Nintendo Fan Games Removed from Game Awards Running

Last week, we discussed that the Game Awards, perhaps the most prestigious/well-known award show for video games, would remedy a problem from last year's show when the acclaimed creator of Metal Gear Solid 5, Hideo Kojima was absent and unable to receive his well-earned award thanks to Konami's spiteful meddling.  But we also learned that they had publicly announced the finalists in the category of "best game of the year," which was an unsurprising list of grade-A games released through the year. However, there are more categories than just "best game": one such category, "Best Fan Game," also had its finalists announced... however, while most categories have at least four or five games to choose from, the best Fan Game category is surprisingly sparse this year, with only two options to choose from - Brutal Doom 64 and Enderal: The Shards of Order.

But here's the funny part...

Originally, when the full list of finalists was first announced, there were two other games being considered in this category - Pokemon Uranium and AM2R.  A Pokemon fan-game and a Metroid 2 remake, respectively, which you may recognize as Nintendo games. Nintendo, who has historically been very unfriendly to the idea of fan games and remakes. Those two games have been removed over the weekend and are no longer in the running.

It seems as if Nintendo has flexed its muscles to further oppress its fanbase and ensure two games (that they've already shut down) aren't even acknowledged anymore. Which, honestly, I find really gross. It's one thing for Nintendo to stop fan-games and remakes, fine, but to oppress the awards show that merely sought to acknowledge their high quality? That's a low blow, Nintendo.

Low blow indeed.