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So, in case you didn't know, Metroid's 30th Anniversary was two days ago. To celebrate the occasion, a remake of Metroid 2: The Return of Samus, a game ten years in the making, was released by a very dedicated fan. Unfortunately, Nintendo (who ironically didn't even MENTION Metroid during the anniversary), felt the need to pull the plug on it by issuing a cease and desist towards the creator.

Personally, I think it was a massive dick move by the company, especially considering the remake was not only a love-letter to the franchise but also completely non-profit.

Iunno. What're your thoughts, KYM?

Also, you can still download the game through Nico Blog. Be warned, though, as you will be greeted by an ad.fly page first (a site known for malware and stuff), so wait for that to pass before being greeted by the actual download page.

I know that fan projects can put companies into awkward positions, but if ever there was a time to be a bro and licence the project, this was it. People were talking about it for years. Oh, well. At least he got it online, which means it will be available as long as the internet exists.

What hurts the most is how much love you can see went into this game. It takes the best parts of nearly every Metroid game: Zero Mission's sequence breaking, Metroid Prime's lore system, super metroid's upgrades, etc. and uses it to revive the most underrated title in the Metroid franchise.

THAT'S a remake made with all the right intentions, no cash-grabbing reskinning in "HD", no fixing features that didn't need to be fixed (though it does fix quite a few lol), just simply revamping the game for the love of the game itself.

I know the reasons behind the DMCA, the takedown and all, and I'm glad the creators had the foresight to fly under the radar until they had a complete project. But it still sucks ass to see companies do this man. It just feels so corporate and completely impersonal.

This is easily the best Metroid title to come out since Zero Mission (itself a well-polished remake). I highly encourage people to play it if you can find it. The original is also pretty good, albeit fairly aged. Find a map online if you intend to play the old one.

At least he actually finished it before a C&D happened and it was online long enough that people can keep mirroring it.

I think fan remakes of pre-existing games, especially ones still being sold (Metroid 2 is on the eShop), always carry a high risk of getting C&D'd more than other fan projects, since the copyright holder could legit make the argument that the fan remake might be cutting into potential sales of their own product if it's still being sold, even if the fan remake is non-profit.

There are only two exceptions I can think of of fan remakes that actually got the blessing of the IP owners, but they came with stipulations. Black Mesa, a fan remake of Half Life 1, got Valve's blessing, and even got onto Steam, but I guarantee you that in order for it to be sold on Steam, Valve and Crowbar Collective had to come to an agreement that Valve gets part of the profits as the legal owner of the Half Life intellectual property. The Steam release also has content you can't get in the free mod, likely another stipulation from Valve in order to encourage more people to buy the Steam version, which in turn nets Valve more profit.

Square-Enix also allowed Deus Ex: Revision (a fan remake of Deus Ex 1) to be completed, but it came with the condition that the fan remake can ONLY be played by people who own Deus Ex GOTY Edition on Steam, so if you're someone who still plays a retail copy of Deus Ex 1 or you got the game on GOG, sorry but you've gotta shell out the extra $7 to buy Deus Ex on Steam if you wanna play the fan remake.

Remember that Nintendo has been fairly lenient in regards to fanworks like the Mother 3 translation in the past, and that the recent C&Ds sent to porn artists were quickly determined to be fraudulent. I have my doubts that Nintendo was even involved with this.

Get your copy here, boyoz! No C&D can stop it now!
Link

Is not like Federation Force has gathered tons of hate and fans were demanding a proper Metroid game since 2010. Dick move, Nintendo.
And this was a non profit project not only to celebrate 30 years of Metroid, send a love letter to the whole franchise but to remake a game that, while great, was rough around the edges.
If this keeps on going, you might lose quite a lot of loyal and potential customers.

This seems unusual for Nintendo.

So, going by that one comment I found on YouTube. It appears to be Jason Allan, a former Nintendo employee, who is behind this event.
Though it's just one comment so I'm not sure if that is legit.

Headline copypasted from GoNintendo: METROID II FAN REMAKE DEV SAYS DON'T HATE NINTENDO FOR REQUESTING THE GAME'S REMOVAL

Coming from Milton 'DoctorM64" Guasti, the main dev behind the Metroid II remake…

"Please, don't hate Nintendo for all of this. It's their legal obligation to protect their IP. Instead of sending hate mail, get the original M2 from the eShop. Show them that 2D adventure platformers are still a thing people want."

I heard this excuse NUMEROUS times! They don't have to "protect their IP" that way. A fangame is no different than fan art or fanfiction. I have every reason to hate Nintendo because they don't protect their IP by making a good Metroid game.

Why do fangame makers who have received those orders almost always kneel on those companies who issue legal orders?

By the way, here's Pokemon Uranium

Get it while you can.

Because if they say no, there is a fair chance that it gets taken to court, and I highly doubt someone behind a fan game has the money or connections to beat a multi-national, multi-billion dollar company in that scenario, sometimes it's just better to fold

Some things that may be important to understanding the situation with AM2R:

1. Someone at Nintendo issued a DMCA against the download's host sites and parts of the AM2R blog where the file was distributed from, but the AM2R team has /not/ received an actual Cease and Desist notice. They are, in fact, still working on the project because they haven't been told not to.

2. DMCA is probably entirely the wrong legal framework for pursuing this since AM2R does not actually use any protected material. No code or assets from the original Metroid 2, nor from any other Nintendo property, are involved in the work, so no /copyright/ violation is in play. The DMCA notice states that AM2R infringes content from every entry in the series (including the /Prime/ games of all things), which is patently absurd (again, it infringes none of them as far as /copyright/ is concerned).

There is a trademark issue, to be sure, but that brings us to our next point.

3. The AM2R project has been public for eight years, and has previously released working demos of AM2R, and in that time Nintendo made no action against them. This makes things pretty murky as far as protecting one's trademarks, especially since AM2R has never made the claim that the Metroid IP is /theirs/ (essentially, by properly referencing Nintendo, the AM2R team has protected the trademark for them)…so there's very little concern of brand dilution/genericization.

Really, AM2R is something akin to a song cover, which can be handled under mechanical licensing. A lot depends on how the conversation goes between Nintendo and AM2R once someone at Nintendo with actual authority on the matter gets in the loop, but hopefully someone will manage to set some better precedent before this is over.

Right now, all most of us can do is wait and see how things shake down.

Except that, on technicality, fanart and fanfiction can be taken down for the same reasons. My understandings of the law are bare at this point, but I believe fanworks can only stand under fair use if they are parodying or making a statement of some sort. Fanart, fanfiction, and fangames do not.

Narrator: The game files were barren
The adventures of Aran,
the grouch had run off again.

And as he was running,
he said full of cunning,
to add on this pilfering chain.

Bob: Too fast for a trotter,
I must see my daughter.
Secure her for joy she brings.

For no 'spring of mine
shall let others shine
with mingling and talkative things

So I got the game and it's a pain to play since I'm using keboard and I hate keyboards. I might even get a controller adapter for my computer just for this game. It's fun though and I can feel the heart they put into it. Even the covers of the original tracks in the game are beautiful. The sprite art, everything. It feels so right, and I like that they have a similar lore system to the prime games.

Only problem is the aforementioned keyboard thing for me and also I get very very lost which is something is carries over from the original. I could never beat the original because it's such a maze and being in a very small window and black and white made the original worse.