time to let go. You can get help with these things. I know a lot of people special to me that passed away, you just have to learn to move on.

I like it when you have nothing to say TROLL is the first thing to write. lol. Have a good day

@AlternateButtons I can understand what your saying but I can't say your example is the same. His memories are preserved among all gaming fans yet if the thing which wasn't meant to be discovered but is then discovered. Nintendo themself removed the executable script file. Iwata will be remembered even without this small hidden file.

Anyway I need sleep

@antdickens ok sir. I'll stop. I'm sorry to everyone that was hurt by my comments. There was no intent

Guess it could always be homebrewed back in while the hackers are at it... :/

New games in general have always had more difficulty than modern games of the same genre's ,imo.

While I did not get to play it, I do hope it comes back next year. It is my personal hope that Nintendo puts all games (at least, the ones licensed by Nintendo) released for every one of their systems, both home console and handheld, on whatever Virtual Console-esque service they decide to launch.

It's a shame that it's gone, but if the charm has lost it's effect since being discovered, and now needs to be released, than I believe the right thing has been done here. It's also fitting that the Switch is so successful in it's first year. Iwata no longer needs to watch over the company. His final job/task has been a success.

I'm surprised a lot of people don't seem to understand what the purpose of the game was and why it was removed once it was found. I get that it's a Japanese culture thing but the news was everywhere when it was first discovered, so I figured it'd be common knowledge by now.

The first reaction I had after reading the article was "Well, who's to say they won't properly bring it back and advertise it in July 2018 with a 5.0.0 update?". Opened omamoris CAN be replaced by properly returning it to the shrine, after all

This was pretty pointless after Golf Story released. It's the same type of retro golf only a lot deeper and a lot more refined.

@JunkRabbit I never knew about that tradition. It makes perfect sense when you mention it.

yall also missed out on mother 3, they had it in the coding as of yesterday and took it out today.
i just didnt feel the need to tell anyone here because thats how i do things.

Assuming the omamori theory to be correct, this does...touch upon the stubbornness and single-mindedness of some Japanese developers.
Yes it was discovered, yes, maybe it wasn't meant to be discovered, but could you not have seen the number of people who were so happy to have something like that in the system?
If it was a discovery that made many fans really happy, isn't that not a way of keeping Iwata's influence alive?
But since it's not according to the plan and tradition, it's automatically seen as bad and axed. A shame...

Probably removed as it may have had the potential to open up a hardware exploit.

@darkgamer001 I mean, I highly doubt they didn’t expect the omamori to be discovered, they know how effective hackers are, they deal with hackers fairly regularly. So I wouldn’t say anything wasn’t “according to plan”, I’d bet since they likely assumed it would be discovered then the plan WAS to remove it after discovery, they didn’t axe anything then. And actually... this is months after its discovery so it’s quite likely not due to the discovery, so if it’s an omamori then this was due to the tradition of removing it before the year is over for sake of luck. They never did this for fans (otherwise it would’ve been accessible), they did this for Iwata, so why try to twist it into something for us? It’s not about making fans happy, it’s about paying tribute to Iwata in their own cultural way, something they continued to do by following the rule of removing it before the luck goes bad.

And if it isn’t an omamori and we all just read into it, then there’s even less reason to be bothered by this because we don’t know what reason they even put it in, let alone removed it - could’ve been an employee sneaking it in there without the higher ups noticing and they’re “fixing” it, could be they had some plans relating to the VC that they’ve since changed, who knows. Point is, it’s not necessarily stubbornness and we shouldn’t assume it was.

Why give it away for free when you can sell it again!

I thought it already didn't work if you updated your system past 1.0.0

"That'll be 5 bucks thank you!"

@RootsGenoa You speak true, sai.

When are they going to add Virtual Console? (Also if they do PLEASE add GameCube)

Bet the only reason why they remove it, so they could SELL it to us at a stupid price. :/

whatever happen to free built in games?

@JayJ Yeah but NES golf has been on every switch since launch! and only NOW they remove it and most likely stick a price on it.

if they didn't want costumers to find it/play it then why even bloody leave it on there?!?

Yes, because it was soooooooo easy for the average user to gain access to, right??

Ah pity. See it this way: It was meant as a shrine-charm, never to be found. But now that they found it, Nintendo probably thinks its tainted. Well, at least the story will stick around...