I think they'll actually be forward thinking and release them on the Wii U and/or 3DS. I'm not even kidding. I think they might "Street Fighter x Mega Man" this game, and eat the good PR.

Only, replace the word "think" with "pray."

They should.

My thoughts exactly. They're in the business of selling nostalgia. When people play Mario 64 Hd they may not buy the original on VC. Mother 4 isn't an existing thing. They would only take it down if it were + the developers can just rename it and say it's in the style of Mother 3, without using the name, worst case scenario, right?

Nah, I still enjoy their games too much, and care a lot about their franchises, to be done with them. AKA I will never be done with them, but it will always pain me to see them making such stupid decisions.

why don't the guys make a game of their own instead? making games created by others is such a stupid time waiter when they can make money on an original game with no limitations except their own

If Nintendo decides to take it down they have every right to do so

Nintendo is too fucking lazy to make a new Mother game, so taking down a fan-made game is obviously the way to go!

They don't care about Mother enough to do it.

I don't see why, Itoi said if someone else wants to make a Mother 4 go ahead, and thats what they are doing.

It's hard to say what will happen. Perhaps Nintendo looks into each of these, prior to any takedown notice. In which case, maybe they'll see what these people have done, go "this is actually pretty good, maybe we can give a final push to get it up to scratch, and then have it released officially", and rather than just taking it down, they could make it the "true" Mother 4.

Not that I expect that to happen, but I do think Nintendo would be smart to start deputising quality fan developers into their game development, specifically for franchises that Nintendo aren't willing to take big risks on (like Mother, Ice Climbers, etc).

So you think any of us should be allowed to steal any intellectual property that we want,just because...? If I open a restaurant called red lobster it will be shut down even if it's non profit. If I write a book, I can't call it a game of thrones and claim that its non profit so it's ok. 

Whether the the game is a popular current franchise or not is irrelevant. If someone breaks the law, it's the principle of it. They can't pick and choose when to apply the law just because a game wasn't popular. Sure, let's just let large developers steal  ideas from indie devs too. Or is it not ok? Picking and choosing.....picking.....and....choosing.