Toby Fox's hit indie-RPG Undertale has been ported to a few different systems over the years, giving players a choice of where to encounter its charming blend of offbeat characters, fight or flight gameplay, and emotional storytelling. But one console we never expected to see it brought to was Nintendo's 1998 handheld, the Game Boy Color.
Nevertheless, thanks to the recent efforts of a fan named Blaqberry and friends, it's now possible to experience the opening moments of the game on the classic Nintendo device, with the homebrew team dropping a demo ROM for the title on itch.io earlier this week (as spotted by the fine folks at Retro Dodo).
Described on the project page as a "faithful reimagining of the demo of Undertale", the impressive demake covers the entirety of the ruins section of the game, including the first encounters with Flowey and Toriel, the battle with the mini-boss Napstablook, and the initial arrival at Toriel's house.
All the mechanics you'd expect are also present and accounted for, with players being able to donate to spider bake sales, get into random encounters, and fight (or spare) enemies such as Froggits, Whimsuns, or Moldsmals (much like in the main console versions of the game).
The project appears to have initially started as a small side-project, but has since grown to incorporate several other team members from across the Undertale/Game Boy community. This includes the co-programmer Radnugget, the musician InPuca, and the artists Mustang, Samuel_X7, ibis 037, meta77, and 003 venusaur.
It was apparently created using a mixture of downscaled and custom sprites to recreate the original's striking pixel-art aesthetic, and also has some pretty neat Game Boy Color arrangements of songs from the Undertale soundtrack.
It doesn't seem like this release is the end of the project either, with the creator recently announcing they are now working on the Snowdin section of the game.
If you fancy giving it a go, you can grab the ROM of the game now on itch.io, or play it in your browser of choice.