Metroid Prime 2D fan game has playable demo – play it now before it’s gone

After 15+ years of development, a fan-made 2D version of Metroid Prime has its first public demo, but don’t tell Nintendo.

There has been barely any news regarding Metroid Prime 4 since Nintendo confirmed it had restarted development. But for fans of bounty hunter Samus Aran the next best thing may be a fan project that aims to convert the original Metroid Prime into a 2D adventure.

The project has been in development since 2004 and, after all this time, Team SCU has released a public demo for anyone who is interested to try it out, nearly 20 years after Metroid Prime released for the GameCube.

‘We have a long history, starting way back in April of 2004,’ reads an announcement post, ‘We joined Samus.co.uk when it was created, followed when it moved, left when it died, cycled through five different main programmers, and have had hundreds of volunteers making thousands of resources. But that is the past, and we are the now.

‘Prime 2D has always been focused as a fan project for the joy of creating and learning – this has been exemplified by many prior contributors using skills learned from this project as a way to break into the games industry.

‘Instead of copying the source material exactly, we are instead focused on taking the core concepts, translating those, and then implementing them in a logical 2D solution. By doing this we allow ourselves to focus on building a good game first and foremost, and then using that as a base on which to create a familiar experience, rather than constraining ourselves to trying to implement 3D ideas in 2D space.’

Judging by the feedback given so far, those who have already played it love it, so we recommend downloading it ASAP if you have any intention of trying it out yourself.

Nintendo is infamous for cracking down hard on fan-made games that use its franchises, despite them being free and not making any sort of profit. The last time fans made their own Metroid game (a remake of Metroid 2), Nintendo threatened them with legal action, forcing its development to end.

Team SCU is no doubt aware of this, but it hasn’t explained how it intends to prevent the project from being cancelled. And given how it’s gaining notoriety, it’s only a matter of time until Nintendo itself finds out about it.

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