Of all the strange things to happen this last year, we didn't count on a Game Boy resurgence.
Between Twitter's Pokémon Red playthrough, horror game Deadeus and Kickstarter project The Shapeshifter, dedicated fans have kept the beloved handheld alive. Having previously published classic Star Wars games, Limited Run Games is now releasing further Game Boy titles, too.
This time, it has teamed up with Natsume to re-release two games from its retro archives: Spanky's Quest and Amazing Penguin. Pre-orders for both go live on March 5th, retailing at $34.99 each.
Spanky's Quest is nearly three decades old, first launching in 1991 before later arriving on SNES. You can find the full outline below:
Monkey business ensues as you take on the role of a playful primate in this action-packed romp through all sorts of madcap zaniness. As Spanky the Monkey, you'll find yourself climbing tower after tower each packed with new threats and enemies.
Amazing Penguin is even older, originally appearing back in 1990. It's more obscure and never saw a home console port like Spanky's Quest, but it reviewed slightly better:
The hunt is on in this exciting action-maze game! Join Pendrich, the Prince of the Penguins as he battles the enchanted armies of Borbon the Great. Attack with mighty kicks that blast the enemies across the screen. Clear the panels of each land to progress to the next level. It takes timing and strategy to win back the land from Borbon's invaders!
Elsewhere, Limited Run Games also revealed a physical edition of Quantic Dream's Sea of Solitude: The Director's Cut will go live later today on Switch. Unlike Natsume's games, this one is confirmed to be an open pre-order, lasting until April 4th.
Will you be picking up any of these games? Share your thoughts down below.
[source gonintendo.com]
Comments 23
spanky the monkey? epic secks joke lmao
How about the Harvest Moon GameBoy titles?
Wow I have found memories of amazing penguin, what a fun puzzle/action game, even if it becomes a little frustrating in the later levels lol
Unless you really love to collect cheap aftermarket repro carts you could get these but know that the real games also exist in the wild too and aren't difficult to find or expensive to get.
@Ghost_of_Hasashi Honestly if I were to start a collection again it would be 100% repro carts. I care very little for the authentic product OTHER than wanting to put a cartridge in (so no emulators)
It's not a popular stance but its one my wallet can afford.
I’d rather have Texas ground zero on switch from limited run.
This needs to happen with more. And with some of the bigger publishers.
@Burning_Spear
It wouldn't happen, Natsume only owns the international name Harvest Moon, not the actual Bokujō Monogatari games developed by Marvelous Inc, which are now localised as Story of Seasons instead.
All of the Bokujō Monogatari games that Natsume localised as Harvest Moon will probably never see any form of re-release under the current circumstances.
But why those two? I mean, the original cartridges (without box) cost around 15$. They're not bad, but... i'm quite surprised, do people want them so much?
That’s kinda neat.
@tonk82 I like collecting boxed Gameboy games. I can see the appeal, especially if they come with instruction manuals. It does give someone who played a lot of Gameboy when they were young, the fuzzies, to open up these games and look through the instruction manual before popping in the cart.
@Dijita @Dijita I get that but... Amazing Penguin? Spanky's Quest? I could see that with games that a lot of people enjoyed in the past like, official reproductions of rae things like Shantae or trip world, or masterpieces like the GBC metal gear game. But those two? Do people really want a limited edition of those games? Its weird to me.
@RupeeClock But Natsume has continued to re-release these titles on the 3DS eShop, the WiiU Virtual Console and the PlayStation store. What's the difference between digital and physical?
Spanky's Quest I dare say is a hidden gem? I played this on a bootleg multi-cartridge (it was the Japanese version called Lucky Monkey, with the character being called Monkey), and it's a neat Bubble Bobble style game. Some cool music as well.
I don't think it got released in Europe, so I am tempted by this re-release.
@RadioShadow It was released in Europe.
The game should have been called Spankin's Quest.
I have played the SNES version of Spanky's Quest and it was a pretty good game.
There's undoubted more valuable Natsume games that could be reprinted.
Tail Gator is one I can think of (though luckily I got a copy of the Japanese version while it, wasn't a cheap game, was just before the bubble hit).
I was thinking Amazing Spud, but then remembered that's an Atlus IP that isn't SMT. It's easy to forget those.
@RupeeClock Not 100% on the timeline but I think Natsume was still selling old Harvest Moon games on Virtual Consoles even after they lost the localization rights to new games.
Don't buy repros only official releases so not for me.
@pixelpatch Just as long as it's an official repro cart and not the fake Chinese ones. Cause if you bought a Chinese one and try to resell it later people will automatically label you as a scammer. Official repros are after market games that are sold through publishers like RetroBit, Piko Interactive, and IamRetro, those publishers had official rights from the original publisher to redistribute those games so reselling those should be okay but if you did buy a Chinese ones getting rid of those would be impossible.
Can they republish Pokemon Platinum on DS cause it looks better than the Switch version coming out and is impossible to find a legit copy
@KingMike I think you mean Amazing Tater, which is actually a localization of Puzzle Boy II. The first game was released as Kwirk. Funny thing is there's a version of Puzzle Boy in a SMT game (SMT III for PS2). There was also a Japan only Devil Children spinoff for GBA that was based of Puzzle Boy. There's also Spud's Adventure, which I assumed was a different game unrelated to the Puzzle Boy series, but I was mistaken (about it being unrelated, at least). Not only was it also done by Atlus, but it seems to have the same characters (as the original JP Puzzle Boy. Kwirk changed the main character to a Tomato).
@brianvgplayer I see you got that. Yeah, I must've mixed up the titles a bit between Tater and Spud.
Haven't played them much, but I believe the last one was a spinoff game.
I'm sure I have the Japanese versions of both, which cost next to nothing (or at least did at the time, maybe a decade ago) compared to the English versions, which even then I think Spud was like a $200 game. And people were then like "people will pay 200 bucks for a Game Boy game?". Very few hit that price range at the time.
The one I played the furthest in was the PC-Engine port of the first game (Puzzle Boy, with the distinction it only had one playable character, whereas I believe Puzzle Boys/Kwirk had multiple in some puzzles).
I was credited to Telenet (who I think was the publisher on that version), and "Atlas".
I tried to find a copy of the FDS version, but that seems to have been a Disk Writer exclusive game (which means they'd rarely turn up and probably be expensive when they do, since the nature of Disk Writers, and later the Nintendo Power GB/SFC carts is that once the service was up, most of the people who owned a copy were likely to be people wanting to keep them)
@Ghost_of_Hasashi If i was selling the knockoff chinese ones i would definitely be telling the buyer, but yeah its a good note for anyone with a collection.
Tap here to load 23 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...