Well, MFGG has had hundreds of fangames with official Mario-style gameplay for 16 years and survived even being featured on TV once.
Unless a game attracts serious media attention, I don't think a game that emulates the official gameplay is going to be a problem. However, if you're worried about that sort of thing definitely feel free to avoid emulating official gameplay.
You also have to remember that Nintendo is very protective of its characters. If you make something so out there that it misrepresents their vision for their character and the media circulates it, they might come after you with their character copyrights.
Truth is, there's no real safe zone when dealing in the realm of fan art or fan games. If Nintendo gets a wild hair and decides to pursue people for violating their copyright, it's their right to do so. It wouldn't be very cool of them to do so and might damage public opinion on them, though. Luckily, I don't think that's gonna happen unless your fangame goes viral and puts pressure on Nintendo.
Short of the matter is, make your fangames and have fun. Stop running around like a chicken with its head cut off just because Nintendo took down some extreme examples of fangames. We're still around after 16 years for a reason and it's not because Nintendo hasn't heard of us.
Unless a game attracts serious media attention, I don't think a game that emulates the official gameplay is going to be a problem. However, if you're worried about that sort of thing definitely feel free to avoid emulating official gameplay.
You also have to remember that Nintendo is very protective of its characters. If you make something so out there that it misrepresents their vision for their character and the media circulates it, they might come after you with their character copyrights.
Truth is, there's no real safe zone when dealing in the realm of fan art or fan games. If Nintendo gets a wild hair and decides to pursue people for violating their copyright, it's their right to do so. It wouldn't be very cool of them to do so and might damage public opinion on them, though. Luckily, I don't think that's gonna happen unless your fangame goes viral and puts pressure on Nintendo.
Short of the matter is, make your fangames and have fun. Stop running around like a chicken with its head cut off just because Nintendo took down some extreme examples of fangames. We're still around after 16 years for a reason and it's not because Nintendo hasn't heard of us.
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