Boktai Cover
Image: shmuplations

The Game Boy Advance generation was a magnificent time for Nintendo in terms of first and third-party software releases. One of the quirkier and perhaps more innovative games released on the system during this period was Boktai: The Sun Is In Your Hand. It was developed and published by Konami and produced by the one and only Hideo Kojima before he was working on weirder titles like Death Stranding.

The Sun Is In Your Hand was a direct reference to the fact the game cartridge had a built-in photometric light sensor that could detect the sun's rays in real life. This unique feature was used to charge in-game solar weapons and meant the protagonist had the upper-hand against vampires during the daytime. It ended up being developed into a series, and to this day remains a one-of-a-kind concept.

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Boktai GBA Cart
Boktai's solar-sensing cartridge — Image: shmuplations

Going back to the year of this game's release, the website Shmuplations recently translated a 2003 Nintendo Dream interview featuring the game's producer. In it, Kojima reveals how he actually wanted to include a sensor to measure the player's breath, but the rest of the team "hated" the idea.

Sometime last year, I think, I approached Shigeru Miyamoto at Nintendo and gave a presentation pitch. In the beginning then, it wasn’t just a sunlight sensor—I actually had wanted to include a sensor that measured how your breath smelled too! I *really* wanted to add that! The enemies are vampires, right? So if you ate something garlic-y and breathed on the mic, they’d all die. (laughs)

Guys, we have to do this!!” But the rest of the staff all hated the idea.

—I could see it being interesting. After you eat gyoza, you get a power boost. (laughs)

Kojima has certainly had some crazy ideas over the years, but this one might have just been the strangest of the lot. As neat as the sunlight sensor is, it's probably a good thing that the sensor measuring the player's breath wasn't incorporated.

Did you ever get the chance to play the first entry in this series? Leave a comment down below.

[source shmuplations.com]