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Fan-Made ‘Metroid’ Game Wows Players Until Nintendo Slaps It With A DMCA Takedown Notice

By Benjamin Simon
Published on: 07:35 PST, Aug 8, 2016

Saturday was the 30th anniversary of Nintendo’s beloved Metroid franchise, yet the company did nothing at all to celebrate. That didn’t stop players from throwing some fanfare of their own across the internet, which included the release of a fan-made Metroid game titled AM2R. The game is a remake of the Game Boy game Metroid II: The Return of Samus and featured a full-color recreation with improved graphics and game play. After 10 years of development, the fan programmers unleashed the game into the world. Two days later, Nintendo ordered them to take it down or face legal action.

AM2R stands for “Another Metroid II Remake,” because several have been attempted before. However, this Metroid remake is largely considered one of the greatest fan tribute games of all time. The developers took the level design and story of Metroid II and fused elements from some of Nintendo’s best Metroid games, including Metroid Zero Mission, Metroid Fusion, and the Metroid Prime trilogy.

Mammoth Gamers claims this is a game “Nintendo could only imagine making.”

Nerdist called it “everything that we could have hoped for in a Metroid II remake.”

Players enjoyed beta releases of the Metroid remake for years, then on August 6, the completed game finally went live at metroid2remake.blogspot.com and the Metroid fan site metroid-database.com. Despite the fact that the creators were allowing players to download the game completely free, Nintendo reportedly issued both sites a DMCA takedown noticed and demanded AM2R be removed.

Everyone suspected Nintendo might not be happy with the fan-made Metroid game since it used their intellectual property without permission. But many fans were clinging to fantastic hopes that Nintendo might somehow recognize the quality of the remake and endorse AM2R. No such luck it seems.

As of the time this article was published, it appears the game is still available for download, but it might not be for much longer. Some have suspected that the DMCA notice was filed by someone other than Nintendo simply to ruin everyone’s fun. Metroid Database claims to be investigating the DMCA to determine if it was a legitimate request from Nintendo or someone else. Filing a false DMCA is technically illegal, so it would be a big risk for an unaffiliated party to issue the notice without having the legal grounds to defend it.

Metroid Database also released an official statement about the Metroid game’s removal.

According to Geek, even if the Metroid remake is forbidden by actual representatives of Nintendo, fans will probably be able to find the game somewhere online through other means, but it might not be easy.

In addition to ignoring the Metroid anniversary and pulling the plug on a game that spent 10 years in development, Nintendo also infuriated Metroid fans by making the Metroid spin-off game Metroid Prime: Federation Force for 3DS instead of a normal Metroid game. Federation Force not only has a childish art style, but it also lacks the franchise’s star heroine, Samus Aran. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, a petition was started just to get the game canceled.

What do you think? Did Nintendo request to have the Metroid 2 remake taken down?

[Image via metroid2remake.blogspot.com]

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