@FlapDangerous:
It's a sailboat!

Darkest Daze

@FlapDangerous: That's a lovely.... Whatever the heck it is.

eastx

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FlapDangerous

@gusiskirby: Yeah, I was being sarcastic... As in, Maxax's complaints were stupid, and I had to point that out by agreeing with them. It was difficult and I felt dirty afterwards, but hopefully Maxax has become a better person as a result.

eastx

@mariospants: I look forward to playing your remake of a classic game, at which point your criticisms of the graphics will finally have meaning.

eastx

That was pure awesome. Almost looked like it was at the level of an official remake. Nice work. :D
*hopes this guy doesn't get sued over this awesome fan work*

M. Kava

Oh.... Muhgod. Retrogasm.

BugJar

Nintendo doesn't generally CARE about this sort of thing, which is why all these copyright infringement posts are making me smack my forehead in shame.

Look no further than BlazeHedgehog's Super Mario: Blue Twilight DX. That game used sprites from Super Mario World, elements of Mario 64, and a whole host of other Nintendo elements. It was featured on G4TV, and Blaze never heard a word from Nintendo.

PositivelyJosh

@Kuromimi: Nintendo will stop this pronto...they're some whores when it comes to their properties.

krunkjuice

Decent job but honestly any sprite he couldn't rip from Fusion/Zero Mission looked aweful (i.e. those flying things and the wall guns). It's like he just colored in the old GB sprites - you gotta redraw them to match the fancy GBA style.

Nintendo really should give the game the Zero Mission treatment though. It's honestly a great game that has not aged well at all. They could do so much to improve it.

WarlockSoL

I would have so pre-ordered this if Nintendo would have remade Metroid 2!

CyberSkull

I would love to play this on my PSP..., which is probably not gonna happen. :)

JojoTheSlayer

I remember beating this years ago just for the unique ending everyone was talking about, god do I hate this game.

Even if it looks good with a mini-map and improved controls... dammit I'm not gonna play this!

Laughin_Caulk

@eastx: What the frick are you talking about?! It looks nothing like the original, In fact it looks almost exactly like the GBA games.

Anyway, I think this is coming along great. I saw some of the earlier versions and wasn't impressed, but this looks awesome!

gusiskirby

I recognize so many places, and I remember how frustrated at some of those spots I got!

I can't wait, but there needs to be an official remake, since if it ends up like Zero Mission, then we'll get a good hour of added fun at the end.

Taco Bell™

@caffolote:
I was just about to say the same thing. It looks awesome, but unfortunately, now Nintendo will know about it and send a S&D letter, just like every other awesome remake has ever received.

Darkest Daze

Kotaku, take this article down before Nintendo sees it. You dont want this project to get shut down dont you? For the love of god, please take this article down.

caffolote

This totally screams "Ocarina of Time 2D" if you know what I mean.

SnowsLeo

I couldn't beleive that was a fanmade game. That guy is doing a great job.

kurokotetsu

This is totally going to get shut down, but it sure does look nice.

Wubbytoes

Wow that is impressive and very smooth.

The really great news in all this is that GameMaker is being made cross-platfrom with a Mac OS X BETA version ( Intel ) due to be released shortly. Check this glog post for more info [glog.yoyogames.com]

So theoretically games written with the Win32 version will also work on Mac OS X and possibly event Linux.
Hopefully they'll also port it to GP2X or Nintendo DS, maybe not the designer part, but the game execution part.

CartBlanche

@ThisCharmingMan:

That's a damn shame!

@Xax:

That's one game that I missed out on, which is strange since I owned TONS of Game Boy games back in the day.

dead_red_eyes

@Grinman: - "Incredible. His engine is so clean - its got every single Zero Mission element down flawlessly."

I was thinking the same exact thing. I'd fucking kill for a new Metroid game in 2D and 16 x 9.

dead_red_eyes

Very cool...you know, I never finished Super Metroid...

ThisCharmingMan

Best Gameboy and metrioid music. I get the metroid 2 music stuck in my head all the time.

tempestblayze

@melcrose: You appear to be confusing trademarks (which are what must be protected) and copyrights.

ATimson

release this on ds/wii homebrew! fight the system!

kwant

Very impressive... loved Metroid 2 back in the day.

Xax

ha...i don't get why you would spend 3 years re-making something for the gameboy. yeah, so everyone on these blogs are gonna say that it's aweome...but is anyone actually gonna play it?...no! they're gonna play the latest version on the latest console and this dude's gonna feel dumb. Now I'm off to re-make the 12th episode of M*A*S*H in my basement...hope you all tune-in!!

Blackti3

Looks nice, the Tech Demo plays and feels like a Nintendo sanctioned Metroid Game. I eagerly wait the finished product.

Hexidecimal

I just hope this doesn't get hit like what happened to Chrono Resurrection. :(

This shit looks beautiful. And in GameMaker? Jesus, I didn't even know anyone could actually make GAMES on that thing.

TheJinManCan

@maxax: You so Crazy! This thing looks great.

Nickatiah

Guys, this isn't an official version, it's a game that someone's doing as a pet project. And It's not like he's borrowed everything. TO DATE, metroid 2 is the only side scrolling iteration that made use of the spider ball.

I'd agree with half of the criticisms made if this were an official NINTENDO release, and I'd still be eager to try it. He's also gone through the trouble of incorporating more recent powers into the mix.

KUDOS.

daemonx2

man, while they're at it, nintendo should sue HAL for that "smash bros." game!

108

Last I checked, Nintendo is one of the few companies who have NEVER issued a cease and desist to a fangamer. It isn't the first time a Nintendo fangame has gotten the limelight either. In this case, people are just being paranoid.

DimensionWarped

Also i guess i more of a purist on this sort of thing but id rather he didnt change or add anything to the game just remake it with the new graphics. Guess im somewhat of a rare breed in that area.

Thanatos-

@supercrap:

Usually when people make mods of an official game they butcher the series. I wouldnt blame nintendo for not wanting anyone else to release thier own take of one of thier major franchises.

AEREC

This looks nice. I never understood the love for the original Metroid 2 (I still have the cartridge) - the monochrome graphics, even using the "color" mode, made many areas in the game look identical. Sometimes you couldn't remember if you were going forward or backward. And if you start playing your saved game after a time away, you may as well start over. No map in in the first game was OK - it had better proportioned sprites and a nice color palette. But M2 was a dreary game of "fetch".

Sustenance

Metroid Second Mission for Wii ware? Id love to see that, M2 is the only Metroid game i have never played. If not i hope he gets his project done but the Big N and its lawyers will be on this pretty damn fast now. What these people need to do is release Zero info on it until its completed then release it anonymously.

Thanatos-

Yeah I hope this gets finished since I never really got into Metroid 2 because of the eyesore monochrome 8bit graphics =P

But I loved the GBA metroids and super metroid

Also you guys ever heard of Streets of Rage Remake? it's awesome, although the last version was released more than a year ago and a new version is still to come this year.

I think this is a similar case and it hasn't faced problems yet, though there has not been any new Bare Knuckle (SoR for western people...and yeah and you should play the original Bare Knuckle 3 rather than the palette-swapped, storyline butchered SoR 3) games in 15 years

I hope this gets ported to homebrew enabled consoles like DC,PSP,DS etc. so fans can enjoy it at its full glory

KaliKOtt

Someone should by my Metroid clone for GBA:
[www.thomashapp.com]

SorcererXIII

It's amazing, but he'll be done before the end of the week.
Nintendo can not _choose_ to enforce a copyright, they have to. The second they don't, someone could make a true commercial title and say "you have a history of not defending copyrights"
Sucks but true.

melcrose

Well, if Nintendo won't make another 2-d Metroid, at least somebody will.

Seriously though, this will probably be halted just like Chrono Resurrection, because some game companies would much rather do nothing with valuable IPs than let people make freeware out of them. Especially sad because both of those companies have so few IPs.

supercrap

I'd only ever accept Nintendo shutting this down if they're planning a remake of their own. Otherwise they should be happy he's giving their franchise free advertising :P.

Jilkon

"Power Grip - Prince of Persia sucks", nice.

Well, it looks exactly like what you'd expect it to look like if they did a DS version. Less, actually. Given the opportunity, one wonders why he didn't add some overlay effects, 3D and better textures? This isn't M2 for 2008, it's more like M2 for 1992...

I concur that the music (which is likely not in-game) needs to be put down. It's like the shit you heard in the background of bmx and Warren Miller movies circa 1992 (again).

mariospants

If Nintendo has time to complain about a game remake this old, then they should be doing better things like fixing Wii's internet service, which is shit. This is an awesome project, and I applaud the creator for his hard work.

Shocky

Power Grip! Prince of Persia sucks!

LOL! (but was that really necessary?)

Highlander Wolf

@ridleysaria: Because that seems like all Nintendo wants to do lately is cash in on core franchises. Making new games that happen to star Mario is one thing; charging $10 for ROMs is another. And I actually consider myself a bit of a Nintendo fanboy. A bedroom coder is not the same as a multi-million (maybe billion, I'm not sure) dollar corporation.

I messed around with game maker back in high school, but I never gave it much of a chance. Then I went to school and learned how to code for real though, so game maker is pointless for me anyway.

Still, good job though.

Tiber

@KingDavid73: Metroid 2 DID NOT look like Super Metroid.

Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.

I tried using Gamemaker once. Granted it wasn't for very long and I'm not that great at adapting my coding skills to other languages yet, but I found it very restrictive even when using their scripting.

Excellent jorb just for making something nice in it.

Rubiximus

@maiky-nisute:

As I've recently discovered firsthand, using GameMaker is far removed from actually coding an engine.

GameMaker has a prefab engine in which you simply define behaviors.

When you code, you have to start from the ground up: basic display, event handling, physics, game logic, etc.

Regardless, I'm impressed with this gentleman's diligence and skill with GameMaker to stretch it to his requirements.

Ping

I thought Metroid 2 was a gameboy game, that looked more like super metroid.

KingDavid73

JESUS CHRIST.

What is it with the amount if bitching in this topic? This guy is making an amazing remake of a game from a beloved franchise, and all people can do, is bitch, bitch, bitch. Do you think creating a game engine and re-using sprites, improving them vastly to fit a PC screen, is something THAT easy to do?

This thing is amazing. Better than any fangame I've ever seen. I'm not THAT big of a fan of the Metroid franchise, and even I'm expecting this.

Ashurahori

Nice work, not a bad project! Unfortunately originality is sorely lacking. To say the least that music is terrible and I feel he's ripped most of the backgrounds, textures and sprites right off previous 2D Metroid titles so I'm not sure how much of this 'remake' is genuinely his.

Nevertheless, he really deserves to be employed as a level designer.

@108: You are PAINFULLY naive. Of course its copyright infringement! He's remaking an old game that is the sole intellectual property of Nintendo for fuck's sake. At this point, it really doesn't matter if he's trying to profit or not. Legality-issues aside, he'll be in deep shit if he puts the entire playable game up for others to download. All web content will be swiftly removed and he could face an injunction.

On that note, I feel sorry for the guy because he's wasting his time with Metroid 2.

humongous_mouse

@ridleysaria: True, but the gamers who complain about the rehashes are usually not Nintendo gamers but petty haters who have nothing better to do but snipe at Nintendo from the cheap seats at everything it does.

inphanta

@108:
Why? Because you don't want to hear the truth?
Listen pal. The development team behind the "Halo RTS" mod for C&C had also only good intentions, wanted to make a fan-mod and still the mod got shut down.
This is a (to say it with your words) fucking franchise under Trademark and Copyright-law. If you don't have the permission from the artist, publisher you shouldn't even try something like this. You could if it were under a "Creative Commons" license (unless you charge for it), but the point is it isn't!

Garo

To all of you bashing this game: You all suck. I've wanted Nintendo to give this game some love since, like, FOREVER... It's always been my favorite game in the series, and I'm glad to see someone doing something, even if it will never be finished because, yes, Nintendo WILL swoop down on it and knock those crayons right out of his hands. Just like Square Enix did with Chrono Resurrection.

bobtheduck

It has absolutely no chance of ever seeing the light of day anywhere once Nintendo gets a whiff of it, but it's impressive all the same.

I would've liked to have heard the actual audio as opposed to some random cheesy rock music, but you can't have everything, I suppose. :/

inphanta

Funny....when a fan remakes an old Nintendo title gamers overwhelmingly declare how much they want it; Nintendo makes a new game and gamers complain about the rehashes.

Really though, The Return of Samus is most definitely the Metroid game that begs for a remake.

ridleysaria

I think its an incredible job so far. Its not a corporate remake. Its a labor of love project by one dude on his PC in his free time for the past 3 years. Get a grip, geesh.

Most of the people complaining most likely couldn't even begin a similar project, or do something similar for a living and need to feel superior by downing on an 'rookie'.

I'm glad there are tools available to even allow this kind of work from gamers/fans of a genre. I can't wait for the day when we have the ability to share works like this over consoles like on PCs.

While I think Nintendo should know about this, its not for any legal reasons. Someone should give this guy a job.

TKWarrior

@beeawwb: yeah but this guy coded the game on his own and the music is from MetroidMetal.com which has a laundry list of great tracks from metroid replayed by the band Skemage if memory servers. The music is a remake from Metroid 2 and admittedly isn't my favorite track of the bunch but I didn't think it was bad.

It's a shame when fans go above and beyond the call to show love to a franchise and people still piss on them. It's not like the video is bad. It looks like a official Metroid release on GBA or DS that would have people asking where to buy it if we didn't know it was a fan coded game. Yet people are ripping the game asking for extra content like this IS an official title in development. Makes no sense. Jeez...give the guy a break.

Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.

Interesting. I found the gameboy version annoying and only played it for 5 mins before I had had enough. I always wanted it to get a remake.

Phazon

@odseraphim: Have you played Metroid Zero Mission? Hmm, Samus looks the same here..

milmoe

It's a trap!

Bap

@Garo: "Hello copyright infringement!"

For fuck's sake, can people stop saying things like that? Anyone who bothers to hammer the keyboard and produce such a redneck statement should probably be banned on principle :-/

This guy isn't saying "Yeah, this is a game I made entirely on my own, please pay me $50 for it lol" -- it's very clear that he's just doing it for fun, and/or to hone his game-making skills.

I mean, do Nintendo's lawyer's storm in when a seven-year-old kid tries to recreate the Super Smash Bros. Brawl boxart with crayons during art class?

Shit.

108

He re-drew all the sprites from scratch. I understand how hard it is for Kotak- ooh, look at that! to post a link to the executable, so I'll help them out:

[64digits.com]

Try it before you knock it! Also, the music used in the trailer was the Metroid 2: Return of Samus Tunnel Theme from Metroid Metal. I'm pretty sure it's fitting, unless you guys somehow never played or don't recall the music from the original game. The actual music in the remake is quite pimp, all SNES-sounding.

-Seraphim

odseraphim

@Shiryu:
This one is also a GM game [www.endlessfluff.com]

Garo

I really liked this, just got raped to death by Ridley....T.T
I found the controls to be odd. I mean, if you want to shoot diagonally with missles, you have to hold Ctrl, Shift and press Z. It's a bit strange.

soliunasm

Verdict: Alright, but nothing special. I do like the idea of a prettied-up Metroid 2, but this guy loses points for reusing M:ZM art.

@mphz: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need! Rise up, comrades! Depose the bourgeoisie!

NameYourCharacter

... I think most of you guys are being exepcionaly mean... do you even know how hard it is to build a game with Game Maker, even with all the sprites premade?

And what about the music? Is the Heavy Metal remix from the Gameboy original overworld theme THAT unpleasant?

Shiryu

Three years making something when all the sprites are already made for him?

He must've worked five minutes a week, or he's just slow.

Yeux de nouilles

They just need to get a little further along and it'll be ripe and ready for a cease and desist order!

Moonshadow101

Fuck yes! You are the best fan game ever!

Metroid 2 is heavily underrated. The fact that Nintendo hadn't already done this saddens me, but I'm glad someone is trying.

Demaar

Wow, I WIsH Metroid 2 looked this good. The game did a great job of moving the story along further and introduced a lot of great weapons and powerup ides.

SAKY

@beeawwb: "Longevity doesn't always equal productivity."

Touche.

@Kuromimi: Unfortunately, since we're now an extremely capitalist society, these "labors of love" will continue to be squashed by big business because they feel they'll lose a few bucks.

mphz

@beeawwb: I'm hoping you read just the title and not the article, "bringing something new to the series" is not what this is about. It's a labour of love by one person.

I for one find what he's done incredible. I'm not all that big on Game Maker, but he's made something really neat out of it. I'd still rather have seen it done in C++, but that's just me.

Also, a cease and desist might stop him from advertising what he's done, but I doubt it will stop him from working on it. That's if they even bother. It'd be really horrible of them to just rape someone of 3 years of hard work.

odyeiop

Now that he has attention, a cease & desist letter will follow shortly I'm sure. (might take a little longer since he's in Argentina)

It's sad that there isn't more of an "allowed" fan outlet for creativity, like doujinshi in japan (no not just the H kind)

Copyright law is fine and good, but I think we take it too far in the US. As long as fans aren't making money or claiming it as their own, I think companies should get with the free advertising program, and cut fans some slack on labors of love, instead of profit.

Kuromimi

@mphz: You're quite right, and it is an assumption. I'm simply basing my opinion on the trailer and nothing more. I just question if the 3 years to get here is through adding extra content, or lack of time. Longevity doesn't always equal productivity.

beeawwb

Nice. I tried replaying the original fairly recently but I found the lack of any map made it hard to play, I guess the full map and on-screen mini-map from Super Metroid onwards have spoiled me.

I'll be looking forward to this as Nintendo seem to have stopped bothering with 2D Metroids, which is a shame as I thought Zero Mission was the best Metroid yet (aside from Super).

photoboy

While it's a fine looking game, I cannot allow myself to play a game where the creator thinks PoP sucks.

SolDieR

@beeawwb: That's an unfair assumption to make. Look at what Zero Mission did for the original Metroid. I'd be surprised if it didn't offer that same level of extra content... Especially if it's taken three years to get this far.

mphz

Not hard to LOOK good when you're using Zero Mission sprites and tiles. :P

Though, as far as it plays, it looks to have a true-to-the-real-deal Metroid look to it. So, that's good.

I had been wondering, after the excellent Zero Mission, if Nintendo would make a "Second Mission"...
I was a late fan in the Metroid series (although I played a bit of the NES and GB ones when I was young, I never really got into them; Prime and Fusion were the first two I played seriously), but I really did like Metroid II: Return of Samus. In fact, I like 'em all (yes, even Hunters and Pinball).

BPM X: Soul Eraser

@maxax: Yeah, it basically looks just like the original version. I mean, they didn't even add parallax or color or anything!

eastx

@Morberis:
Agree on that. This is one of THE Nintendo franchises, they won't allow it.

Garo

@maxax: No, no, not just you. I find myself saying "...and?" like there should be something more.

Yes, it is updated graphics and will potentially expose new players to the game, but what does it bring to expand the game or really make it worth my while? Probably nothing.

And the music was awful.

beeawwb

nintendo give that guy a jobe

maiky-nisute

Nicely done! I do hope he makes it to release withou tbeing bugged by Nintendo lawmen...

Shiryu

Always had a problem with the Gameboy version that I couldn't quite place my finger on. Hopefully a Super Metroid-style remake will fix anything I was uncomfortable with in the original.

87th

0:49 - Subliminal messaging anyone?

ResonanceCascade

this smells great I wonder when I can buy this...

ThatsMrOffDutyNinja

Incredible. His engine is so clean - its got every single Zero Mission element down flawlessly.

Grinman

I give this a week before it's pulled down.

Morberis

oh man this looks really good. I remember playing this in my gameboy.

ChiisaiRamen

This smells like it will be gold.....

ThatsMrOffDutyNinja

I'm not that impressed.
Also the music was extremely shitty.

Maybe I just have a bad day.

maxax

Hello copyright infringement!

Garo

I was just thinking about a Metroid 2 remake, and why there isn't an official one.

Gratz to this guy, it looks awesome. :)

Marios_shadow