Canceled Resident Evil Game for Game Boy Color Surfaces Online

The Game Boy Color port of Resident Evil, which was officially canceled by Capcom in 2000, has just resurfaced online thanks to Games That Weren’t, an online archive dedicated to preserving canceled and unreleased video game projects. This latest build of Resident Evil‘s infamously canceled Game Boy Color port is believed to be the most complete yet, with Games That Weren’t believing it could potentially be fully playable from beginning to end.

In early 1999, South London game developer HotGen was approached by Capcom to make a Game Boy Color port of the first Resident Evil. Of course, condensing a game originally made for the PlayStation onto a single Game Boy Color cartridge would be no easy feat, but HotGen got to work and set a Fall 1999 release date. Resident Evil‘s Game Boy Color port wouldn’t make its Fall 1999 release date, or the new January 2000 release date it was given after a delay. Instead, Capcom pulled the plug on HotGen’s Resident Evil entirely, officially canceling the game in March 2000 and stating that it wasn’t “confident that the product would have made both consumers and Capcom happy.”

Resident Evil’s 98% Complete Game Boy Color Port Is Playable Now

Flash forward more than 25 years later and HotGen’s Resident Evil Game Boy Color port is back with a vengeance. On December 17, Games That Weren’t made an X post stating that “the final build” of HotGen’s Resident Evil is now playable via its website. Following the link in this X post takes users directly to Resident Evil‘s page on Games That Weren’t, where a brief overview of the canceled port’s development history is detailed, including some comments made by its original developers given to the archival site in 2020.

According to these 2020 quotes, assistant programmer Pete Frith believed that HotGen’s Resident Evil port was around 98% complete by the time it was canceled by Capcom, with it reaching the QA testing phase. According to Frith, the reason for cancelation that the developers were given was that Resident Evil‘s “original creator…didn’t feel the GBC was worthy of his creation.”

The archive post on Games That Weren’t also details the Game Boy port’s previous builds that have found their way online, specifically referencing two separate builds from 2011 and one version that was believed to be around 90% complete but not fully beatable playing as either Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield.

This latest version recovered by Games That Weren’t is the most complete yet, with it apparently being the final version of the game to exist before its cancellation in 2000. Though Games That Weren’t hasn’t verified if this version of Resident Evil is beatable from start to finish, the Tyrant can be encountered and defeated at the end of the game, a sequence that wasn’t available in prior builds. Along with a full list of music tracks and sound effects and a packed gallery of in-game screenshots, Games That Weren’t also includes links to download the build so fans can try it for themselves.

Other Canceled Resident Evil Video Games

HotGen’s Resident Evil Game Boy Color port is far from the only Resident Evil game that’s had a troubled development, and it’s certainly not the only Resident Evil project that’s been canceled over the last few decades:

• Resident Evil 1.5 – The original follow-up to 1996’s Resident Evil that was canceled in mid-1997 at around 60–80% completion
• Resident Evil 0 (Nintendo 64 Version) – A prequel following S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team that was originally developed for Nintendo 64’s 64DD add-on before production stopped in 2000 due to the console’s technical shortcomings
• Resident Evil 3 – The original version of Resident Evil 3 was going to follow Umbrella Secret Service agent Hunk as he attempted to recover a sample of the G-Virus on a cruise ship. It was canceled in 1998 ahead of the PlayStation 2’s launch
• Resident Evil 4 – Four separate versions of Resident Evil 4 were scrapped before the fifth and final version’s release in 2005. The first was going to follow the sons of Oswell E. Spencer and had a heavy action focus, a project that ended up becoming Devil May Cry. The second version brought Leon Kennedy to the table but was canceled due to technical difficulties. The third version introduced an over-the-shoulder viewpoint while shooting and focused on Leon Kennedy suffering from a virus that made him hallucinate enemies, and was also canceled due to technical difficulties. The fourth version was said to be focusing on a more traditional zombie story before Shinji Mikami became the project’s director and scrapped it.

Released

March 22, 1996

ESRB

Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Language, Violence

Number of Players

1