Anyone who thinks that the Game Boy has been a thing of the past for ages has made a mistake. A resourceful hobby developer has set himself the task of porting a modern role-playing hit to the old Nintendo handheld – and the result speaks for itself.
Disco Elysium: Hit RPG is now playable on the Game Boy
With Disco Elysium, developer ZA/UM landed a real surprise hit in 2019. The old-school role-playing game was loved by both critics and players and earned a brilliant score of 91 on Metacritic. Success on PC was followed by ports for the Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Xbox One – but before that the game was released for a platform that probably nobody expected: the Nintendo Game Boy.
As a reminder, this is what Disco Elysium really looks like:
The game can now also be enjoyed on the small handheld console from 1989 – at least in part. The fan project by UI designer Colin Brannan has so far only included the game entry, but tries as best it can keeping the key gameplay elements of the original.
On his blog, Brannan explains how he Game Boy implementation structured and gives an insight into the individual phases of development. Some screenshots give you a first impression of the Game Boy version of the role-playing game:
(Source: Colin Brannan)
Game Boy port also runs on PC & mobile
The result represents Brannan as free download on the Itch.io platform. Users can either play the game directly via the browser on their cell phone or PC, but they can also download the ROM and run it in an appropriate emulator.
In addition to Disco Elysium, many other good games have been released in the last year. We have listed the best of them for you:
What makes the port so special, however, is that it not only looks like a game that could run on the Game Boy, it actually can be played on the original Nintendo hardware. The ROM only has to be installed on a flashable cartridge for the handheld – then nothing stands in the way of the crazy nostalgia trip of the extra class.