Coming To Retro Systems: The Shapeshifter
Dana Puch, a game developer from Barcelona, has created several homebrew games for the Game Boy. He’s wrapping up work on his most ambitious project for the handheld yet, The Shapeshifter…and you can get a physical copy through the crowdfunding campaign he’s recently launched.
In The Shapeshifter you play as Elliot, just a normal dude out on a normal camping trip. What’s AB-normal is when an elf shows up, tells Elliot that he is the only one who can save elf-kind from an evil wizard, and grants him the magic power to turn into different animals. Elliot can’t just mess around with his new gift…it’s temporary and will only last through the night. He must embark on his journey and defeat the wizard before the sun rises!
The Shapeshifter has performed so well that it smashed its most ambitious stretch goal last weekend: a port of the game to the NES. However, the NES game is not part of the current package, as you can’t just recreate one system’s game on another system in a day. The Game Boy and the NES use different processors and languages. The NES version will eventually have its own Kickstarter once it’s close to completion…the stretch goal just gives Dana the funds to begin work on it.
- New Game Boy and NES game in cartridge format –including a box and a manual.
- Lead Elliot in a fantasy adventure in which you can turn into the animals you touch and save the elven world from the wizard’s spell.
- Save and load your game.
- More than 4 hours of gameplay.
- Animated pixel-art graphics.
- Music composed by Cesc Mozota and Oscar Latorre.
- Game Boy version compatible with all Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance handhelds.
- NES version compatible with NTSC NES, PAL NES, and Famicom with a 72-to-60-pin cartridge adapter (not included).
You can get the digital ROM for The Shapeshifter through a $13 pledge, or the physical cartridge through a $43 pledge. Delivery will be delayed for a few months, as stretch goals have already been hit for two extra levels, and they take time to create. The Shapeshifter should begin shipping for Game Boy in the summer of 2021, after which point work will begin on the NES version.