Following a successful Kickstarter Campaign in 2014, Lizard is the latest NES focused homebrew from developer Brad Smith who previously released chiptunes cartridges, Moon8 and 2A03 Puritans. Lizard forgoes powerups, lives, and timers and instead opts for an open-world, platforming adventure. It's an adventure four years in the making, so let's put on our Lizard suit and take a look.
Hooray for indie developers! Not only do they sink hours of their time into a game that possibly nobody will ever play, but they do it with such unselfish motivations. I certainly assume that Nathan Tolbert, the man behind the GBA title Anguna: Warriors Of Virtue spent so much time on his game not to be rich and famous, but instead to pay homage to games that meant a lot to him -- namely the Legend Of Zelda series obviously. And that's commendable. So many of us talk crap about weak games. We talk about what we would have done had we been the ones making the game. But how many of us actually sit down and spend the time to code a new GBA game. Well, not me. That's for sure. So I salute the Nathan Tolbert's of the world because they are the ones who now have the power to keep our dead consoles alive. You see, Anguna was released in 2008, the year after Nintendo themselves killed the Game Boy Advance.
Anguna is a very impressive independent release. It certainly looks far more professional than many homebrew games. And there's an incredible amount of detail included. Obviously the graphics are well-done as evident by the screens pictured. But what's really great is all the extras -- there are numerous secondary weapons to pick up, maps to find, a fully working save-feature, and even a catalog of the monsters you've come in contact with. Furthermore the game features five full dungeons to complete. This is really a deep Adventure RPG considering it was a labor of love that was worked on in free time. I'm certainly not saying it's as sprawling as a Zelda game, but it's easily the most vast GBA homebrew game I'm ever seen.
What's even greater about the game is the amount of post-release love the developer has devoted to it. There is a wonderful website kept at http://www.tolberts.net/anguna/ that hosts downloads of the game in both GBA and DS format, intakes bug reports, and even offers up maps and FAQs should you happen to get stumped.
If you're a Game Boy Advance collector you may want to order a physical copy of the cart as well while they're still available. Of course you could have the ROM for free, but a cart version not only makes a nice collectible, but it shows a bit of support for a hard-working indie developer. And I for one want to encourage game designers to continue to make new GBA releases. Speaking of which, I asked Nathan if he had any plans to make an Anguna sequel, and he basically said that he had been planning one for a while but couldn't find an artist. He's currently working on porting Anguna to some other consoles, but doesn't rule out another GBA release in the next few years. So head on over to http://www.tolberts.net/anguna/ and check out Anguna for yourself, and if you really enjoy it why not encourage Nathan to continue to help keep the GBA alive?
Antimind is one of the original founders of RF Generation. Love homebrew? Why not read more, and check out her shrine to DS homebrew.
Nintendo's DS is awesome. The problem is the overflow of crap commercial games. The DS is capable of (and deserves) far better material. Enter homebrew games and applications.
How does video game trivia sound? Good? Awesome! It's available on DS. Wish you could play PC first-person shooters on the go? You can do that too. How about having a portable classic game library? Check! You can also play hundreds of otherwise unheard of games. Everything from puzzle collections to RTS with wifi play and leaderboards.
Want to play Japanese games in English? You can do that too thanks to homebrew. You can also turn your DS into a feature packed PDA. Want to read comics on the go? How about chatting on IRC? Done and done!
Check out my Homebrew Guide for the previously mentioned goodness and more. I've even included a Homebrew For Idiots guide. What are you waiting for? Unlock your DS's potential today!
So yeah, some homebrew is too damn cool to ignore. Take for instance Extra Mario Bros. I only hope that it is real. Someone thought it would be pretty neat to take Mario and place him in a Metroid Type Universe, complete with remixed Metroid Music. All I can say is -- Pure Awesome. Check for yourself:
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Again, damn, DO WANT!. Awesomeness of Mario... awesomeness of Super Metroid... combined, wow. Someone find me that game.
Following a successful Kickstarter Campaign in 2014, Lizard is the latest NES focused homebrew from developer Brad Smith, who previously released chiptunes cartridges Moon8 and 2A03 Puritans. Lizard forgoes powerups, lives, and timers and instead opts for an open world platforming adventure. It's an adventure four years in the making so let's put on our Lizard suit and take a look.
