Just with any other very popular game, "No Man's Sky" has given birth to a fan made rip-off that puts Nintendo frontrunner Mario as the protagonist. While this game looks entertaining, copyright owners Nintendo are not very happy as they lawyer their way to shutting down the game's release.
IGN reports that the fan made rip off "No Mario's Sky" was designed in only 72 hours by a team of only four people. The game placed a player in a randomly chosen World 1-1, and lets a player take off in a spaceship in search for other worlds. "No Mario's Sky is no more-io! Due to a copyright claim by Nintendo, we've had to take the game down" says indie game developer ASMB Games. They also add that they are thankful for everyone who played and enjoyed their short lived game and hopes that an official version will be released by Nintendo.
While their short lived Mario sci-fi game is gone, it has been replaced by another game which the developer calls "DMCA's Sky," reports Gamespot. While the game has the same mechanics, a character called Spaceman Finn took Mario's place and is on a search for Princess Mango instead of Princess Peach. The studio says that "featuring Moombas, an infinite universe, muscle, amazing physics and a radical spaceship. DMCA's Sky is the hackneyed remake-gone-mashup you've been craving for."
The removal of "No Mario's Sky" does not actually come much as a surprise for any indie company that violates copyrights of a giant such as Nintendo. In fact, "No Mario's Sky" is not the first game that met this fate as two fan made games "Pokemon Uranium" and "Metroid 2 Remake" have also been taken down. There had also been a previous fan project to remake "Super Mario 64 HD" in which Nintendo got in the way to have it shut down.
The creator of "Pokemon Uranium says that he was not lawyered, but took down the game out of copyright courtesy. The creator of the Metroid 2 remake, however, met a more similar fate to "No Mario's Sky" as it was issued a warning by Nintendo itself.