Game Boy (+ Color)

Game Boy (+ Color), Nintendo

Jet Force Gemini [GBC – Cancelled]

monokoma
28-02-2010
4 Comments

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.

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Game Boy (+ Color), Nintendo

Moon (Renegade Kid) [GBC – Cancelled]

monokoma
30-01-2010
No Comments

Moon is a FPS developed by Renegade Kid and released in 2009 for the Nintendo DS, but originally the project was born as a 2D side-scrolling action adventure for the GameBoy Color. Moon GBC was revealed by Jools Watsham, game director at Renegade Kid, in a video from his Youtube Channel.

The GameBoy Color version of Moon was never released, but the scenario and the characters were later reused to create the DS version. Moon looked like an interesting adventure, similar to Metroid II, and it’s sad that it did not had its chance on the GameBoy Color.

Props to Jools Watsham for sharing these screens from the prototype!

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

Images:

Videos (he talks about Moon GBC @ 3:30):

For comparison, here’s the DS version:

 

Game Boy (+ Color), Nintendo

Zelda: Oracle of Seasons [GBC – Beta]

monokoma
12-12-2009
2 Comments

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons was published by Nintendo and developed by Capcom’s Flagship Studio for the Gameboy Color. In the early screenshots released for the game we can notice many beta differences. In the gallery below you can see some of these beta screens:

  • The waggon that we see in the opening place (when Din is dancing near the fire) was once set near the first dungeon too. In the final game it’s never in there.
  • The sprites for the trees and flowers were different in the beta version
  • There are some circle green things near a signboard in one of the beta screens, that does not exist in the final game.
  • The entrance of the first dungeon was different and it did not had a keyhole.
  • Impa’s house was in a slightly different place.
  • There are also many areas in these beta screens that does not look like any other areas in the final game. It’s possible that in this early build they created a small playable demo in a placeholder world, just to shown how the Seasons System worked.

As the game have a complex password system that change some of the content, some of these differences could still be in the final version. If you have more info, please let us know!

Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons were originally going to be themed parts of the Triforce Trilogy along with Mystical Seed of Courage. Each of the three games originally had a piece of the Triforce and one of its qualities (Wisdom, Power or Courage) assigned to them. This idea was scrapped relatively late in the development process, and the games were re-branded to remove all mention of this Triforce theme.[Info from Zelda Wikia]

Thanks to the X-Cult Community for the contribution!

You can find more info about Zelda: Oracle of Seasons in the Zelda Wiki!

Images:

Videos:

 

Game Boy (+ Color), Nintendo

Gimmick Land [GBC – Unreleased]

monokoma
24-10-2009
3 Comments

After AlphaDream (the team behind the Mario & Luigi RPGs) developed and released their very first video game title, Koto Battle: Tengai no Moribito for the Nintendo Game Boy Color only in Japan, Nintendo wanted AlphaDream’s permission to develop an entirely new RPG with them, titled Gimmick Land. It was finished and almost ready to be released for the Game Boy Color in Japan, until Nintendo released the Game Boy Advance to make the Game Boy Color obsolete. After noticing that, AlphaDream decided to redevelop and rename Gimmick Land as Tomato Adventure for the Game Boy Advance. Only two screenshots of Gimmick Land were released to the public by the developers. [Info from Wikipedia]

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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Game Boy (+ Color), Nintendo

Sydney 2000 [GBC – Unreleased]

U64 Staff & Contributors
08-10-2009
No Comments

In early 2000, Eidos announced to release a game for the Olympic Games 2000 for Game Boy Color. Developer of the title, David A. Productions, even declared that “no detail was spared to produce the most realistic sports game ever on Nintendo’s Game Boy Color”.

Activities included were 100m Sprint, Hurdles, Hammer, Javelin, Triple Jump, High Jump, 100m Freestyle Swimming, Olympic Sprint Cycling, Skeet Shooting, Super Heavyweight Weight Lifting, 10m Platform Diving and Kayak K1 Slalom.

Despite being completed and approved, Sydney 2000 was never released on Game Boy Color.

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