Metroid II: The Return Of Samus was released in 1991 for the Game Boy. Project AM2R, some six years in the making, takes that Game Boy game and makes it look, sound and play so much prettier. The fan project got its first full release today, to coincide with the series’ 30th.
UPDATE: Womp.
UPDATE 2: There are now suspicions that the DMCA notice sent to the team might be a fake/hoax.
UPDATE 3: Nintendo has confirmed to Kotaku that the DMCA notice came from them.
Nintendo’s broad library of characters, products, and brands are enjoyed by people around the world, and we appreciate the passion of our fans. But just as Nintendo respects the intellectual property rights of others, we must also protect our own characters, trademarks and other content. The unapproved use of Nintendo’s intellectual property can weaken our ability to protect and preserve it, or to possibly use it for new projects.
Original story continues below.
It’s not the Metroid II players of the original will remember. Project AMR2 has taken the fast-paced gameplay of Metroid: Zero Mission for the Game Boy Advance, mixed it with the atmosphere of Super Metroid and incorporated a bunch of helpful new features.
- Metroid Zero Mission style gameplay
- Map system
- Updated enemy AI
- Minibosses
- New areas
- Challenging Metroid fights
- Stackable beam system
- Completely redrawn enemy and Metroid sprites
- Log system with non-intrusive narrative
- High quality soundtrack
That last bullet point isn’t kidding. I’ve had the game’s opening screen running for 20 minutes now, and I’m still digging the music.
Here’s YouTuber Gustavo Moreno giving the release a little play.
Head over to the Project AMR2 webpage now to grab a copy of the PC version. A Linux version is coming soon.