Airball
Image: Tengen

A previously cancelled NES port of Microdeal's "classic" Airball, from the developer Novotrade and publisher Tengen, is receiving its first official release, thanks to the folks at The Retro Room. This is in addition to an official release of a Game Boy Advance port of the game.

Airball was released for various home computers in the late 80s and early 90s, but never received an official release on Nintendo hardware.

When a prototype of the NES version was discovered in 2007, a company called Retro Zone made and sold reproduction cartridges, but it seems this wasn't official and was discontinued shortly after. The GBA version, meanwhile, was a conversion of this NES ROM and was previously only available online.

Now thanks to the publisher The Retro Room, you'll be able to buy official versions of both products, thirty years after the fact. So if you're into homebrew titles or cancelled or obscure games, this one is probably of interest to you.

Airball, in case you're unaware, is an isometric game in the style of Knight Lore, Alien 8, Solstice, and Batman. You play as a character that an evil wizard has transformed into a ball and must explore a castle fetching items to solve puzzles.

If you want to land yourself a copy, you should keep an eye on The Retro Room site. Right now, there's no firm release date except a vague 'Coming Soon'. Upon its release, it will be available in several languages, including English, French, German, and most notably Arabic.

In the past, The Retro Room has been responsible for releasing a few cancelled games from years gone by, including a GBA Dune title, which they released under the new name Elland: The Crystal Wars.

Are you going to pick up a copy? Let us know in the comments!

[source twitter.com]