Fan-made Mario 64 remake disappears following Nintendo copyright complaint

Nintendo has issued a takedown request for the browser-based Super Mario 64 remake that delighted the internet last week. If you attempt to play the game, created by student Erik Roystan Ross as an experiment with the Unity game engine, you’ll instead see a series of emails, including a copyright complaint from Nintendo of America.

“The web site at http://mario64-erik.u85.net/Web.html displays, and allows users to play, an electronic game that makes unauthorized use of copyright-protected features of Nintendo’s Super Mario 64 video game,” explains an attorney on Nintendo’s behalf, according to an email posted on the site. The remake includes only the first level of the game, and was available to play free of charge.

While it’s disappointing, the move is in no way surprising. When the project was first released to the public, Ross even admitted to using Nintendo assets in addition to ones he created himself. “Most of the art assets that were not constructed by me are from Mario Galaxy, but I did all the animations for them,” he explained. “Sound assets likewise were primarily ripped from different Mario games, or acquired from freesound.org, a very useful online sound library.”

Polygon Video: Playing through the fan-made Mario 64 remake