How do you show appreciation for the games you love? Do you play them to death? Talk about them incessantly online? Create art based on the characters, or perhaps even dress up as them?
Video games continue to inspire us all in different ways, and our responses to them are as varied as the products themselves. But some fans have taken their admiration and enthusiasm for video games and channelled them into works of their own. Sadly, for the following projects, the reception from publishers wasn't always as fervent as our own.
Awesome Fan Games Under The Publisher's Axe
Galaxy in Turmoil
In development for many years, Star Wars: Galaxy In Turmoil was set to be, in the minds of its creators, the Star Wars: Battlefront sequel we always wanted. Complete with tons of characters, space-to-ground combat and more planets than you could throw a wookiee at, this was gonna be hella cool. Or at least we thought it would; Disney and LucasArts didn't share our excitement.
However, Valve actually agreed to hosting the game on Steam shortly before the release of EA's Battlefront reboot. Sadly, it was not to be.
EA eventually handed the Frontwire Studios team a cease and desist notice, just weeks after they had been accepted on to Valve's platform. Allegedly, EA were concerned that the project would draw attention away from their Battlefront reboot, and with all of that game's lacking content, I ain't a bit surprised.
The team behind GIT are claiming that, although they can't use anything Star Wars related, they're continuing to develop the project. What it'll look like in the end is a mystery, but thankfully we have some footage of what Galaxy In Turmoil could have been:
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Shadow Moses Remake
With developers from projects like Gears of War, Fire Emblem, and inFAMOUS on board, and the voice of Solid Snake, David Hayter, also involved in the development, Shadow Moses Remake was set to be an unprecedented remastering of the original Metal Gear Solid from the ground up. Developers worked on the game for months completely free from repressive corporations, however, as they've been known to do, Konami stepped in to put a stop to all the frivolities prior to the release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Welcome to the "no fun allowed zone."
However, rather than letting all of their hard work go to waste, the developers decided to continue developing the areas of the first MGS title for a VR experience called, The Fan Legacy: Metal Gear Solid. This project will enable players to walk around the remastered environments thanks to VR technology, bringing us closer to the Shadow Moses Incident than ever before. Check out the trailer for it below!
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Resident Evil 2 Reborn
Featuring brand new 3D models, particle effects, updated textures, lighting, sound effects, animations and so much more, Resident Evil Reborn had survival horror fans foaming at the mouth. But, seemingly much to their dismay, Capcom were obliged to come along and put an end to the monster mash.
Though the Japanese company's arrival on the scene wasn't all that bad. In fact, the developers seemed to be rather happy with the cease and desist order. Why? Capcom personally called them up and had some very exciting news for the team!
"Meanwhile as developers, we're honoured to announce that we've been officially invited to meet Capcom," InvaderGames wrote. "Capcom called us up in advance of the announcement and asked us if we would mind stopping the project as they had longer term plans for a Resident Evil 2 Remake. They have invited us to a meeting to discuss further ideas."
Capcom revealed to them that a Resident Evil 2 Remake was in fact already planned and invited them to their headquarters to chat about their work and career paths. Some of them may have actually been welcomed on board! So kind of a happy end for this one. But you really should check out their work below. So. Damn. Impressive.
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Pokmon Uranium
Pokmon Uranium required more than nine years of development for two programmers to complete, but for Nintendo it took about nine days to kill it. Dropping online right in the middle of the Pokmon GO craze, Uranium was a comprehensive title set in the tropical Tandor region and featured more than 150 all-new species of Pokmon.
Players were capable of collecting 8 Gym Badges, battling tons of NPCs, amassing a huge collection of mons, all the while attempting to battle a sinister threat causing Nuclear Meltdowns. The game was ferociously successful, so, naturally, Nintendo had to step in.
After receiving more than 1,500,000 downloads of our game, we have been notified of multiple takedown notices from lawyers representing Nintendo of America, the creators of Pokemon Uranium said in a statement. While we have not personally been contacted, its clear what their wishes are, and we respect those wishes deeply.
Therefore, we will no longer provide official download links for the game through our website, they continued. We have no connection to fans who re-upload the game files to their own hosts, and we cannot verify that those download links are all legitimate. We advise you to be extremely cautious about downloading the game from unofficial sources.
The developers did a wonderful job with Uranium and the reception from Pokmon fans around the world was heartwarming. It's a pity Nintendo weren't fans of the game when so many others were. Maybe these guys could get a job too, Nintendo?
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Metroid 2 & Over 500 Nintendo Games
At the beginning of this month, Nintendo said, "Enough is enough." They went on a copyright claim witch hunt; they unleashed armageddon; they tore asunder the world as we know it. Slight exaggeration.
Kickstarted by their attack on a stunning Metroid 2 fan remake, Nintendo made their orders quite clear as they requested the takedown of over 500 video games using names like Zelda, Mario, Metroid and Pokmon from a website called Game Jolt.
"These web pages display images of Nintendo's video game characters in connection with unauthorized online games that copy the characters, music, and other features of Nintendo's video games," wrote Nintendos legal representation, whose contact information has been redacted from the posted notice.
As a result, Nintendos lawyers told Game Jolt to take down "all infringing contact." - Polygon
And with one fell swoop, Nintendo annihilated thousands of hours of potential fun. I ask us to observe a minute of silence for our fallen rip-offs.
Which of these do you wish survived the most?