The Game Boy may be over 30 years old, but it's still one of the most beloved retro systems. Despite its age, there has been a steady increase in independent releases, thanks in part to GB Studio – a drop-and-drag tool for creating games and an influx of new retro handhelds. But 2023 has been a particularly good year for the console. An upcoming Game Boy Color title, dragonymlooks set to raise the bar for the current wave of titles and round out a stellar year for fans of Nintendo's iconic handheld.
We can thank the pandemic for Dragonym. Chris Beach was working in real estate when COVID shutdowns limited his day job. He used the time to realize a long-held desire to create an RPG for the Game Boy. The result was transmitted by the dragonwhich Beach was released under their new publishing imprint Spacebot Interactive. The company would be in charge of the first batch of Mortal and start production of Dragonborne DX for Game Boy Color. But thanks to some new features in the latest version of GB Studio, the project soon took on a life of its own.
“It started out as a color version of the original. transmitted by the dragon. I thought it would be a quick job, color it and repost it. But with all the new features in GB Studio, we went down a rabbit hole and ended up reviewing pretty much the entire game,” Beach told Engadget. The result is dragonym, a larger RPG with new graphics, reimagined sound, improved mechanics, and more levels to explore. “We have plans for five (games) right now, and they will be released on multiple consoles, not just the Game Boy.”
In the time-honored tradition of retro role-playing games, dragonym It starts in the house of our hero Kris. His mother wakes him up with the worrying news that his father Kurtis, the best dragon hunter in the kingdom, has disappeared. Worse yet, there are rumors that the dungeon monsters have begun to move. How long will it be before they awaken and wreak havoc on our hero's once peaceful lands? No prizes for guessing whose mission it is to find and save Kurtis and, in turn, the entire kingdom.
The opening moments of the game largely overlap with transmitted by the dragon, but it isn't long before the two begin to diverge. In the original version, from the beginning there is a simple puzzle to acquire an item. In dragonymthe same task is much more dynamic and with more interesting mechanics.
Playing on an Analogue Pocket, with its stunning Game Boy Color screen mode, dragonym could easily pass for an official title of yesteryear. The graphics capture the spirit of RPGs of the time and the dialogue and challenges feel authentic. The game also looks satisfyingly large. Developing for older systems is difficult and projects are often a single person's labor of love, which can result in shorter games or shallow gameplay.
With Spacebot Interactive, Beach wants to keep the bar high and release games that would have been worth saving an allowance for, and that means longer play times with more sophisticated stories and mechanics. “Believe Link's Awakening It was approximately 15 hours in a standard game. AND (dragonym) will probably be on par with that, maybe a little bit more,” Beach said. There will also be a secondary mechanic that will expand the replay potential once the main story has been completed.
If you go by my first playthroughs, the game offers the right amount of guidance and nudges at the beginning, but it also doesn't take long before you find yourself fighting your first real mission. As with most RPGs worth their salt, you'll need to hit the ground running as soon as you can to level up and become strong enough to take on bigger, badder enemies and unlock new areas of the game. However, at least during these early stages, you will be doing this alone and not as a group.
dragonym isn't the only major retro game in 2023. Earlier this year, Mega Cat Studios grossed almost $50,000 on Kickstarter to bring the adventure game kudzu to the life. Development is now complete and boxed versions will ship in January. kudzu is another RPG-flavored game, with a similar quest to find your missing mentor, Zoen. This time, however, it's set in a very different world, one where an angry “world-eating” plant, the eponymous Kudzu, is the main enemy.
kudzu takes the classic Game Boy role-playing game and spices it up with humor and cozy catastrophe charm. Along your journey you'll meet an interesting cast of characters, including a cat who wants a pen pal and the in-game currency is mushrooms. Kudzu also uses a wide variety of challenges to advance the story. One moment you'll need to use logic and memory to navigate lever-shifting mazes and the next you could be collecting goats. And then there's Kudzu's mysterious “jelly” – use it wisely and maybe you'll fine Zoen before it's too late.
If you prefer platform and adventure games, then much later – Announced during the summer – it could be more your speed. This game combines many classic retro themes (magic, quests, turn-based battles, and platforming), making it a crowd-pleaser. much later is published by bitmapsoft which is no stranger to the retro world with numerous Game Boy titles on its roster.
The current wave of new interest in creating games for the Game Boy is developing in parallel with another related trend: the abundance of handheld devices with retro games. These emulation devices start from about $50 and offer modern conveniences like a full-color backlit display. Not to mention plenty of storage for gaming, Wi-Fi, and a relatively long battery life. Then, of course, there's the Analogue Pocket, a high-end handheld that's basically the answer to the question “what would a Game Boy be like if it were designed and released today?”
These retro handhelds make it incredibly easy to start emulating almost any console from over 15 years ago. One could even argue that while many developers simply make games for their favorite system, once you have something like Pocket or Ayn Odin, the platform the game was made for is less important. These could easily be mobile games or modern retro titles like sky bluesomeone simply chose to make them with a certain tool that offers certain aesthetic and desirable limitations.
Of course, there's also Nintendo's eShop and Virtual Console, which provide a legitimate route to games like dragonym to play on official hardware for those who enjoy it. Beach confirmed that they intend to release the game on Switch this way next year. With more and more ways to play these games, it's a great time to be a Game Boy fan.
“I think it's a really good time, I would even call it a golden age, because there are a lot of developers now developing homebrew games for the Game Boy, and some of the quality is incredible. It's really pushing the boundaries and producing things that are on par with licensed games,” Beach said.
dragonym Its launch is planned for next year in collaboration with Incube8 Games.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dragonyhm-is-the-latest-in-a-wave-of-new-game-boy-rpgs-160039153.html?src=rss
