Update: Nintendo kills fan remake of Metroid II that took more than eight years to make

[Shawn Knight]

After more than eight years in development, the fan remake of Metroid II: Return of Samus is now available to download free of charge.

Dubbed AM2R (Another Metroid 2 Remake), the game’s release coincides with the 30th anniversary of the popular Nintendo franchise as the first Metroid game launched on August 6, 1986, for the Famicom Disk System in Japan. A year later, Metroid made its debut in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System followed by the launch of Metroid II: Return of Samus on the Game Boy in November 1991.

AM2R, as Ars Technica notes, includes a mix of updated mechanics, refreshed artwork, a new soundtrack, a map system, logbook, new areas to explore, new bosses to battle and more. Based on multiple first-hand accounts from those that have played the game, the level of polish here is on par with what you’d expect from a piece of work from Nintendo itself.

The team behind AM2R says this is not a definitive version, but just the first as there are lots of improvements and features planned for the near future.

One can only hope that Nintendo won’t take it the wrong way and issue a cease and desist letter to shut the project down (that’d be a real shame after close to a decade of work). That said, you’d probably better go ahead and download AM2R sooner rather than later… you know, just in case.

My personal favorite in the Metroid series is 1994’s Super Metroid for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. From the haunting soundtrack that still holds up today to the massive world for Samus to explore, everything about this game was superb.

Update: As feared, Nintendo's lawyers wasted little time in filing DMCA takedown requests with each service that was hosting AM2R. It would be easy for the gang behind the project to be bitter at Nintendo but they aren't. Instead, they urge fans to download the original Metroid II from the eShop to show Nintendo that there is still a market for 2D adventure platformers.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/65879-fan-remake-metroid-ii-took-more-than-eight.html

 

[J spot]

Wow, unbelievable. I was just playing Metroid II last night, completely random, and thinking how it would be good for a community to redo the game based on more modern hardware. I was also thinking how good the game was back when I played it in 1994, without and other distractions, such as hundreds of other games to choose from, or the internet. Just complete focus and that made it really good.

 

[VitalyT]

Wow indeed. Everyone is going mad in his own way.

 

[Puiu]

They did incredible work. It took 8 years, but it was definitely worth it.

 

[petert]

Good stuff

 

[madboyv1]

Hot damn that's love and dedication right there. =o

edit: original comment includes the following, but that source does not offer any support to the claim, but I wouldn't be surprised if it finally happened.

Nintendo is already making it's move, but everything seems to be up and running at the moment.

http://www.geek.com/games/nintendo-...remake-released-for-30th-anniversary-1665047/

 

[Awrethien]

Hot damn that's love and dedication right there. =o

edit: original comment includes the following, but that source does not offer any support to the claim, but I wouldn't be surprised if it finally happened.

Nintendo is already making it's move, but everything seems to be up and running at the moment.

http://www.geek.com/games/nintendo-...remake-released-for-30th-anniversary-1665047/

Well I guess it can be confirmed....

"The file you requested has been removed from MediaFire for a violation of our Terms of Service.

This file has been taken down by:

File Name: AM2R_10.zip (71.55 MB)

Company: Nintendo of America Inc
Email: dmca@millernash.com

Still have questions, or think we've made a mistake? Please contact support for further assistance. "

 

[madboyv1]

Damn that's too bad, though not surprising in the least.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Well I guess it can be confirmed....

"The file you requested has been removed from MediaFire for a violation of our Terms of Service.

This file has been taken down by:

File Name: AM2R_10.zip (71.55 MB)

Company: Nintendo of America Inc
Email: dmca@millernash.com

Still have questions, or think we've made a mistake? Please contact support for further assistance. "

I'm so glad I don't support Nintendo. This only strengthens my desire to keep it that way.

 

[matrix86]

HA! They only THINK it's been taken down. I've already seen it on one torrent site, I'm sure others have it as well.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Well spending that long on it... did they try and fail to get Nintendo's ok?

 

[cliffordcooley]

Instead, they urge fans to download the original Metroid II from the eShop to show Nintendo that there is still a market for 2D adventure platformers.

That's just it, there's not a market for it. I'm not buying the original, nor am I buying this remake. I doubt I am alone, so their take down notice served no purpose.

 

[davislane1]

Instead, they urge fans to download the original Metroid II from the eShop to show Nintendo that there is still a market for 2D adventure platformers.

That's just it, there's not a market for it. I'm not buying the original, nor am I buying this remake. I doubt I am alone, so there take down notice served no purpose.

Nintendo is headed by *****s. Nothing to gain but a lot of face to lose.

 

[Jamlad]

Instead, they urge fans to download the original Metroid II from the eShop to show Nintendo that there is still a market for 2D adventure platformers.

That's just it, there's not a market for it. I'm not buying the original, nor am I buying this remake. I doubt I am alone, so there take down notice served no purpose.

Nintendo is headed by *****s. Nothing to gain but a lot of face to lose.

I'm going to play Devil's advocate here and argue they are just defending their copyrights and IP. If they don't defend their work, by that I mean issue takedown requests for fan remakes, then how can they argue against piracy of their prior work? I assume the distribution of ROMs counts as piracy, and it only the emulation that is in a technically gray area.

Square-Enix did the exact same thing with the Chronotrigger fan project.

 

[cliffordcooley]

If they don't defend their work, by that I mean issue takedown requests for fan remakes, then how can they argue against piracy of their prior work?

Original vs Replica? Hmmm! This is normally only a problem when the replica is being sold.

 

[jonny888]

Preface - I haven't been a Nintendo fan since the Gameboy Color, so I'm not trying to be biased towards nor do I have any kind of Nintendo fanboy-ism.

To everyone saying Nintendo is being unfair for asking it to be taken down, think about this.

You are Nintendo. You have over the years, established your brand name, made recognisable characters, and spawned your own game series. That game series helps give your company it's reputation as people associate it directly with your company.

Now, you hear that someone outside of the company has taken your characters and your game series, and remade it entirely according to their own design with no input or approval from you at all.

Do you:
a) Agree to let anyone use your existing source material and modify/copy it in any way they see fit, all whilst maintaining your characters names and imagery. You thereby trust blindly in their re-use of your material, in their quality control, and that anything negative that might come about from these people and their product imitation isn't in anyway going to have an impact on your own reputation.

b) Take the viewpoint that letting anybody and everybody use your source material as they see fit is highly likely to backfire on you one day when someone releases something that damages your brand image. You then follow the proper procedure in asking for them to remove the content they never owned the rights to and never got approval to use.

Now apply that same logic to any business about any product it has ever produced, and you should see that they've done nothing wrong by asking for this to be taken down. All they've done is taken perfectly standard steps every business takes to help protect itself.

You might, understandably, feel sympathy for the people who've put their time into making this (I certainly do), but at the end of the day, it really wouldn't have killed them at the very beginning on the project to ask Nintendo if they'd be allowed to do it, and saved themselves the effort.

 

[davislane1]

I'm going to play Devil's advocate here and argue they are just defending their copyrights and IP. If they don't defend their work, by that I mean issue takedown requests for fan remakes, then how can they argue against piracy of their prior work? I assume the distribution of ROMs counts as piracy, and it only the emulation that is in a technically gray area.

Square-Enix did the exact same thing with the Chronotrigger fan project.

I'm sure that's what the executives are thinking. Still a poor strategic move.

They could have approached with an offer to buy and distribute. Literally triple-plus ultra discount development costs (since all the work is done) and virtually guaranteed to break-even. This gives them money and makes them look like champions of independent development.

Instead, they create bad press and make themselves look like a money hungry pigs. Brand damage.

 

[cliffordcooley]

think about this.

Think about this. You spend 8 years on a project and want to share regardless of where the inspiration came from. And then find that which inspired you is also preventing you from sharing. Now if Nintendo is somehow quietly compensating them for their work, and quite possible adding it to the original content, my complaint will disperse in the wind never to be heard again. But to throw up a wall (aka: DMCA takedown request) and ignore this guys passion is my complaint.

 

[jonny888]

think about this.

Think about this. You spend 8 years on a project and want to share regardless of where the inspiration came from. And then find that which inspired you is also preventing you from sharing. Now if Nintendo is somehow quietly compensating them for their work, and quite possible adding it to the original content, my complaint will disperse in the wind never to be heard again. But to throw up a wall (aka: DMCA takedown request) and ignore this guys passion is my complaint.

I agree it's a sad outcome, and I hope they can come to some kind of agreement that sees it restored. I just don't think Nintendo deserve to be called the bad guys on this one. It wasn't their fault these guys didn't ask permission first, and they've done nothing they aren't fully within their rights to do to protect their own work.

 

[amstech]

Nintendo will stay in the gadget segment but from the looks of the NX they have no desire to get in the ring with Sony and Microsoft.
A new Mario game on the next Xbox? It's possible.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Original vs Replica? Hmmm! This is normally only a problem when the replica is being sold.

No basically anything that is created that uses their theme or world, they have a right to say who creates what in that theme. It's their idea. It's basic courtesy to ask permission to do something with it first. It's Nintendo's IP and the reputation of the games and media are affected by fan remakes etc.

I think it's pretty irresponsible for the devs to have wasted their time on something that was so obviously going to be shot down.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Then we agree to disagree!

 

[Levi Sterling]

I hope to see some of these comments on adoseofbuckly

 

[robb213]

It was a given that Nintendo would file a DMCA. It's literally any Japanese developer/publisher that does it, so quick as if it's without a second thought. I would've told the developer(s) of this remake to not even bother 8 years ago because this is how Nintendo has always been.

Although why Nintendo always goes to such extremes over these things, especially over a long dead game and character that today's kids know nothing about, shows how out of touch they are with their older age group market imo.

 

[DAOWAce]

Nintendo being Nintendo. They're worse than EA, Ubisoft and Square Enix when it comes to this type of shyte.

Time to look for it on a torrent site..