akesterson

Save yourself a lot of time and contact Nintendo legal now before you get too far down the road with this. A project being free has never stopped them from issuing a C&D before.

Here is all the contact info you need to get started:

https://www.nintendo.com/corp/ippolicy.jsp

(Disclaimer: I work for NOA, but not in legal, I can't help you with this, my opinions are my own and do not represent my employer, etc)

Well I know what I'm having for dinner

It puts you in contact with legal counsel early, so that if they are going to have a problem, you know before you dump thousands of hours of effort into it. And if they develop a problem later on, it builds goodwill early and may help soften any negative reaction they develop later.

But hey, it's your creative skin not mine. Good luck!