Back in the middle of 1999 (a weird time for everyone, rest assured), British developer HotGen attempted something that was considered to be somewhat of an impossible task. Namely, porting the full glory of 32-bit Resident Evil to the dinky little 8-bit Game Boy Color. In the end, not only did these maestros manage to do it, but they did it in a way that, judging by the gameplay vid above, makes for a more than decent stab at the "impossible".
Unfortunately, the port was then cancelled and thought lost to time before popping up online in various states throughout the years - though none of these were anywhere near playable from start to finish. That is until now, thanks to Games That Weren't (thanks to VGC for the heads-up).
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Indeed, over on their official social media, the video game preservationists have made a very exciting post revealing a 98% complete version that seems to be fully playable and completable. Hooray!
The above post links to an excellent article about the entire affair surrounding the game's almost-completion and subsequent cancellation, so do make sure to give it a full read.
One little nugget of note in said article comes from assistant programmer Pete Frith, who recalls that the team were told their game would be cancelled because the creator of Resident Evil (they haven't disclosed exactly who they mean here) "didn’t feel the GBC was worthy of his creation, and that he had personally instructed the cancellation." That's gotta hurt!
Instead of this port, M4's Resident Evil Gaiden, a completely new game, was greenlit instead.
Frith is also noted as the source of this latest build, and he seems confident, with some added content now in there, that it should be fully completable.
Who amongst us is brave enough to find out if this latest version of the cancelled Game Boy Color port is fully completable? You sir? Madam? Let us know in the comments!