It's just a matter of time before Nintendo starts tracking down another promising fan project and shutting them down. This was the case for creator Adam Vierra's eight-year project "Pokemon Prism," which was recently shut down by Nintendo's legal team.
The fan-made project "Pokemon Prism" was first revealed in October during Vierra's release of the game's trailer and playthrough through the "Twitch Plays Pokemon" stream. While the previous fan-made project, "Pokemon Uranium," was entirely independent game, "Prism" was meant to be a ROM hack.
Nonetheless, the next "Pokemon" project was shut down like "Uranium," based on messages based Vierra's Twitter and Facebook posts. As seen in the fan game's website, the site was somewhat reduced to a simple message that tells of what game's cancellation and a link to a PDF file of Nintendo's lawyers' request to takedown "Pokemon Prism." While Vierra currently resides in the United States, it's worth noting that the legal notice originated from the Australian government, which deemed the validity questionable. Vierra, however, clarified that this is due to the fact that the website's host is located in Australia.
While Vierra may have been grateful to the fans for their support, he also tweeted his apology following his acknowledgement of his fault in the situation.
"I'm also responsible for this situation," he said in his post. "Trailer shouldn't have been made & I shouldn't have been such a perfectionist and finish it sooner."
"Pokemon Prism" is said to feature a new story, new region, and a roster of over 200 Pokemon, to name a few. Players can even access trainer customization and the ability to play as one of the Pokemon. The story revolves around the child of the Elite 4's Lance, who ends up in a region called Naljo after playing in their uncle's mine cart. The region will include Pokemon from the previous game "Pokemon Brown," a ROM hack of "Pokemon Red." There are also new Pokemon types: Gas, Wood, Wind, Abnormal, and Sound.
Perhaps it's also a little bit comforting that Vierra will still try to "research" more into this situation, giving the project a small chance of survival especially that he and his team has reportedly worked on it for eight years. But knowing how strict and vigilant Nintendo is when it comes to their franchise, it's a big possibility that "Pokemon Prism" will never see the light of day like the previous fan-made Nintendo game projects.
Here's the trailer of the game:
