We get some new Game Boy games for Switch Online today, but Japan gets one more and it’s one with an interesting history.
As my regular readers will know, I am an avid Game Boy game collector. It’s one of my formative gaming systems as a gamer. It also taught me the tenets and benefits of focused minimalist design. The latter being something I would pull upon in my career in game development.
So when we get new Game Boy games made available on Switch Online, I tend to get overly excited.
Anyway, the three games released today that are common across most regions are Alleyway, Baseball and Super Mario Land. The latter being my favorite Mario game and one I still regard it as one of the best in terms of its overall design in the entire series.
However, in Japan, they got one extra game, and that was The Frog For Whom the Bell Tolls.
This was a fascinating role-playing game, not least because its development fed into that of Link’s Awakening, with both games sharing common elements.
For instance, the character Richard and all his happy frogs in Link’s Awakening are also from this game and were meant as an overt reference.
Obviously, fans translated the game a good few years ago now, but it’s never been given a international release and that remain entirely baffling to me.
Now, it’s entirely doable to re-localize old game ROMs like these and then release them globally (I know, I’ve done it). So the fact that Nintendo hasn’t localized The Frog For Whom the Bell Tolls after all these years is bizarre.
The fact The Frog For Whom the Bell Tolls has been re-released officially like this may mean Nintendo could do an English localized port at some point, or maybe even a remake. However, it remains a curious game in the Game Boy’s library and one worth keeping an eye on.
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