A fan-made "Pokemon" FPS game is now being reportedly "hunted down" by Nintendo via copyright strikes on its gameplay videos.
According to Kotaku, the game reimagines a "Pokemon" title where players are set to hunt (or defend against) as many creatures as they like. Try to imagine the game "Pokemon Snap," but instead of holding a camera, you're holding a shotgun and basically shooting Pikachu in the face-complete with blood.
The game seems to be a non-profit side project by Reddit user Dragon_GameDev, who by all means looks like a very capable game developer judging by his gameplay videos.
Posting one of his videos of the fan-made "Pokemon" FPS game on Reddit, Dragon_GameDev mentioned that this is part of his project to "make a game a month." The video has now garnered almost 3,000 upvotes at the time of this writing:
As you can see in the gameplay video there, players get equipped with a variety of assault rifles, pistols, and shotguns to deal with the Pokemon that attack them while they're out in the world.
There also seems like a handful of boss fights, where the player is pitted against Mewtwo, Articuno, and even Zapdos; all complete with menacing music playing in the background.
However, Nintendo did not seem to like his videos, as evidenced by this Tweet of his where a video has been struck down on copyright grounds:
The Pokemon Company International, a subsidiary of Nintendo, was pinpointed as the one to have instigated the copyright strikes, as per NintendoLife. As such, looking for gameplay videos of Dragon_GameDev's project could be quite difficult.
Tech Times recently reported on the fan-made "Pokemon" game's existence, though it was only now that the so-called "legal ninjas" tried to put an end to it.
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Nintendo's Crackdown On The Fan-Made 'Pokemon' FPS Game Is Very On-Brand
Nintendo as a company has gained a reputation for being intensely protective of its IPs. Much of their efforts involve combating piracy of their biggest franchises ("Pokemon" included), but tracking and taking down fan-made games is also quite on-brand for the gaming giant.
The company has shut down so many fan games over the years. And it's not just fan-made "Pokemon" games that they've targeted, but also remakes of their other big-name franchises like "Mario," "Metroid," and "Legend of Zelda."
Among these so-called "infamous" fan-game shutdowns was that of the hosting website GameJolt back in January 2021. Nintendo sent out a mass DMCA strike on all of the website's content, largely because the site allows people to monetize the content they put there. And once it gets monetized, it becomes illegal unless it is officially licensed.
A total of 379 fan-made games got dropped as a result of the strike, which CBR states rippled throughout the gaming community. It basically meant that Nintendo is not playing around when it comes to dealing with their IPs.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by RJ Pierce
