A GameBoy Color version of Jet Force Gemini was in development by Bit Studios (for Rare) in 2000, but it was cancelled in the end. The original JFG is a third-person shooter / action adventure published for the Nintendo 64 in October 1999, but the GBC version was never officially announced.
We were able to know about this cancelled project only thanks to Dano2k0 from the Assembler Forum, that found a playable prototype and shared some screens with the community. Rare released 2 other GameBoy Color games based on their Nintendo 64 titles, Perfect Dark and Conker’s Pocket Tales, that were received with low interest by gamers: we could speculate that their third GameBoy Color “N64 port” was canned for this reason or for quality issues.
Jet Force Gemini GBC was going to have an isometric 2D view, while the gameplay was probably going to be “similar” to the N64 version, with lots of shooting and insects to kill.
As we can read in an interview with Martin Wakeley:
JFG on the Gameboy was the only occasion I can remember Rare outsourcing anything. It was being done by Bits Studios and was nearly done last time I saw it, I’m not sure what happened to it.
Images:
What do you think about this unseen game? Give your vote!
Would you like to add more info, screens or videos to this page? Add a comment below!
- Dragonkind [XBOX/PS2 – Cancelled] - 02-12-2023
- Damnation: Hell Breaks Loose [PC – Prototype] - 07-10-2023
- Marvel 2099 : One Nation Under Doom [PC, PSX – Cancelled] - 03-06-2023
These types of finds always leave me a little skeptical.
For instance, why is he using a IS-CGB-EMULATOR? Why is he so reluctant to post pics of the cart? And why can’t he make a simple crappy video of it in action?
Granted, this has a bit more “umpf” since there is a supposed resume of someone who was working on a JFG GBC game, but I’m still on the fence. Personally, I think he just made a simple slideshow ROM and slapped some home made images on it.
There are more info about this in the topic on Assembler, the collector will make a video as soon as he’ll have enough time :)
It appears as if this was in development at “Bitz Software”:
http://www.infinitelives.tv/team/nick_cv.doc
I’ve never heard of them, I rather believe that the guy meant Bits Studios.
mmmh.. maybe we could try to contact him and ask?