What is your favourite shut down fan made game / remake

Stuff like Streets of Rage Remake or AM2R, where the IP owners forced the creators to take it down.

AM2R was the first to come to mind

Why must they always advertise and plug themselves prior to releasing the game? Just shadowdrop it quietly first, let it pick up steam, and be glad and done with the whole affair. These people always get undone by their social media presence.

Definitely AM2R.

Having played through both, I found AM2R to be the more faithful/enjoyable remake compared to Samus Returns. MercuryStream did solid enough with the gameplay of Samus Returns and, in particular, Dread... but they just didn't capture the ambience of the old Metroid games. Metroid games have always had a light horror element and parts of them always got your heart racing a little bit; I never felt that in Returns or Dread. Even the EMMIs in Dread weren't particularly scary, given that the game made the bizarre decision to wall them into specific areas and give you all sorts of indicators as to where those areas were and where you were in danger. Contrast that to the SA-X, which technically had the same system (given that it was locked to specific areas), but the game pretended it was stalking you throughout the station and gave you no warning as to when you might run into it, which made it way, way creepier.

AM2R captured that eeriness really well. Your only warning that there was a Metroid in the area was a discarded larval shell, and even that only told you that one was around somewhere, not exactly where it was, which allowed them to surprise you; by contrast, the radar in Returns would let you know the exact room you could find them in.

Also, the Fusion hook in AM2R was so, so, so much better than Returns (though Returns did have the fucking spectacular Dread hook, so it redeemed itself there at least).

GanglyKhan posted...

Why must they always advertise and plug themselves prior to releasing the game?

Streisand Effect.

I mean, AM2R is a perfect example. Nintendo shut them down within 24 hours of it launching, if memory serves, but that stopped precisely nothing - the game was swiftly hosted by third parties on new mirrors and it's not hard to find it even today. Even though the original developer respected Nintendo's wishes and abandoned the project, other developers swiftly took over and published several updates to the game.

darkknight109 posted...

I mean, AM2R is a perfect example. Nintendo shut them down within 24 hours of it launching, if memory serves, but that stopped precisely nothing

Yup. And interestingly enough for the two I mentioned above, they were advertised for years, but shutdown only after what was basically the 1.0 complete version.

DeltaBladeX posted...

darkknight109 posted...

I mean, AM2R is a perfect example. Nintendo shut them down within 24 hours of it launching, if memory serves, but that stopped precisely nothing

Yup. And interestingly enough for the two I mentioned above, they were advertised for years, but shutdown only after what was basically the 1.0 complete version.

I feel like all of this is just playing with fire, honestly. Good for them that they did get their work out there, I'm definitely all for fangames, but it's just like, why draw attention? It's such a weird topic anyway, because romhacks and randomizers for so many Nintendo franchises have been going strong for years without any issue. I assume AM2R was more to do with the proximity of the official 3DS remake.

I am starting to remember OoT 2D.

OoT Unreal remake was another that looked promising

The Unreal OoT did indeed look nice.

AM2R was fantastic for understanding the series' atmosphere and nuances. Sometimes I wonder if Nintendo was attempting some sort of Thanatos Gambit with the franchise when it waited so many years until the day of AM2R's release to serve that cease and desist, wait a handful more months to announce and eventually release a separate II remake they'd handed to a fan group that wanted to do a Fusion remake, watch the sales do horribly, and use that to both chastise game piracy and cancel the series going forward, citing low sales or lack of interest. I sometimes wonder this, because the higher-ups have shown little to no love for the franchise over the years (so much so they handed Prime to Retro Studios expecting it to fail) and realize... there's no way Nintendo is even that business savvy anymore. Shameful, really. I enjoyed the gameplay of Dread when not having to deal with the underwhelming robo-stalkers who were a major selling point of that title, far more than I enjoyed Returns . But AM2R? That was good. The final stretch, where all life is supposed to be gone from the metroids' queen? As barren as it should have been. Ridley? Nowhere in sight, because he did not need to be there. The added side room resembling a certain cave in the start of Fusion? I welcome this wonderful nod to a later point in Samus's series of near-death experiences that is her bounty hunter life. Yeah, AM2R is a hard one to beat for shut down or canceled titles.

I would also like to shout out to the short-lived attempt someone made to a 3D Chrono Trigger. At the time, it looked promising, but it was laid low harder and faster than a commoner being unable to bow to their master in imperial era China, with no hope of anyone picking up this project that was clearly so desired.

Entity13 posted...

Ridley? Nowhere in sight, because he did not need to be there.

The thing that annoys me is they *could* have done something absolutely amazing with that fight if they wanted to.

Beat the game on easy or normal? You get the same ending as the original - peaceful, starry sky, fly off, deliver the baby to Ceres, roll credits. Beat the game on hard mode? You get the stormy skies ending with the creepy Arrival on Crateria remix music (which, I must say, was a nice touch). The rest of the ending proceeds the same, with the baby handed off to the Federation scientists... then, after the credits roll, you get a scene of Samus in her gunship and an alarm klaxon blares and a "Ceres Station is under attack!" message flashes on her HUD.

You then are put back into the game and get to play a remake of the intro stage to Super Metroid, skulking through a dim, half-destroyed space station with the bodies of the scientists strewn haphazardly about. You get to the end room, find the baby, then bam, Ridley fight. You could keep more or less the same fight as you get in the actual game (the fight itself was reasonably done, even if it was horribly out of place), and have it actually come off as a struggle this time instead of the way it was in Super Metroid where there's little tension because the fight always ends when either Samus or Ridley takes too much of a beating. Afterwards, you play through the escape sequence, dash back to the ship, and end the game with a shot of Samus flying towards Zebes.

It would work great, because if the game does well you can use it to drum up hype for a potential Super remake, and if it doesn't you just say it was meant to thematically tie the game to its sequel. It makes the Ridley fight actually make sense, it gives the game a finale escape sequence (a Metroid staple which it was otherwise lacking), and having Ridley and a revisit to Ceres Station be a bonus for clearing Hard mode would have been an amazing Easter Egg.

I'm irrationally upset they didn't go this route, because it would have been so much better than what we got.

I'll always believe that someone at Nintendo's legal department is a huge Metroid fan and he thought AM2R looked awesome, so he held them off on taking action until the game was finished. It's the only explanation, everyone knew it was in development for years and they could have gotten DMCA'd anytime.

Does Descent: Underground count?

MeatiestMeatus posted...

OoT Unreal remake was another that looked promising

Idk what happened but the dude is still making it.

Maybe he got some strikes, but he laid low and is still working on it.

OHJOY90 posted...

Does Descent: Underground count?

That was officially developed, Just that issues popped up. Had it, and and there is still a game for us, just under another name.

AM2R as everyone else has said. Haven't played many others. Looking forward to a few retranslations I've acquired, but those weren't really "shut down".

GanglyKhan posted...

Good for them that they did get their work out there, I'm definitely all for fangames, but it's just like, why draw attention?

I mean, I literally didn't know about AM2R *until* it was cancelled. The news of the C&D letter and the resultant blowback was what made me look into it.

The original version of Them's Fightin' Herds was called Fighting Is Magic and used My Little Pony characters, until Hasbro said no.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/c7b9002a.jpg

Mane6 continued working on the game, but they changed out the characters

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4b99829e.jpg

MeatiestMeatus posted...

OoT Unreal remake was another that looked promising

Vomit emoji

Am2r was fucking awesome. I loathed the 3ds Metroid 2 remake.

I was always interested in the elder scrolls Skyrim in Morrowind or oblivion that have been in development for 1000 years. I don't think either has been shut down, though.

The Metroid Fusion multiplayer remake is cool... one player plays as the SA-X and everyone else tries to win the game.

...

Also, doesn't Japan have, like, rules for doujinshi or whatever?

captpackrat posted...

The original version of Them's Fightin' Herds was called Fighting Is Magic and used My Little Pony characters, until Hasbro said no.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/c7b9002a.jpg

Mane6 continued working on the game, but they changed out the characters

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4b99829e.jpg

In a weird way they almost did then a favor since the fangame would be free and the new version they can sell did well didn't it?