While nowadays the talk is always "what other Wii U games can we get on Switch", perhaps in an earlier age kids on the playground talked about "what Game Boy games can we get ports of for the Color?". Ok, maybe not, but it's an interesting thought; of course, online communities of enthusiasts and modders do more than just wonder aloud about how native Game Boy Color versions of classic games would look.
On sites like Romhacking.net there are modders embarking on some interesting projects, including 'DX' entries in the Super Mario Land series. The first two games were already completed by toruzz, and now Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 has had the same DX treatment, this time by user korxo. Our contributor Gonçalo Lopes has been playing it and captured the video at the top of the page.
Below is the modder's description, giving a hat-tip to the work on the previous two DX mods for this series:
The first entry in the Wario Land series has been colorised with this hack.
It doesn’t have the quality of the Mario Land color hacks, but it’s still better than the monochrome version.
It doesn’t run on a monochrome Game Boy, only on a Game Boy Color.
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 did actually support the limited colour palette feature included on the Game Boy Color, though this mod aims specifically for the 'DX' look that many of us know from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX.
It's fun to see this sort of project come together, giving a glimpse of what could have been if Nintendo had put a big focus on more 'DX' releases in the Game Boy era - many games, of course, had to make do with Super Game Boy colour palettes.
Let us know what you think, as always, in the comments.
Comments (32)
I am so downloading this! One of my favorite Game Boy games!
Aww, I played the first two Super Mario Land in colour last year but didn’t wait for this one!
Great stuff - I've been enjoying the first two by toruzz and physically own all three - so I'll definitely use this mod file.
Tried it but it looks pretty bad with visual glitches. I'd wait for a more polished version.
I never liked the first Wario Land much. Wario Land 2 is where the series started to feel more polished and fun.
Would be really dope if Nintendo finally added a Game Boy line NSO app and released the games in colour.
… Wun can only hope.
I've been waiting a long time for this. The Super Mario Land DX and Super Mario Land 2 DX mods were beautiful.
I love this game so much. One of the best GB games ever.
That said, I prefer the monochrome green look instead of the GBC, mildly colored look. The monochrome kind of gives more room for the imagination to fill in the colors.
It's very cool, but I hope the creator polishes it more. There are minor visual glitches here and there, usually when the graphics load in. Some color choices aren't too great, and some boss fights can crash the game.
Overall interesting work.
Incidentally, would love a remaster of Shake Dimension on the Switch. Or brand new iteration of the Wario Land series on the console.
Congrats on the article to get it taken down now.
Glad the colourisation nation have got round to Wario Land. This game is a gem. Fond memories of playing it on holiday in Spain as a kid; played it again a few years back and it's still solid.
Also notable for making Mario a bigger jerk than Wario himself.
I will never understand why nintendo themselves didn’t do this back in the day, I owned all mario land games but I would’ve begged my parent’s to get me the color version (which they probably would’ve since they dont know much about games so they probably think it was a brand new game completely, thats how I got all three version of gen 1 pkmn lol)
@SteamEngenius when was the last time something on RHDN got taken down
@ThomasBW84 By "the limited colour palette feature", do you mean how the GBC boot ROM was designed to detect pretty much every Nintendo-published original (DMG) Game Boy game (sometimes even when they only published a single region variation, such as how apparently the EU "Mystic Quest" is included but not its third-party Japanese and American counterparts).
@SteamEngenius Do you understand how ROM hacks and patching works?
Probably not going to get taken down because patches are useless without the user having dumped (or downloaded) the original game ROM outside of the author's control.
@somebread Only a couple times. They took down the "Barver Battle Saga" (or whatever it was called down, I actually forget now) fan translation for Genesis after Piko Interactive filed a complaint.
And the other one, the most infamous one, a Chrono Trigger ROM hack called Crimson Echoes, released shortly after the DS port of Chrono Trigger was released. I've always wanted to believe the DMCA request was a publicity stunt by the hack authors and that Square-Enix' lawyers weren't actually dumb enough to confuse a SNES ROM hack fangame with a counter-anti-piracy patch for the DS version.
I think the torruz mods looked better, but this is still a pretty cool effort.
@Moonlessky I don't understand why Nintendo don't do this NOW!
@KingMike Piko gonna be Piko there, eh?
i think i remember crimson echoes' takedown, didnt a full version of the patch get """leaked""" or something shortly thereafter
Personally I like the Pokemon Generation 1 color mod better. It looks like Generation 2 games G/S/C.
I wanna say FINALLY, and not in an ungrateful way but really in an excited way cause I have been waiting for this for YEARS! I shall probably be getting back into the whole GBC series soon then.
One of my most played Gameboy Games.
Have to get this and play it one the Mister
Edit:
Yeah, my original dumped Rom has the same Hash.
Do Pal Roms even differ from NTSC, since the Gameboy isn't region locked?
I loved the super Mario land 2 colour hack, this will be a treat too 😁💖
@CharlieGirl yeah the super Mario land 2 6 golden coins is a great mod, I would play this too on my phone 😁😁
that's awesome! I think all the Mario Land games have a DX version now
Hmmm how long before Nintendo come along with a law suit for this one. Honesty Nintendo at the moment are more about alienating themselves from life long supporters than any other firm. I love when people take the old and revamp it for new. It's great to see other people's take on things. As for Nintendo why chase these people down if they ain't selling it.
I’m not even kidding this game is pretty much the reason I bought a 3DS 2 years ago. I played this game for 1000 hours as a kid
"Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 did actually support the limited colour palette feature included on the Game Boy Color"
Did it? It came out on a gray cart in 1994, well before the GBC was a thing. Wario Land 2 was the one with Color support, as a quick revision released shortly after the original on a black cart. The black cart games were the ones that could play on both the GB and GBC, having a special color palette on GBC.
The green pipes on the home screen look very Mario-ish for a Wario title. They should try using the same pink/purple to constrast and compliment with Wario's yellow and pink/purple.
With all this talk about metroid being such a dormant franchise where is Wario Land 5?
It's still in a beta phase but damnit it's fully playable and a gorgeous view of the future. I hope romhackers bring color to the original Tetris, Batman and Kid Icarus for the Game Boy.
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