A collection of games for classic Nintendo systems have been released over the past few weeks. We’ve rounded up the most significant so far this month.
Sega Bass Fishing gets unofficial NES port
OK, so this one is a little bit complicated. Back in the 1990s and 2000s, unofficial demakes of well-known games were produced by Taiwanese developers Hummer Team. A demake of Sega Bass Fishing, King Fishing, was among these titles, and ended up being released on a plug-and-play fishing rod designed to run NES/Famicom software (a “famiclone”).
Thought lost for years, earlier this month a member of the NesDev forums dumped the game online.
Forgotten GBA Port Of Argonaut’s I-Ninja
Originally released in the early 2000s through Namco, Argonaut Games’ I-Ninja was released on the PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, and Windows. While a Game Boy Advance version was planned, it remained unreleased for two decades.
You can now find a copy of I-Ninja thanks to the Hard4Games YouTube channel of preservationists.
I-Ninja for Game Boy Advance, complete with Don Bluth animated cutscenes, can be grabbed from Archive.org.
Rugrats: Adventures In Gameland gets NES cartridge release
The previously-reported Rugrats game is now out on the Nintendo Entertainment System. You can order this 8-bit styled adventure game from Limited Run Games until April 21st.
As expected from the retailer, the physical edition so this game come with various enhancements, such as VHS box editions for Switch, Xbox Series, PS4, and PS5. The NES release, meanwhile, has two options: the basic cartridge, and the collector’s edition.
Metroid NES getting Game Boy port
Fancy playing the original Metroid game on your Game Boy? Taking advantage of a ROM hack of Metroid II: Return of Samus (the 1991 Game Boy only sequel), YouTuber and game developer LOO-E is doing some heavy lifting to restyle the existing game into the original game.
Take a look at this:
Nintendo has already re-released Metroid 1 on its portable devices over the years (Metroid: Zero Mission on the Game Boy Advance) and has not taken kindly to homebrew developers making their own versions (Another Metroid 2 Remake or AM2R was subject to a DMCA in 2016) so it remains to be seen if this sees the light of day beyond LOO-E’s own hardware…
Star Wars spoof for Game Boy Advance, The Mandarin 2
Another Star Wars-themed fan game, The Mandarin 2 is the sequel to the Mandalorian-based platformer The Mandarin, previously released for Amstrad CPC systems.
The Mandarin 2 has been issued for MSX and Game Boy Advance systems and emulators, and combines various play modes (space shmup, platformer, etc.) in which the Mandarin must find plans and destroy a space station.
Cancelled SNES platformer Mr Tuff on Antstream Arcade
The “Netflix of retro gaming,” Antstream Arcade, has welcomed a cancelled Super Nintendo title to its library.
Developed for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1994, Mr Tuff was sadly cancelled before release. Now, its original team of Ned Langman and Darren Melbourne are part of Antstream Arcade, and have the opportunity to bring the game back.
Mr Tuff is a demolition robot, and this game is set in “the distant future of 2008,” with Earth abandoned by humanity and the planet controlled by military androids who have enslaved the domestic robots. Mr Tuff is rebelling against the ruling robots, and seeks to free domestic robots.
Antstream Arcade remains the world’s largest official library of retro games to stream, with more than 1300 titles, and you can access it on the Xbox Store for £29.99 ($29.99) per year.
Physical release of Brookwood Pocket Tactics on GBC
Brookwood Pocket Tactics, a title developed for the 2021 GB Studio Game Jam, is getting a physical release. Developed by Werebear Games and published through indie outlet Bitmap Soft, the game puts you in charge of troops amidst a medieval animal battle.
Drawing inspiration from Redwall, WarCraft, and the tactics genre, the game is for the Game Boy Color and is available to pre-order now.
Sources
These stories were brought to you thanks to articles from IndieRetroNews, Time Extension, RetroDodo, PCGamesN.
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Christian Cawley is a writer and editor who covers consumer electronics, IT, and entertainment media. He has written for publications such as Computer Weekly, Linux Format, MakeUseOf.com, and Tech Radar.
He also produces podcasts, has a cigar box guitar, and of course, loves retro gaming.