Time and time again fans surprise us with projects born out of their love for Nintendo franchises despite the obvious legal issues. One franchise in particular that seems to generate substantial fervor is Samus Aran's very own backyard, the Metroid series. As years go by without a new mainline entry in this revered science fiction saga, fans make do by filling the gaps with tribute projects like music albums, illustrations and sometimes even all-new games.
And now we have another fan-made tribute. To call Metroid: Rogue Dawn merely a NES Metroid hack is doing it a severe disservice. Yes, the hack is built on the game engine that powered the original, but you will find it hard to spot any existing game assets in the final product since developers Grimlock, Optomon and snarfblam replaced the entire map with custom art tiles, added all new music and even managed to code in some impressive visual effects (like rain!) that weren't present in the original cartridge.
Here's the background to the game:
Rogue Dawn is an unofficial prequel to the original Metroid game released in 1986. 30 years later we bring you the events that unfolded before Samus's famous "Zero" mission on planet Zebes. The original Metroid manual tells us about a deep-space research spaceship that was attacked. Pirates seized a capsule said to contain a newly discovered life form in a state of suspended animation. Rogue Dawn surrounds these events that led up to the theft of the capsule which ultimately placed the Metroids under the control of Ridley and the Mother Brain. The mission to acquire the capsule is placed in the hands of one of Ridley's best kept secrets. A rogue human agent trained and manipulated by Ridley from a young age. Taken as a child from a Federation colony obliterated by Ridley's faction she was initially just another test subject slated to undergo horrific experiments. Ridley decided to instead manipulate and mold her into a weapon, his first human servant and dark agent. Primed yet untested she is sent out on her "zero" mission to retrieve a newly discovered biological specimen in the possession of a Federation research crew orbiting planet SR388 and prove her worth. Her name is Dawn Aran.
Metroid: Rogue Dawn looks more like a late generation, early 1990s NES game and sometimes even amazingly close to a Super Nintendo release. If you still have an American version of the NES Metroid cartridge, nothing is stopping you from trying it out by grabbing the patch and using it on your RetroN 5 or Retro Freak. You will simply not believe just how polished the whole experience is until you try it. It also reminds us how much we would love to see a new entry in the franchise - 2D or otherwise.
[source romhacking.net]
Comments 63
Released after development, then? That's how it's done. Now we can enjoy the finished product without C&D's getting in the way.
Better get it before Nintendo shuts it down.
Well, as a fan project that doesn't ask for any money & doesn't seem to be running a major publicity campaign at the same time Nintendo are trying to sell their own game... I completely support this game and don't expect Nintendo to take any action against it.
While Nintendo is still fairly backwards when it comes to understanding what free publicity is, this game is very different to Pokémon Prism in regards to how it's being managed.
Nintendo will shut down that in number 3...2...1...Terminated !
Why not call it Fantroid, change the characters names and avoid certain shutdown by Nintendo's wrath?
Looks very MSX-ish, which is an awesome thing!
Nintendo takes it down in... 3.... 2... 1....
Eight comments and only one of them doesn't mention getting shut down by Nintendo. Paranoia runs deep.
At this point there are probably more Metroid fangames than licensed games since the year 2000... Which isn't a good sign
Imagine how happy everybody would be if both this and AM2R appeared for free on the 3DS eShop. Or even better were made available as launch games on the Switch as the introduction of a fan game section on that platform's store.
Then sit back, relax and wait for....FEDERATION FORCE REMASTERED !
Thanks for the heads up mate!
C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!
I decided it was a good time to stop all the Switch news with this article. Two and a half years well spent, this game is phenomenal!
it's a rom patch, not a full release.
If only Nintendo offered what Sega does on Steam with it's Genesis collection
@Pluto14 Yeah. The same applies to pretty much every franchise.
Or in NES Mini, right?
At least someone is making new Metroid games...
Oh dear... another talented developer that'll face the chopping board by Nintendo's legal team.
will it work on NES mini?
I think it's a shame that games like this are treated the way they are by both sides... developers shouldn't do this sort of thing without Nintendo's permission, but Nintendo should be open to fan-made games using their IPs... both sides would benefit if they just cooperated with one another.
@w00dm4n Pokemon Prism was also a ROM patch.
Very impressive.
If I were Nintendo—and taking into account that I'm actually smart—I'd be contacting these guys to release this on the eShop.
The ins and outs of the particular arrangement are not important; I would just embrace this kind of awesome stuff and actually use it to my advantage rather than shutting it down and no-one benefits from it in any positive way—that's the point I'm making.
PS. To the devs: If Nintendo does try to shut it down then just change the name and any obvious references to Metroid and release it again as entirely its own original creation.
Grabbed it before No-Fun-Nintendo inevitably sends their lawyers after it, thanks for the heads up NL.
Though I suppose if they do send their lawyers to shut it down, up to the torrents it goes just like AM2R.
If I was the developer of such a game, I would call it "Tremoid: The story of Magus Rahan" - so it would see the light of day, everybody would know it is a Metroid homage and it would avoid legal issues.
@DragonEleven No one needs permission from anyone to make something artistic; it's only once it comes to selling it that this should change. Don't hand over total freedom and control to these big corporations when they simply do not deserve it and it is indeed against everything you should stand for as a supposedly "free" citizen of whatever country. Art is art—it is not a "good" in and of itself, even when it is associated with a "good"—and it is or at least should be free to think about and create free art in any form for the most part. Only if a creation becomes monetised should any company have even the slightest say on anything to do with it. If this is a free fan-made game using entirely original assets (even if it's all very similar to Metroid), outside of using the Metroid name obviously (and maybe one or two obvious enemy designs), then it should left well enough alone imo. Because, if it is basically all/mostly original art, music, and code, then changing the names/references alone would make it an entirely original creation protected under the laws of copyright and whatever else; so simply using the name and maybe including a couple of the most obvious creatures really shouldn't be enough to get Nintendo's back up—if the game is free and not being monetised. But . . . this is Nintendo we're talking about.
Very cool indeed by the way.
@vonseux Yes.
Dudes, dudettes, you're all so focused on Nintendo Legal coming down on this you're missing out the amazing job and hard work done here! Enjoy life a little, leave the laws to the lawyers.
I see them shutting it down. If they let every aspiring dev out there release updated versions of NES games, where's the incentive to 'rent' them for a month?
It looks class though. Definitely going to try this one out.
Downloading now before Nintendo takes it down.
One important thing here is that it is not a Rom, its only a patch. You can't do anything with it unless you use it to patch a rom file.
Gone in 3..2..1!
Grab it while you still can! (I already did!)
Awesome! Wish I had a way to play this.
Playing this on VC on the 3DS.
It's really nice, but I can't help but feel some that some map design choices and flow feels questionable, but it's pretty cool.
@impurekind You said way too much for the weak arguments you made there.
Releasing something for free when others charge for something similar damages that industry by devaluing those items... if people have the option to get something for free, then they are less likely to pay for a similar item, meaning less money is going into the industry as a whole.
And art is only good as long as it is original and creative... using other sources for inspiration is fine, but lifting elements directly from elsewhere only demonstrates a lack of creativity, which is not good... and this game used the original Metroid game itself.
@DragonEleven That's all irrelevant when it comes to artistic creations. They're not charging for this game. It's not a product; it's a piece of fan art.
And art doesn't have to be entirely original to be good, as long as it's created with passion and talent, which is clearly the case here.
Change a few minor things and this conversation wouldn't even exist—see Axiom Verge for example—yet the thinking is that somehow the guys that made this Metroid: Rogue Dawn game are wrong or their creation is wrong just because it was directly inspired by something that they love (and uses some of the same names and designs), which is rubbish. That's ultimately what fan art is; it's art that uses someone else's creation as its direct inspiration, even literally using the exact character art and design in many cases.
Like this for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA8JnIiXVh8
This game is awesome, and Nintendo should embrace and celebrate it. And, if its smart, it should work with the guys that created this fan project to make some money off of it—put it on the eShop as a downloadable title for a few bucks for example—that's how everyone wins.
@Asaki Except it's not paranoia but a logical assumption coming from countless, similar situations in the past.
I'll echo the want for this on the eshop. But Nintendo of America would have to finesse the hell out of it to not have it just wind up another cease and desist. And the Nintendo of America that makes its own games (star tropics you magnificent bastard) is long dead.
@impurekind It's been built from the original Metroid game itself... there's no way you can argue that it's only been inspired by the IP.
I'm not saying what they've done isn't art... it is... but what they've done by itself isn't a game, it's a mod for a game that is owned by Nintendo, which is where the legal issue comes from.
Looks nice!
All these "DMCA in 3...2...1..." comments are unfunny and contribute nothing to a discussion, by the way.
Well, I'm showing my support for these guys:
http://www.inceptional.com/2017/01/18/the-fan-made-nes-metroid-prequel-is-pretty-awesome/
And I've also posted it on my Facebook and Twitter pages and downloaded the game too.
@DragonEleven It makes no difference to my core point as long as they're not charging for it. They've made a piece of art—based on and using elements from something they're huge fans of—and they're letting other people appreciate it too, at no cost and no measurable harm to the original creator, as is the right thing to do with all great fan-made art. They certainly have my absolute blessing.
@impurekind My job here is done.
@Shiryu
Even in Nintendo wanted to shut it down, they'd fail. Just like the other dozen or so Metroid hacks, once its in the wild, it'll always be out there. People are already selling cart versions of it too lol
@dereq LOL
Dude, I think you're maybe comparing this to the wrong generation of games or something. This looks pretty amazing for a NES-level Metroid game, and maybe even better than Nintendo's own first party effort at times.
Go find some YouTube footage of Metroid on NES and compare like for like. . . .
@dereq ... are you playing the same game that I am? One that took two and a half years to make, a brand new soundtrack, hundreds of original new tiles, a map many times bigger the the original game and spoilers spoiler spoiler here?
Wow, tough crowd...
Omg drooling.. I want this but I'm at work. I hope it's still easily obtainable later!
EDIT: I got it oh me oh me I cannot wait to play this.... I'll
Never get enough Metroid, ESPECIALLY in this style.
@vonseux For you, Synbios, it will.
I just hope they don't issue a C&D to the whole Romhacking website...
See, Pokemon Prism devs? This is how it's done.
@vonseux - It actually can. Look it up, you can play any NES rom on it now.
Whoa! I've been playing Metroid with the Mini NES and my next step is to battle mother brain, so this is great news and very timely!! With the mini NES save state, I managed to get to mother brain in about 5 hours. I used a guide, but now I wish I hadn't so I could get that old, lost in the game world feel, of the 80s.
What a great game it is. For an 8 bit game, it has an unbelievable amount of atmosphere and dread. The game music is superb. I never played Metroid as a kid, although I watched a friend play it and beat it in the last 80s. Its funny to play now, as its like I'm reliving my buddy's trek through the game, just 30 years later.
I plan on playing them all!
no whips, no support.
@KIREEK nintendo is so backwards thru would never do something that cool. We're lucky if Nintendo releases their OWN games on VC.. much less fan games. So sad that the entire ROM library has been available for decades on the net but Nintendo won't even let us BUY most of them. Year after year they turn down free money
Glad I downloaded this now I just need to hunt down a metroid cart!
Dunno why people keep doing this. It's like they think Nintendo will never find out. >_>
@Freelance Because they <3 it.
@LinkSword "Countless?" Let me count how many ROM hacks have been "shut down" by Nintendo.
...One?
@Asaki Thanks for making it clear you have no idea what you're talking about.
@LinkSword As far as I know, Pokemon Prism is the only ROM hack to get a C&D from Nintendo. Were there any others?
looks ok but I think Metroid II is the best
Says a lot when even a fan can produce a better Metroid than Federation Force.
Tap here to load 63 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...