Gargoyle's Quest coming to 3DS in Australia, US release can't be far behind

Each week we look forward to new Game Boy classics finding their way to Nintendo's 3DS Virtual Console. The past few weeks, however, have either featured questionable releases (wtf is Avenging Spirit?) or, strangely, no games whatsoever. With that in mind, it's quite exciting to hear that Gargoyle's Quest, one of our10 best Game Boy gamesof all time,has just been classifiedfor Australia's eShop, meaning it could very well appear in the US and UK soon. It's been part of Japan's eShop for months, so it's about damn time.

Gargoyle's Quest is a spin-off of Capcom's famous Ghosts 'n' Goblins franchise, and stars the demonic do-gooder Firebrand. In screens it looks rather simplistic, and to be honest it IS at heart a traditional side-scroller, but there are a handful of RPG-like elements (towns, NPCs and buyable items) that made it extraordinary back in the day, and at the very least abit meatier than the other Game Boy gamescurrently on the 3DS. It also happens to have a fantastic soundtrack, so music buffs need to check it out just for that.

Firebrand is perhaps now best known for his inclusion inUltimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, due out in November. And on that note, I'd like to point out that Capcom has spent the last 20 years slowly undressing poor Firebrand. First, his original art (seen above) shows him in full medieval garb, even though he's not wearing any of that in the game.


Above: Then in the NES sequel, he's changed back to his correct red color, but reduced to a speedo!


Above: The Super NES follow up is even worse, trimming that leg line back into thong territory


Above: And now his UMvC3 art is completely naked, revealing no junk at all! Did they just neuter Firebrand??

Maybe some of his alt costumes in UMvC3 will bother to toss him something to cover his shame? Or maybe even a lime green as a shout-out to his humble Game Boy beginnings?

Aug 12, 2011

Brett Elston

A fomer Executive Editor at GamesRadar, Brett also contributed content to many other Future gaming publications including Nintendo Power, PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazine. Brett has worked at Capcom in several senior roles, is an experienced podcaster, and now works as a Senior Manager of Content Communications at PlayStation SIE.