When Nintendo say NO!

Nintendo are well known for protecting their copyrights. So it was no surprise that after a fan made game merging Mario Bros and the current No Mans Sky became public, it would receive its very own takedown notice.

Since Nintendo have reigned, they have been hardcore on protecting every inch of there intellectual property, its gotten so extreme that you cant even upload a video on the internet without handing all rights over to them. So its to be expected that when you venture into a fan made project using Nintendos most recognisable character, Mario, your going to get into trouble. And thats exactly what happened to ASMB Games.

In August 2016 the popular games development contest named Ludum Dare held its 36th competition. Entrants get a 4 day deadline to make a game from scratch using a short set of guidelines. ASMB Games were all set for the challenge, and decided to come up with a neat idea that merges 2 popular games together, No Mans Sky and Super Mario!
Playing as a 2.5d platformer you control Mario (Jumpman) who has the ability to summon a spaceship and set off in space to a said 'unlimited amount of worlds'. Landing on each world will place you in a randomly generated level with an all too familiar 8bit styled Mario appearance. Along the way youl notice several recognisable Super Mario characters, and if the game contained a lengthy set of text based storyline then it could of easily been passed off as an actual Nintendo product. And tbh, that might of been its main issue!
When the game was submitted to Ludum Dare it instantly drew attention. All submissions to the competition become available to download and play in order to generate votes, and even though there were over 1900 submissions in august, it didn't take long before the game became a talked about subject. Not only was No Mario's Sky a well executed idea, it was actually a fun game to play. Many references to the game have been to suggest its more playable than the recently released No Mans Sky (which is currently under investigation for claims of misleading the consumer).

So what went wrong? ...well, as the game grew more popular it quickly found its way onto Youtube, where the word spread even faster. And it didn't take long before ASMB head office received a DMCA notice from the Nintendo legal team requesting the game be taken offline immediately. A copy of the notice can be viewed at the Itch website (links below), and explains how the game infringes on many copyrights owned by Nintendo. The evidence is undeniable, and even though the game was a homage and not an attempt to gain profit, No Mario's Sky was just too interesting to be ignored.

So what happened next? ...well, in usual cases a development team would simply admit defeat and ignore the existence of the idea. But ASMB Games realised the game had potential, and so they quickly changed the name to DMCA'S Sky, and edited the graphics to rid the game of any copyright theft. You now control a character named Spaceman, who is on a mission to save Princess Mango.
Looking at the game now youl see no reference to its original design, and it seems to be out of reach of Nintendos lawyers. It still plays the same as before, but a little bit of spark has gone due to the absence of Mario. I personally don't like the frame rate of the game, I'm not sure if it was designed that way, but there seems to be a trail left that becomes troublesome when judging distances. Though putting that aside, If ASMB can build upon the new main character and give him some identity we can relate to, then i can still see the game being a success. It needs a storyline, some objectives, and some boss battles. And if it stays clear of any further infringements, then its a game we can probably expect to see on Steam, possibly even home consoles via DLC.

Images copyright of ASMB Games.