Likewise, it’s fascinating to see how well these indie games have replicated many of the features of the survival horror genre. Technically speaking, anyone can write it too – although it is obviously a skill that improves with practice and research. I mean, the classic example of this sort of thing is probably horror fiction – using nothing more than written text, it can still scare the audience. In fact, the low budgets are sometimes an asset for the horror genre since it allows for more creative freedom in some ways ( eg: no need to aim for a mainstream audience etc.) and also makes creating things in the genre a little bit more accessible to people who don’t have the resources of a large studio. It is a genre that can still flourish in even the most “low budget” of forms. It is a genre that is very much about technique, design and/or storytelling rather than fancy graphics. This is a reminder of one of the strengths of the horror genre. They make expert use of suspense, story, atmosphere, jump scares and other such things to actually scare the audience with little more than a few low-resolution pixels. And, from the footage I’ve seen, many of these games manage to do it surprisingly well. So, making a horror game with ultra-pixellated, and often monochrome, graphics that is still actually scary is an intriguing technical challenge. Still, even games that are modern computer programs ( with none of the limitations of the original console) are defined by the fact that they still look like something that could have been released on an old 1980s/1990s handheld console. Some games – like “Bitterroot” (2021) – seem to have been made to run on original Game Boy hardware. These indie horror games are also fascinating because of the technical and design challenges involved. This taps into Sigmund Freud’s concept of the “ uncanny” – when something is both familiar and strange at the same time, it is inherently unsettling. So, Game Boy-style horror games are fascinating because they are close enough to many people’s nostalgic childhood memories but also intriguingly different due to the complete lack of censorship. A lot of this probably has to do with the stricter censorship imposed by Nintendo during the 1990s, but also the way that – although general interest games ( most famously “Tetris” (1989)) were released for these consoles – they were also primarily aimed at/marketed at a younger audience too ( which probably explains the patronising censorship). Still, horror games on these consoles were few and far between. Likewise, there was apparently a technically-impressive version of “Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare” (2001) released for the Game Boy Colour too. Yes, there was supposed to be a port of “Resident Evil” (1996) for the Game Boy Colour in the late 1990s/early 2000s, but it got scrapped ( although an unfinished build later found its way onto the internet) and was replaced with the disappointing “Resident Evil Gaiden” (2001) instead □ Yes, they look like actual Game Boy/Game Boy Color games from the 1990s, but there weren’t many “proper” official horror games on these consoles at the time. So, I thought that I’d look at some of the reasons why Game Boy-style horror games are such a fascinating, if very obscure, genre of indie horror game.įirst of all, there’s the way that these games play with nostalgia. This scanned image really doesn’t get across the sheer depth of the console, which is approximately 3cm ( about 1.2 inches, for my US readers).Īnyway, whilst looking for ultra low-budget horror games online, I ended up stumbling across footage of modern indie horror games that are designed to look like old 1990s Game Boy/Game Boy Color games – such as “ Bitterroot” (2021), “ From Next Door” (2020) and a hilariously twisted Garfield-inspired horror game called “ Lasagna Boy Classic” (2020).Īlthough I hadn’t played any of them when writing the first draft of this article ( but expect a review of “Bitterroot” in the near future), even just watching footage of them was absolutely mesmerising. This is an original Game Boy, albeit perhaps a slightly later 1990s model with a black casing rather than the pale grey of the original 1989 model.
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