Metroid 2 fan remake pleases fans, but not Nintendo
UPDATE: Fan site confirms cease and desist request really was from Nintendo.
UPDATE 08/08/2016 9.28pm: Metroid Database has confirmed that the takedown notice is indeed from Nintendo, so the site will no longer host the fab fan remake.
"The attorney has gotten back in touch with us and it appears the notice is indeed legitimate," Metroid Database said on Twitter. "We have no further comments."
To refresh your memory, Metroid Database previously said "If it's real, yes it's going to remain taken down. You'll have to use torrents/other sources instead."
ORIGINAL STORY 08/08/2016 7pm: This weekend Metroid superfans released their own remake of Metroid 2 to commemorate the series' 30th anniversary. Nintendo was not happy about this.
The project in question, AM2R (Another Metroid 2 Remake), made waves after the developer released a fairly far along build of it on Saturday. The fan project offers the Game Boy adventure Metroid 2 a Zero Mission-like treatment where it reimagines the games as a 16-bit adventure with improved graphics, new areas, updated enemy AI, an enhanced weapon system, and a map. Looking at footage of the AM2R in action, it looks almost indistinguishable from Super Metroid - an impressive feat by any means.
Of course, Nintendo isn't exactly thrilled at the notion of someone else releasing an arguably better version of its product for free. As such, it's issued a cease and desist order to sites hosting AM2R downloads, like Metroid Database.
Weirdly, AM2R developer DoctorM64 tweeted that "The people at @MetroidDatabase were hosting a download mirror, and they received a DMCA notice. I wasn't contacted at all by N." As of publishing, it seems like Nintendo is okay with AM2R existing, so long as it's not distributed.
Metroid Datasbase has complied with the cease and desist notice, though it's planning to fight Nintendo on this. Or at least it has a legal team digging into the matter.
"I request everyone just waits patiently and chillaxes until we hear from the law firm. I contacted them and left a voicemail. Nothing yet," Metroid Database said in a statement. "If it's real, yes it's going to remain taken down. You'll have to use torrents/other sources instead. If it's fake, we will be using a limited upload speed because in just one day, users downloaded 1TB of our bandwidth and our host have a 10TB/month plan with Softlayer."
DoctorM64 noted that a torrent option was added before the cease and desist strike simply due to server issues. "We added a torrent [be]cause a lot of people were downloading from the MDb at the same time, slowing their server down," the developer explained.
It's also worth noting that this 1.0 launch of AM2R was not intended to be a final release. "There's lots of improvements and features planned for a near future," the developer wrote on its blog. "This is not a definitive version, but the first."
Fingers crossed that this "definitive version" eventually sees the light of day.