Those who were around at the time will know just how much of a big deal Super Mario 64 was when it released in 1996. It represented not only the first 3D Mario game, but also the next ste?p forward in video game technology. It was quite somet?hing, I can assure you.

Fast-forward nearly two decades, and someone is taking the classic N64 game and essentially "demaking" it to run on the Game Boy Advance. Yes, that's right, it's being rebuilt from scratch to run on hardware that's not been on the market since 2008/2009 (depending on the? regi?on).

In the video above, we get a glimpse of the project in its current state, which is being done by coder Joshua Barretto. A cursory glance shows that we do, indeed, have a recognizable version of Super Mario 64 that's being recreated to run on the GBA.

Super Mario 64: Now with pixels!

According to a report from DSO Gaming, ??Barretto's demake is utilizing meshes from the Nintendo DS port of the original game. While it's still very much in development, keep in mind that this?? is meant to be running on defunct hardware that was originally released in 2001.

You can check the trajectory of the fan project by going back across some of their older videos. In this one �uploaded just a few weeks ago �we can compare and contrast. In the footage, we see that Mario himself is just a red triangle; a red triangle w?ith a shadow, mind.

The castle from Mario 64 is still very much present, but looking at the latest video, we can see that Barretto has made quite a ??lot of ??progress. In less than two months, they've added in the actual character model, new movement mechanics, a pause menu, better textures, and some bug fixes.

There's even a settings menu, something that wasn't p??resent on the Nintendo 64 OG. We get to see options for reducing the resolution and view distance, plu??s the ability to disable detailed textures to make the game run smoother.

At the moment, there's no release date for this Game Boy Advance rebuild of Super Mario 64. And, as far as I can tell, it's just coming to the console itself, so you'd need to actually have a GBA to play it. If I had one concern, it's how Nintendo will react if it sees its IP being demade for ancient hardware. I hope they go easy on Bar??retto. I'm getting tired of big legal teams bringing their litigation hammers down on regular folk.

The post Check out this demake of Super Mario? ??64 for the Game Boy Advance appeared first on Destructoid.

Coming soon to your nearest Toys "R" Us

Have you wanted to play Dead Space, but both the 2023 remake and the 2008 original are just not quite old enough for you? You’re in luck, because now you can play Dead Space reimagined as if it was running on the PS1 via a short Dead Space Demake demo developed by Fraser Brumley.

The tech demo is only 10-15 minutes long, and it seems unlikely it will ever get any more extensive than that. I gave it a try, and it�sure is Dead Space as depic?ted through chunky polygons and unfiltered ??textures.

"I've been working on this for a lot longer than I planned and the end product is probably shorter than you expect but I hope you have fun playing it," Brumley said on the demake's Itch page. "This project was mostly a way for me to learn Unreal and the PS1 aesthetic so loo??k forward to what I'll be putting together in the future."

[caption id="attachment_373107" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

It’s kind of hard to say this is what the actual Dead Space would be like on the PlayStation 1. It still utilizes the over-the-shoulder camera angle that wasn’t really popular until 2005’s Resident Evil 4. It presents some dialogue through a heavily compressed cutscene, and I did find it amusing that Dead Space Demake keeps pes?tering you to “shoot off their limbs�multiple times, even after your first necromorph encount?er.

Rather than an earnest attempt to fit a modern game on older hardware, Dead Space Demake feels more like a light-hearted homage. Sort of a fond love letter to both Dead Space and the ?PS1 hardware. In that sense, it succeeds. Just don't expect anything in the way of fun technical magic.

You can download the Dead Space Demake right now from itch.io.

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Father Gascoigne revs up his engines

Bloodborne Kart is an in-development project mixing kart racing with the horror of Bloodborne, and today we got a new glimpse of what that combination looks l??ike. A new video spotlights Father Gascoigne and his dangerous wheels in a karting boss fight.

LWMedia, a.k.a. Lilith Walther, has been working on Bloodborne Kart for a little while. It's the latest project following her popular demake of Bloodborne into PSX-era graphics. Kart has the same graphical style, but leans into another beloved aspect of that con?sole generation: mascot kart ra?cers.

In today's video, we get a good look at the Campaign Mode's Father Gasc??????????????????????????oigne boss fight. It moves from a racetrack chase through Yharnam to an arena, where an enraged Father Gascoigne does away with pretense ?and hoists up his machine gun.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuT9Lp1J-IU

There are a few things I love about this: first, the reimagining of the lead-up to Gascoigne's arena as a kart racer track. The boulder area in particular made me smile. But also, this take on Bloodborne as a vehicular combat arena rules, and I'm eager to see more of it. The boss fight clocks in at a decent length, though that's something Walther seems to still be fine-tuning.

Fear the old fuel

In today's update on YouTube, Walther also shares some details about Campaign mode. It will feature a "linear progression" of levels, with story cards strung between to tie them together. They'll be made up of Races, Battles, and Special; the last o?f those is like what we see here, wit??h Father Gascoigne.

Winning levels will net the player racer and kart unlocks, echoes for levelling up, and insight. If you collect all the insight, you'll unlock something special too. Knowing how insight worked in Bloodborne, I am equal parts interested and concerned about what that secr?et might ??be.

Bloodborne Kart is s??till in development, but safe to say that when it's ready to rev up those engines, I'll be there.

The post B??loodborne Kart dev shows ??off some rad new boss fight footage appeared first on Destructoid.

Walter and Jesse never looked so... pixelated

Breaking Bad is one of those shows that's so good, it remains relevant almost a decade after it goes off the air. As its legacy lives on, I have to wonder if it'll ever get a true video game adaptation, maybe as a GTA-style open world, or a Telltale-style narrative adventure. There's a lot of potential there, but for now, we can continue to imagine the possibilities to tide us over. That's exactly what this fan did when they envisioned what Breaking Bad might look like if it were made to be ??a game for ??the PS1.

The video was created by YouTube user PotBoiler,?? and features over? a minute of "gameplay" from the hypothetical PS1 title. The "game" opens with Walter White's classic pre-cancer chemistry lecture from the pilot. The player then takes control of Jesse, who is tasked with killing Gale before a timer runs out. As he drives through the streets, he hits another car, which gets the cops on his tail. No need to worry, though, because Jesse can just stop by Saul's place to get rid of the fuzz. Unfortunately he fails the mission, so I guess Heisenberg is dead in this alternate timeline.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfCcLyJonxA

I wish we had more info about how PotBoiler actually made this mockup, but they did disclose in the description of the YouTube video that it was specifically inspired by GTA, so it seems we agree on what type of game would be best suited for a Breaking Bad adaptation (something the show's creator wanted as well). As per usual, I am constantly impressed by the type of fan art fans can come up with, and while this particular version looks (purposefully) janky as hell, I'd love to play a ??more modern version.

Check out some other PS1 "demakes," including Horizon Zero Dawn and Bloodborne.

The post Someone turned Breaking Bad into a PS1 game appeared first on Destructoid.

Well, as good as a PS1 game can look these days

Horizon Zero Dawn has become one of the most popular and beloved games of the current console generation for PlayStation, and its recent sequel has proven to hold up against its predecessor. While we can see how far the series has come over just two games when it comes to its tech and mechanics, part of us also has to wonder what Horizon would have?? looked like back in the day... in say 1996, for example.

A YouTuber by the name of ZeoNyph has answered that question for us, because they made a short video previewing what Zero Dawn might look like as a PS1 game. It's a minute-long clip featuring the PS1 bootup sequence, the game's demade title screen, Aloy climbing a wall, and then subsequently dyi??ng to a Watcher in a very early PlayStation-esque fashion. It's only a small sampling of what the game might have looked like back in the day, but it sure is a convincing one.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0IZ46fRrkQ

I think there's something comforting about seeing a game we love in the graphics of generations past �and there's something thematically relevant in there about seeing Horizon rendered for obsolete technology, right?

This also isn't the first time we've seen a favorite game like Horizon as a PS1 demake �Bloodborne also got that treatment last year. Not only did fans make a video of a demade Bloodborne, but they also created a fully playable fan game of it that runs all the way through the first two bosses. The project took 13 months of development to complete, and understandably so, because it looks incredible. Now here's hoping Horizon might get ??the same treatment, because there's certainly much more of that game to see as a PS1 demake. I for one would love to see some low-poly Tallnecks.

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What a wonderful night to go on a hunt

The old blood has been ported back to the old-school look. After many updates and teasers, the Bloodborne PSX fan project is now available, free of charge.

You can find the finished project here on Itch. As noted ??on the page, all content is property of its respective owners, and neit??her Sony nor From Software are affiliated with this fan project.

The Bloodborne PSX demake is a 13-month development project from developer Lilith Walther, who also released an extended launch trailer to celebrate its launch on ??Jan. 31, 2022.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pz_T6Kog6k&feature=?youtu.be

Alongside the fan game, which extends up through the first two major bosses of Bloodborne, there is also a soundtrack and special cover art available too. The latter does make me hope for someone to port this project to a disc and make a nice physical version of PSX-style Bloodborne.

There are also some cheats in the game, so you can mess around with fun settings after clearing Bloodborne the usual way. A b??ig head, pet dog, and paintball mode are all in there. And I'm really curious about the "alter time with right stick" function.

After so many teasers, it's awesome to see this project publicly available. The PSX style has been growing in popularity, and Bloodborne makes a natural candidate for it. As Chris wrote a few months ago, Bloodborne already feels pretty timeless. So why not pop it into a time capsule and experience it all again?? on the classic PlayStation?

If you missed it above, here's the link again to the Bloodborne PSX Itch page. You can also find the developer and her other work through Twitter here.

The post The fan-made Bloodborne PSX project is out now appeared first on Destructoid.

Yharnam goes back in time

The developers behind the fan-made PlayStation demake of Bloodborne have set a release date. The demake of Bloodborne, or Bloodborne PSX, will go live for PC on Jan. 31, 2022.

We've seen bits and pieces of the project so far, including its big boss fights against the Cleric Beast and Father Gascoigne. With its latest trailer, the Bloodborne demake project is now? set to go live for the public, everyone at ho??me will get to check it out too.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbOy8GpuKA4

The developer has confirmed on Twitter that the build's content will stop at Father Gascoigne, so don't expect to just play through the entirety of Bloodborne or anything. As a fan-made project though, even just getting that much content de-made and working is incredibly impressive. I'm really interested to see what the hunter's dream looks like, and to deal with some of those bird??s again. I hate the birds.

As Chris recently wrote, Bloodborne is a game that still feels fresh, even if it's several years old at this point. And it's really cool to see fans imagine it in this PS1 style that's become popular, especially within the indie horror scene. And it still retains so much of that creepy gothic-horror vibe when de-made down to PlayStation graphics. Plus, I can spot a good amount of the weapons from the original Bloodborne too.

Looks like this January will give us another good reason to go back to Yharnam. The Bloodborne demake goes live on Jan. 31, 2022.

The post Bloodborne PS1 demake sets a rele??ase date for next January appeared first on Destructoid.

Demake daddy

We've spotlighted the Bloodborne PS1 demake a few times on here now, and each new update has been pretty rad to follow. Lilith Walther and the folks behind the demake have been showing off some impressive stuff, from new enemy types to a Cleric Beast fight, and now, Father Gascoigne is in the mix.

In a new video, the developer showcases the Father Gascoigne fight from the earlier parts of Bloodborne. This is probably one of the most recognizable fights from the game; it's early on, directly on the main path, and it teaches you a lot about Bloodborne's systems. (?Parrying, for example, is important.)

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ioh7xZnDsU

The demake devs have transplanted the Father into the lo-res world of the Bloodborne demake, and amazingly, it doesn't real??ly lose what makes this fight so good. There's still the maze-like grave markers, providing desperate cover and also sometimes impeding a desperate retreat. I love the animation above Gascoigne's head when the parry lands; ??that rotating "R1" is very PlayStation-era in its look.

And the tra??nsformation! His transformation into his beast form is great, and the way he starts howling, ripping, and tearing through the battlefield is really neat to watch.

In the comments, Walther says development is still ongoing—the game is currently unfinished, so elements like the fog wall and some attacks are still missi?ng.

"That being said, we're getting closer and closer to?? ?a finished game (BBPSX will be the first few bosses only)," said Walther. "And I can't wait to share it with you all when it's ready!"

And I have to say, I'm looking forward to it myself. I'm curious to see how far it goes, and it's a testament to the core of Bloodborne and the work of these creators that the game's atmosphere and tension can still be so effective, even when running on ?some PSX limitations.

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