Game Freak may be most famous for the Pokémon series, but the company's history goes back a little further than that. Back when the firm was still learning the ropes, it released the platform title Jerry Boy on the Super Famicom. A cute and cuddly romp through a colourful fantasy world, the title was unique in that the main character was a ball of slime which could stick to walls and carry objects within itself.
The story goes that an evil wizard - encouraged by your dastarardly love rival - has you turned into said ball of slime to keep you away from your beloved.
The game was localised in North America by Sony Imagesoft as Smart Ball, but in the process the storyline was almost entirely removed and the Western version is therefore seen as a bit of a write-off.
If you'd like to know more about this interesting game, occasional Nintendo Life contributor and long-time friend of the site Tyler Esposito has a wonderful little feature on his iretrogamer.com channel - you can check it out below.
Comments 21
I love platformer games.
I hope this will come to the Virtual Console one day.
The Western version might be missing the plot, but it also fixed the controls so throwing your item/balls wasn't mapped to the same button as running. Given the choice between plot that's ultimately filler and better gameplay, I'll take the "write-off" version, thanks. I feel that the towns didn't really add much to the game.
Wait, shouldn't the title say trip down memory lane?
@PLATINUM7 Probably a typo.
@NightmareEater @PLATINUM7 It's a pun you guys!
Well all of this is totally new to me, which is refreshing
Edit: Ok; I just gave both Jerry Boy and Jerry Boy 2 a wee go and given how solid and fun Jerry Boy 2 is in its unfinished state, it's actually frustrating to see that something like this just got dropped, when it was clearly really polished and probably could have been released with very little additional work. I don't see how that's even close to a good business decision. They should actually release it now as a cool retro bonus VC title or something.
Really cool game and sequel. Quite enjoyed watching Arino playing it in a episode of Game Center CX.
Wait, did I really read Sony Imagesoft?
@TheWPCTraveler
Yes, this was before Sony entered the gaming industry as a competitor, Sony Imagesoft published a few Nintendo games back on the NES and SNES.
I've played Jerry Boy 2 and it's a good game as well. Ken Sugimori's illustration style is much more apparent in the game's spritework as well.
It's a shame that it was unfinished, it seemed like a finished game.
Oh, no. We missed a platformer story back when story never mattered. How ever will I fondly remember playing this game, now?
Seriously, though, "misfortune" sounds like a bit much, but I am interested to learn about the story in question. And cool that it was one of Game Freak's. I didn't previously know that.
@PLATINUM7 @Ogbert Drip as in he's a slime ball!
This kind of reminds me of Claymates on the SNES, where the main character gets turned into a rolling ball of shapeshifting clay who has to save his scientist grandfather... A lot of games at the time seem to have this general story theme.
...Also, the correct name for the game is Jelly Boy. "Jerry" is a mistranslation of the katakana characters which sounds like "jya-rii" because they have no L in their language. If a katakana-spelled name is rolling R's like this, when in doubt, it's probably an L. Except in some cases like mistranslating "Malboro" (ma-ru-bo-ro) as "Morbol" in Final Fantasy Tactics... When in doubt, ask someone who's Japanese.
I absolutely loved Smartball! I had no idea it was made by Game Freak!
@ALinkttPresent Ditto here. We got the game used a long time ago, ex-rental, and I always kind of liked it, even though it's really weird. The Japanese to English translation by Chris Covell is a lot cooler, and makes a whole lot more sense.
@PlywoodStick "Jerry" also makes sense though, since that's his name. Kind of a double entendre, in an Engrish way.
I had Smart Ball. I thought it was a fun game but I had no idea it was made by Game Freak! I bet this article will send a lot of people hunting for a copy of Smart Ball / Jerry Boy! Also I had no idea they removed any content between the different regions.
One of my favourite snes games, I loved this game!
That looks super fun. Had no idea this existed!
Remember those 'import' VC titles we used to get on the Wii? Seems like an ideal candidate for that to me.
@PlywoodStick The FF enemy's name was likely intentionally changed to avoid trademark issues with the cigarette company it was obviously referencing.
I've wondered if the second game was canceled because it was so close to the PS1 launch (it was scheduled for September 1994, PS launched in December). It was close enough that at some point an ad was produced that I think even gave a price as well as Nintendo serial ID code. The only thing that stands out as incomplete is that the music seems to be broken in the full ending.
@TheWPCTraveler Yes, Sony was once a third-party publisher. Outside of a couple games like this and SNES puzzle-action-RPG Equinox, most of what they released was mediocre-to-bad and possibly why Sega was interested in supporting the PS.
A couple Sony Famicom that are almost hilariously bad: Paris-Dakar Rally Special, a game that just can't decide what it wants to be. I think it might include a couple top-down racing levels (like you'd expect) but also at least one shmup and a sidescroller, and the opening level is a text adventure.
And Captain Ed is a shooter, I think. But I couldn't get very far because it's probably the only shooter where you have to worry about the ship running out of fuel. I swear I clicked every option in the menu but I can't buy from the space gas station.
But in the 16-bit era, they were your typical license-game maker except of course their games were Sony movie games. Though 16-bit Hook was supposedly decent, unlike the NES version AVGN reviewed.
Removed - inappropriate
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