Nintendo Pulls SmileBASIC 4 After Switch 2 Jailbreak Reveal

Well, that escalated quickly. Nintendo has quietly yanked SmileBASIC 4 from the UK eShop, and the timing is... suspicious, to say the least. The store page now just throws a 404 error, according to Twisted Voxel.

Why the sudden disappearing act? It all seems to tie back to a fresh Switch 2 jailbreak that surfaced online just hours earlier. A security researcher named Sammy Hajhamid published a method called "ns2jb," claiming it works on firmware version 23.0.1. And here's the kicker—he says SmileBASIC 4 is technically linked to the whole thing.

Now, before you get too excited, this isn't some magical permanent modchip situation. According to Hajhamid's blog post, the exploit is currently limited and requires a connected process—so it's not a standalone, permanent modification. But it does allow arbitrary native code execution with the privileges of normal system modules and the console's built-in filesystem module. In plain English? That opens the door for homebrew apps, reverse-engineering games, backing up saves, and poking around the hardware. It could also push forward custom firmware and emulator development.

To prove it's not just talk, the researcher even demoed a modified version of Mario Kart World running on the setup. Yeah, that got our attention too.

The technical breakdown is a bit nerdy, but stick with us: the jailbreak combines a vulnerability inside SmileBASIC 4 with a separate attack targeting the console's filesystem module. The game's array-handling code has a 32-bit integer overflow that can be used for memory manipulation, while a buffer overflow in filesystem path normalization helps achieve higher privileges. In other words, this isn't a one-trick pony—it requires bypassing multiple layers of security.

Nintendo, as you'd expect, hasn't issued a public statement yet. But pulling the game from the eShop speaks volumes. Whether this is a temporary precaution or the start of a wider crackdown on the game remains to be seen. For now, if you were hoping to grab SmileBASIC 4 in the UK, you're out of luck.

What do you think—is this just the cat-and-mouse game heating up again, or is Nintendo right to act fast? Let us know in the comments.