Nintendo has celebrated various 30th anniversaries for several of its series in recent years, thanks to the rise of its fame in the mid-80s. However, while franchises such as Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda got plenty of time in the limelight, it looks like Metroid isn't getting such treatment for its debut launching on the Famicom Disc System in August 1986.
However, while Nintendo might have seemingly forgot about the game's protagonist Samus Aran, a group of fans certainly haven't, and released a fan-made project to pay to tribute to the bounty hunter and her 30 years job.
Titled, AM2R (otherwise known as Another Metroid 2 Remake) is a fan-made remake of 1991s Metroid II: Return of Samus for the Game Boy. The game has been a long time in the making (over eight years), with it having a demo tease launch of several years ago. Now, on Saturday, Aug. 6 — exactly 30 years since the original Metroid debuted — the game has finally been released in full on WIndows.
On the blog page, the game's developers revealed that future updates and a Linux build will be coming soon.
As this is a remake, there is more to AM2R than just being a colorized upgrade of its original, "green-scale" version. The game features updated mechanics (such as ledge grabs), redrawn artwork, newly arranged songs, slightly remixed content (such as newly augmented creatures), and even a newly written "codex" of lore, story, and analysis of everything that Samus encounters throughout the duration of her mission.
Simply put, long-time Metroid fans can expect a level of polish that was seen in the GBA remake of Metroid, Metroid: Zero Mission. In fact, the game is so refined that it might leave fans wondering if it wasn't actually Nintendo itself that was behind this project.
Either way, this title is sure to please fans who have been waiting to see the Metroid series get the treatment it deserves. For Nintendo's part, all it did was have a small celebration for the series at it's Kyoto HQ, which is likely indicative of the amount of attention it has given the franchise for the past several years. Metroid's most recent entry was in 2010, with the release of Metroid: Other M. Now, the only notable developments to speak of is when Metroid Prime: Blast Ball was made free on the Nintendo 3DS in July, and the upcoming release of the controversial Metroid Prime: Federation Force.
In the meantime, it remains to be seen if Nintendo will send a cease-and-desist letter to shut the project down. The company is known to be a bit more lenient as far as fan projects are concerned at least. So, in the case it does, go ahead and pick it up while you have the chance.
