We love seeing a game being played on hardware that should not be able to hold it at all. In the latest instance of a console playing a game it shouldn’t be able to, we’ve got Super Mario 64 on Game Boy Advance. Obviously, it’s not the full Nintendo 64 experience. Rather than a port, a fan is working on rewriting the game to be playable on GBA.
Our fan in question is YouTuber Joshua Barretto, who posted the below video a couple of days ago on his progress so far. A hyper-pixelated triangular Mario runs around the front lawn of Princess Peach’s Castle before jumping down into the drained moat. Anyone who has played Super Mario 64 will notice this Game Boy Advance version is very in line with the normal game, at least as much as you can get with all the pixels.
As a self-proclaimed hobbyist game programmer, Barretto has some very interesting videos on his channel for things he has made. We don’t understand the ins and outs of this at all, so we won’t pretend we could explain what goes into making a 3D game playable on a device that could display 2D environments. Regardless, we can’t wait to see Bob-omb Battlefield.
It’s so funny seeing the vast difference in power between the Game Boy Advance and its successor, the Nintendo DS. Super Mario 64 DS was a launch title for that handheld and not only displayed the 3D world pretty impressively considering the time, it added tons of content into the mix. Extra playable characters, new environments, 60 additional stars to find, and mini-games. Super Mario 64 on Game Boy Advance would have been a hilarious attempt for Nintendo to try.
