Nintendo takes aim at fan-made Pok¨Śmon FPS
Shot down.
Nintendo is attempting to scrub the internet of a fan-made Pokémon FPS, footage of which began to bubble up online last week.
As chatter around the bloody Pokémon fan project grew, Nintendo began to take action, issuing copyright claims to block footage on YouTube and Twitter (thanks Kotaku).
The emergence of this Pokémon FPS comes just a week ahead of Pokémon: Legends Arceus' release - timing which will likely irritate Nintendo. The potential for kids and parents to see footage of 'that new Pokémon game' doing the rounds - only for it to be Venosaur getting a bloody shotgun to the face - was never going to go down well.
Reddit user Dragon_GameDev first posted footage of the project on reddit last week, and described it as a "Pokémon Safari game with guns". Pokémon has let you go on "safari" since its origins, of course, although armed with Pokéballs rather than AK-47s.
Dragon_GameDev wrote that they had started the Pokémon FPS project to learn more about game development, and used a mix of Unreal Engine assets with some official Pokémon models.
"I'm taking a break this year from my main projects to work on a new YouTube Series where I make random projects in 30 days. This is my first one! :)" Dragon_GameDev wrote. "No code was re-used but I did use a boat-load of assets and got the Pokémon models and animations from Sun & Moon."
A video detailing the development process behind the project is one of the videos Nintendo has now taken down from YouTube.
For now, footage of the game remains on reddit:
The real Pokémon Legends: Arceus is set to arrive this Thursday, 27th January - although leaked copies are already out in the wild.