Indie Super Mario Title 77
Press the Buttons has a post about an independently created Mario game which combines elements of Super Mario World and Super Mario Sunshine to create a great 2D gaming experience. From the post: "Equipped with the FLUDD water pack, Mario must collect pieces of a warp pipe, assemble them, and then exterminate the Piranha Plant living inside. FLUDD functions as both a jetpack and a weapon, and when the water supply runs dry Mario must get a refill at the local water hole."
About Time (Score:4, Insightful)
Companies needs to stop turning classics into 3D BS until they have decent reason to do so. ie: Not just taking the 2D gameplay and translating it to 3D.
Before anyone mod's me down. I'm not reffering to Mario 64 as being crap, just the 3D Castlevania's and Contra's.
Coming soon... (Score:1, Insightful)
Seriously, people, grow up. Nintendo is not the nice, fluffy "puppies for all" company that they're usually portrayed as on slashdot for some reason. Anybody remember a little title called "Great Giana Sisters" for the C64? To be honest, in this case, Nintendo pretty much have a duty to protect their intellectual property.
Re:Coming soon... (Score:3, Insightful)
This is completely wrong. Unauthorized derivative works (including fan fiction, remakes, etc) are a very clear case of copyright infringement. Profit is irrelevant.
Please see 10 Big Myths about copyright explained [templetons.com]
Re:Coming soon... (Score:3, Insightful)
You do not have to be profiting from IP infringement like this in order to be smacked for doing it. Nintendo could, if needed, take these guys to court (although a C&D order would probably be tried first), with near absolute certainty of victory.
Nintendo could claim that this title has harmed the value of their franchise. Now, I know the next bit is going to sound like a fanboy rant, but believe me, I've not liked a Nintendo system since the SNES - this is just how the legal system will see the case. When a customer buys a Mario title, their purchase is informed by the values tied to the franchises involved, both "Nintendo" and "Mario". Both of these imply a set of production values associated with the product. If somebody else puts out a game under the "Mario" brand, then Nintendo could reasonably argue that this has an adverse affect on the value of their franchise. If you want to see the power of a franchise, look at the Final Fantasy series. Virtually no links between the games in terms of characters, settings or even combat systems, but the games sell on the reputation for production values that go with the franchise.
Moreover, even if Nintendo don't really care about this, the legal situation with trademarks pretty much compels them to take action. If you don't defend a trademark against these challenges, you lose it.
Apologies for any terminological errors in the above, IANAL. However, I'm confident that the core argument is true.