Google’s Project Genie produced playable Mario and Zelda knock‑offs

Google has started rolling out access to Project Genie, an experimental AI prototype powered by Genie 3 and Gemini, with official availability for Google AI Ultra subscribers in the United States earlier this afternoon. The Verge’s Jay Peters was granted early access and used the tool to generate playable knock-offs of Nintendo titles.

Project Genie lets users create interactive, explorable worlds from a simple text prompt. Peters was able to craft playable reproductions of Super Mario 64, a The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild clone that included a usable paraglider, and an odd amalgamation of Metroid Prime 3 and Metroid Prime 4.

Those AI-generated worlds are partially interactive — Peters could move, jump, and paraglide in the Breath of the Wild recreation — but are currently limited to minute-long, 24fps, 720p showcases. Kotaku reported that Project Genie blocked Peters from making any further Super Mario 64 reproductions during testing, citing concern for the "interests of third-party content providers." Peters also nearly generated a Kingdom Hearts-like mock-up featuring Donald Duck, Sora, Cloud and Jack Skellington before the process was cut off at the world-generation stage.

Kotaku noted the short answer to whether these recreations are legal "is that it isn’t," and said Project Genie appears aware of third-party content limits.

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