The Game Boy Color continues to have many games in development from small indie studios and one- or two-man teams. These games are known as homebrew as they are not official titles. Officially, the Game Boy and all its iterations are dead systems. However, some of these experiences are just as refined and polished as the ‘official’ titles were. The buzzing development scene has given a second life to the Game Boy systems. It doesn’t look like the scene will calm down any time soon, which is a great thing for long-time fans and new fans too. Here we take a look at another brand new game designed for the Game Boy Color. The Damned from Salt and Pixel.
The Damned’s ‘Look’ seems to be inspired by Diablo. Annihilator developer Salt and Pixel have developed numerous other Game Boy ‘post-life’ titles, such as Cryohazard. The Damned has a dark story, with mature themes. It’s a beat ’em up, and could be described as an 8-bit Streets of Rage or Golden Axe. A demo of the game has been released and can be accessed for free with a quick Google search. The game is still in active development, so it could change completely between now and release.
Demo
The demo, being a Game Boy Color ROM, takes up virtually no room on your device and will download in almost an instant. The game has an epic introduction consisting of old men talking about the end times, and how it is sad that it is always old men sending young men to die in times of war. The story is told through text and still graphic images. It actually works very well, and when combined with the great opening-level music, it makes for a great introduction to The Damned.
After the brief story set-up, it is shown that the player character is a young warrior from the population that these old men rule over, who is sent to war. Off you go with your sword to battle enemies. The style is reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, Braveheart, and many of the epic films of the late 90s and early noughties. The gameplay itself involves you slashing your sword. One button slashes, one button jumps, and you can dash by double-tapping a direction button. It takes a good few hits to kill an enemy. I’d say that the beat ’em up gameplay is more reminiscent of Double Dragon (Game Boy or NES) than Golden Axe. I think the reason for this is that Double Dragon is an 8-bit game, and so is The Damned. Like in Double Dragon, you are never quite sure which part of the enemy you made contact with. The enemy characters don’t visibly react the same way as they do in a game like 16-bit Golden Axe.
The demo has the player battling enemies and moving to the right until they reach a tower guarded by a troll-like creature. During my first playthrough, the tower never appeared, and I’m not sure if it was a glitch or if the game froze, but the demo didn’t continue from there. In my second playthrough, where the tower did appear and I defeated the troll, I then spawned at the start of a gem cave stage. There were shiny stones in the environment, and there was a lion-headed man as a boss at the end of the path. Unfortunately, after defeating him, a third level didn’t start. I don’t know if that is because of a glitch, but this demo is definitely full of bugs.
Golden Axe Vibes
We know from Salt and Pixel’s last game, Annihilator, that they can craft and weave story and gameplay together in a compelling way, and from the demo, it seems like that may also be the case with The Damned. The story element of the demo does enough to get the player hooked on the narrative. However, will the simple gameplay be addictive enough to form a solid gaming experience? As we have only been given an early demo, the gameplay could completely change by the time that the game releases. The music of the first level was very catchy and went well with the story element. We don’t know if The Damned will have chapters like Annihilator, or whether it will have simple stages like beat ’em ups such as Golden Axe.
The art looks promising. The game uses a dark, gothic pixel art style. Although the sprites are small, they are probably limited by the hardware. Will the Game Boy Color be powerful enough to depict varied enemies and bosses? Annihilator succeeded in creating fun bosses that looked completely different, and had recognizable attack patterns that could be learnt and exploited. Will the same be true of The Damned, despite the games being from different genres? According to the promo material, the game will have multiple character classes and 9 different environments (which might mean that there are 9 stages in all). The variety will be key here, as this kind of hack ‘n’ slash game risks being repetitive.
To follow the game’s development and get updates on other Salt and Pixel games, join their newsletter.
Conclusion
To sum up, the Game Boy homebrew scene is in a very healthy position. If anything, the community seems to be growing, and more games seem to be in development. A key element of Game Boy homebrew is that the games are now being aimed at a wider variety of ages. Back in the day, games were mainly aimed at teenage boys. Now, many Game Boy homebrew titles are mature, often scary experiences. The Damned falls into that category, and it is important and would be very cool if it achieved critical acclaim and got older people who haven’t played Game Boy in years to pick up their old systems.
The Damned has the potential to tell a great narrative and present gameplay that is addictive and fun. However, at the moment, the demo does show enemy diversity, but there’s only one kind of attack, and jump doesn’t have a purpose. Past titles from Salt and Pixel are encouraging for the fate of The Damned. Salt and Pixel’s previous game, Annihilator, I gave an 8/10, and praised its gameplay and story. Hopefully, The Damned will be a similar success.
BongoBongo123 is an avid Zelda fan who also likes the odd game of Smash. His interests in gaming are broad but he loves a good Metroidvania or action RPGs.