app-subdomain-redirection:visualboyadvance

22 years later, a highly anticipated Game Boy Advance game has appeared

There was just one problem: no one wanted to publish it. The cost of releasing it themselves on Game Boy Advance cartridges was unaffordable, and the project ended up forgotten in a drawer.

Year 2002. The world was still trying to recover from September 11th, Internet was taking its first steps and the consoles fighting were the GameCube, the PS2 and the Xbox. And, of course, the Game Boy Advance, which had been released the previous year. It was in that context that a group of Italian friends started developing their video game for Nintendo’s handheld console, ‘Kien’. Today, in 2024… they have finally finished it.

VisualBoyAdvance DOWNLOAD

The cursed game

When they started developing ‘Kien’, an action and platform game with RPG elements, none of them had the slightest idea of how to make video games. But they made an effort, suffered, learned, and finished it on time. There was only one problem: no one wanted to publish it, the cost of self-publishing it on Game Boy Advance cartridges was unaffordable, and the project ended up being forgotten in a drawer.

Finally, only one of the three friends remained with the dream, Fabio Belsanti. The others pursued different careers but he believed in the title. So much so that he ended up creating a company of educational video games but always with ‘Kien’ in his mind. And suddenly, one day, looking at the retro trend that has come back with strength, he decided it was time to turn his own nostalgia into the present of the industry.

He partnered with a distributor called Incube8, specializing in releasing new games for old consoles (like ‘Génesis 2’ for Game Boy or ‘Gunship DX’ for Game Boy Color) and together they finally released ‘Kien’, for $59.99. 23 levels, endless action and the promise of a constant challenge “that will please many and others not so much”. If I spend almost $60 on a game from 22 years ago, honestly, I hope I like it a lot.

And if you don’t have a Game Boy Advance but you want to play it to see what it’s about, you can get a digital file to play it on an emulator. No matter the variety.

VisualBoyAdvance DOWNLOAD

The reason why Mario doesn’t carry a gun (or transform into a centaur)

Well, it was one of the ideas that Shigeru Miyamoto and his team had in the first ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Then, luckily, they changed their minds.

Imagine going to pick up ‘Super Mario Bros Wonder‘ and discovering that the leaked videos so far are false, and it’s actually an FPS in the Mushroom Kingdom where Mario has to reload his AK-47, shoot it at the Goombas, and say phrases like “Swallow lead, mushroom.” Sounds strange, doesn’t it? Well, it was one of the ideas that Shigeru Miyamoto and his team had for the first ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Fortunately, they changed their minds later on.

VisualBoyAdvance DOWNLOAD

Super Mario Gun

The initial ideas for video games are not always the best, and the proof of that is what they were trying to make ‘Super Mario Bros‘ be: “For a long time, the controls were A to shoot bullets, B to skate, and up to jump,” Miyamoto commented, making it clear that originally, our portly plumber was a killing machine.

Fortunately, we didn’t end up seeing Koopa Troopas bleeding in a corner because they changed their minds when they realized that this seemed like a children’s game: “The bullets eventually became fireballs. Originally, we thought of having a shoot’em up screen where Mario jumps on a cloud and shoots enemies, but we removed it because we wanted to focus on platforming. The bonus screens that take place in the sky are what remained of that idea.” Thank goodness, Shigeru.

It’s not the only power that Nintendo has denied us over the years (fortunately): ‘Super Mario Bros 3’ originally had the idea of turning Mario into a centaur, but when it came to competing against the raccoon tail, it ended up losing out. At least some sketches were made, so we can see what such a bizarre yet wonderful idea would have looked like.

If he can now become an elephant at will, why not revisit the centaur idea after all? The idea of the gun, frankly, is a much worse one. Don’t be offended, Miyamoto.

VisualBoyAdvance DOWNLOAD

Color Wars: Inside Nintendo’s Debate on Kirby’s Hue – Yellow, Pink, or White?

He became so fond of him that in the end they decided to make him the protagonist and call him, from a list of possible names, Kirby.

If we talk about Kirby, you’ll immediately imagine a pink ball with two eyes and a mouth that eats enemies and gains their powers. Since its debut on Game Boy in 1992 with ‘Kirby’s Dream Land,’ it has starred in nearly forty games, had its own one hundred-episode anime, and even had 25 volumes of its own manga. There’s just one problem: Shigeru Miyamoto didn’t imagine it that way.

Visual Boy Advance DOWNLOAD

Which color will Dedede be?

When Masahiro Sakurai was creating ‘Kirby’s Dream Land,’ the design for the main character wasn’t finalized yet. So, he put a ball with eyes as a placeholder, intending to replace it with the actual protagonist later on. He named it Popopo, and gradually grew fond of it. Eventually, they decided to make it the main character and named it Kirby, choosing from a list of possible names.

The story behind Kirby’s name is quite intriguing: In 1982, Universal sued Nintendo for similarities between King Kong and Donkey Kong (quite creative, right?). The lawyer who defended the Japanese company was none other than John Kirby, who ultimately won the case. When Shigeru Miyamoto saw the name “Kirby” on the potential list of names for the character, he didn’t hesitate to pick it, paying homage to the lawyer who played a role in Nintendo’s victory.

They couldn’t get their way, especially when it came to Kirby’s color. Since the Game Boy could only display white, black, and shades of gray, Sakurai envisioned Kirby as pink. As it turns out, he was the only one at Nintendo who imagined it that way, as mentioned in a 1993 interview. In contrast, Miyamoto insisted that Kirby should be yellow. The debate over Kirby’s color went on, and in the midst of it, Nintendo America ended up releasing the ‘Kirby’s Dream Land’ box in… white. Neither one’s choice prevailed, leading to a general mess.

In the end, Miyamoto won partially, and Kirby appeared as a yellow character for the secondary character, Keeby, whenever needed or in the variations of ‘Super Smash Bros.’ In later interviews, Miyamoto corrected his stance and remained as kind as ever, saying, “Normally, a character like Kirby would be yellow, like Pac-Man. That’s why when I saw it with a different color, I felt that it was fresh.” As long as it wasn’t white…

Visual Boy Advance DOWNLOAD

Some of the links added in the article are part of affiliate campaigns and may represent benefits for Softonic.