Yesterday marked the 35th anniversary of the original Metroid launch in Japan. This wasn’t the only Metroid anniversary, either. The fan-made overhaul of Metroid II: Return of Samus – better known as Project AM2R (Another Metroid 2 Remake) turned five years old.
To celebrate, the developer Milton “DoctorM64” Guasti – who now works at Moon Studios on games like Ori and the Will of the Wisps has released a small web browser game ‘Skippy the Robot’ – one of the many “untold stories” within the AM2R universe.
If you’re wondering what the connection to Metroid is here – this was essentially a mini-game in AM2R that’s now been turned into its own title. In the original version, Samus took remote control of the robot.
Here’s a bit from the developer about it:
“Skippy the Bot is a physics platformer, set in a dangerous abandoned factory. Learn how to hop like a real robot, escape the deadly factory and discover your true destiny. Made for the 5th anniversary of AM2R being released, and Metroid’s 35th.”
“Skippy was built in a couple weeks for this anniversary, using a framework I’m developing for another, bigger project. Hopefully, if everything goes well, I might be ready to share more details about it in the not so distant future. It’s going to be pretty unique.”
“If you like Skippy, let me know and I’ll do my best to add more content.”
Guasti has also summed up the past five years since AM2R was released. It’s been one heck of a ride:
“AM2R is 5 years old as of right now. Seeing people recommend AM2R as a way to experience Metroid 2 in anticipation for Dread is really humbling. I’m very grateful for all of this.”
“The legal situation hasn’t changed, I’m not developing, updating or distributing the game. Nevertheless, the community has managed to add new content via patches, mods have been developed, and the speedrun community is still very active. The game is still alive and relevant.”
“What happened during these last 5 years?
Well…”
- AM2R received a DMCA takedown notice, development and distribution ceased
- AM2R was nominated for Fan Game of the Year at the Game Awards, for a couple hours
- AM2R was featured at Pixel Museum in France
- Awesome youtubers that I admire played the game
- People created lots of AM2R fanart
- Several Metroid themed marathons featured AM2R
- Very talented fans reverse engineered the game, and have added insane features like widescreen and multiplayer
- I got a job at Moon Studios as a Game Designer
How have you been celebrating Metroid’s 35th? Tell us down below.
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