Farewell, old friend

Occasionally we see some enjoyable titles disappear from Nintendo's download stores, often retro titles and likely the result of a licensing issue. We're a little surprised by the latest victims, however, which are set to disappear from the European 3DS eShop after 31st December.

Following that date the store will lose the Game Boy Virtual Console version of Tetris, in addition to the 2011 retail game of the same name — known as Tetris Axis in North America. The Game Boy title has been available since late 2011, while the retail entry arrived in stores that year but only on the eShop in June 2013; no reasoning is given in the eShop notification, simply that the games won't be available to buy after New Year's Eve. As has always been the case, if you already own or buy these games before that date you will be able to re-download as normal in the future.

Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube777k
Watch on YouTube

At the time of writing no equivalent notification is in the North American eShop, and it's unclear whether this is related to the recent arrival of Ubisoft's Tetris Ultimate; we're surprised by the pending removal of the Game Boy version, in particular, as it's such an iconic title in Nintendo's portable history.

Will you be snapping these up before they disappear at the end of the year?

Thanks to everyone that sent this in.