Undertale demo is transformed in "faithful" fan-made Game Boy Color demake, and you can play it right now

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Undertale was already a love letter to SNES RPG Earthbound, but fans are going even further by porting the game to the 8-bit handheld

undertale gb screenshot showing toriel and frisk
(Image credit: Toby Fox | Blaqberry)

Undertale fans have partially ported the 2015 indie icon to its natural home, 1998's Game Boy Color.

Undertale has a ton of classic Nintendo in its DNA, the game is clearly inspired by the likes of Earthbound (and to a lesser extent Mario & Luigi, I'd say) and some of developer Toby Fox's earliest works are romhacks for Earthbound (the first version of the iconic boss fight theme Megalovania appeared in one). And while it's perhaps a bit too elaborate to have existed on the SNES or any other classic Nintendo console, that hasn't stopped fans from trying.

As spotted by Retro Dodo, the Undertale GB project sends the demo for the beloved game back to the 8-bit handheld, with the description saying it "recreates the original's core mechanics, pixel art style, and iconic soundtrack within the limitations of retro hardware." While it's not the full game at the moment, developer Aki hopes to demake the entirety of Undertale.

As seen in the trailer on the game's Itch.io page, it does have to make some changes from the original. For example, the enemy attack screen where you control your little heart as you avoid attacks in a bullet hell-like fashion now takes up the entirety of the screen as opposed to being a window popup, and the game's music has been reworked to fit with the console's soundchip. What's even more impressive is this isn't even the first Toby Fox adjacent Game Boy Color demake, with fans porting Deltarune Chapter 1 earlier this year.

Toby Fox doesn't think Deltarune Chapter 5 "will be released in the first half of 2026" but there's some good news: "we don't have any external factors surrounding the release date this time. We'll release it when it's done"

Scott McCrae
Scott McCrae
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Scott has been freelancing for over three years across a number of different gaming publications, first appearing on GamesRadar+ in 2024. He has also written for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, VG247, Play, TechRadar, and others. He's typically rambling about Metal Gear Solid, God Hand, or any other PS2-era titles that rarely (if ever) get sequels.

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