Nintendo's forgotten Flash game history made playable once again

We expect few tears have been shed as Adobe Flash has gradually disappeared from the internet. The proprietary format was a scourge that lasted for years, as companies seemingly competed to have the most bloated, over-animated websites using the format.

But in the pre-HTML5 days Flash was the basis for a number of online games including, surprisingly, a number produced by Nintendo to advertise their upcoming releases such as Metroid Prime, Animal Crossing, and Super Mario Galaxy 2.

Most of these games were thought lost as Nintendo pulled them after their marketing purpose was served. But now one intrepid internet archivist, going by the name Skelux, has made many of them playable on his personal site.

Going way back

Unfortunately the resources available to the fan mainly consist of the internet archiving project the WayBack Machine, whose limitations mean that many of the games either have files missing or are absent entirely.

Given these limitations, Skelux is offering a $50 bounty for access to the missing files.

The games themselves vary a great deal in quality. Some are little more than microsites featuring information about the game alongside screenshots and videos, while others are more interactive like the (fully-restored) Metroid Prime tie-in game.

You can check out the games for yourself on Skelux's website.