N- Online Multiplayer, Level Sharing

One of N+’s biggest draws on the DS and PSP, other than it being an excellent portable version of Metanet’s Flash platformer, was its online features: multiplayer matches and the ability to upload, download, and rate levels created with the game’s rich map editor.

Metanet, however, says that due to last January’s closure of Silverbirch, the studio that handled the handheld N+ ports, the DS and PSP community servers are now offline:

“We received word from our stalwart contact at [publisher] Atari that the valiant efforts to rescue the data servers for N+ DS and PSP [from Silverbirch] and reinstate them on-site at Atari have failed, and since the project has unfortunately been something of a financial failure, the community servers are not a priority and will now be abandoned.”

It’s depressing that such a well-received game lost a chunk of what made it so great barely a year after its release. Those who waited for N+ to hit bargain bins before picking it up will never have a chance to try out the WiFi multiplayer and map-sharing.

I suppose this will happen to almost every game with online support eventually — Nintendo included; look at how the company discontinued user-generated content uploads for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Think how much this practice will hurt even more for titles relying heavily on their online components (e.g. Flipnote Studio, WarioWare D.I.Y., etc).

Buy: N+ without its online features

See also: For those who often get the two confused

tags / metanet / atari / silverbirch / n plus / online / ec