Nintendo is a company that is able to play both sides of the fence.  Somewhat like Metallica and the whole Napster and “suing fans” angle the press ran with, but Nintendo stops at actually taking things to court.  Nintendo is more of a fan of the “silent” aggression as they protect their intellectual properties.  Even though things are being done under the radar of mast gamers, word is getting out about these actions.  It is up to the fans to decide if these actions are hurting the image of Nintendo more than they are protecting it.

• Taking down Another Metroid 2 Remake (AM2R)

Another Metroid 2 Remake (AM2R) was a fan game that, well as the name implies, was a remake of the Game Boy game- Metroid II.  This title as very well done and very faithful to the original game and the franchise as a whole.  Too bad Nintendo made sure it will be harder for fans to enjoy.  Check my interview with the team here.  Check my review of AM2R here.

• Taking down Nintendo Power from Archive.org

This was one that was close to me as I am a co-founder of a legal archival site- Out of Print Archive.  While we attempted to get permission to release popular North American based magazines such as Nintendo Power, we were unable to.  For a few weeks we thought it was finally happening– Nintendo gave their blessing, along with magazine publisher Future, for these issues to be released.  It did not take long to find out that Nintendo nor Future Publishing were happy about these releases as they were quickly pulled from Archive.org’s site.

• Pulling of Nintendo Power issues from other “underground” archival sites

I won’t name them all but it seems that Nintendo Power issues are being removed from many sites that used to host them.  One of the largest is Retromags.com (a site I was once a member of, prior to branching off with two other former members to launch Out of Print Archive).  This is the site that provided the scans that were uploaded to Archive.org (and subsequently taken down).  The issues are missing on other

• Taking down Pokemon Uranium

Recently I wrote up the release of another Nintendo game made by fans, Pokemon Uranium.  This was a Pokemon game that featured 150+ new creatures, a new type and featured online battles and trades.  Can’t have that when the official games don’t offer anything near that much new stuff so it had to come down.

While I do hold out hope that Nintendo will see the value in the dedication of these fans and hire them to work on official releases, I am not holding my breath.  Do you know of a company taking legal action against fans?  Let me know if you do.

Carl Williams

It is time gaming journalism takes its rightful place as proper sources and not fanboys giving free advertising. If you wish to support writers like Carl please use the links below. https://www.paypal.me/WCW https://www.patreon.com/CarlWilliams