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Nintendo Switch Update Recons Hidden Iwata Tribute

Nintendo has quietly removed the hidden Satoru Iwata game tribute from Switch consoles. The emulator "flog" found within the system was dissected by fans endlessly until it was revealed as a copy of the NES game Golf that would only run on July 11, the day of President Iwata's passing. Furthermore, it would only run when the motion controls emulated the late creator's signature bow from his Nintendo Direct appearances while holding the controllers.

Fans quickly regarded the game as a shrine to Iwata, but Nintendo never directly acknowledged the emulated game's existence or purpose. The Switch console's latest firmware update is closing the lid on the mystery. Players noted that after the 4.0.0 firmware update is installed, the emulator is gone. The Switch 4.0.0 system update was released on October 18 and replaces all related code to the emulator with filler code. Attempts to manually launch the game will return a loader error message.

Players have speculated that the mum treatment of what most would regard as an honor to an innovator might be a sign that the emulator's inclusion was never signed off on in the first place, perhaps instead sneaked into the console by someone lower on the totem pole. It's possible we will never really know.

There is still a less complicated but touching tribute to Iwata in Nintendo and GAME FREAK's Pokémon Ultra Sun & Moon games. The in-game GAME FREAK headquarters is home to the NPC Morimoto who will enlighten trainers on how Iwata saved Pokémon Silver thanks to a program he coded before he became president of Nintendo.

Source: SwitchBrew via Siliconera