Halo For The Game Boy Advance A Possibility?

etoychest writes "To be honest, I venture over to IGN.com about as often as I find myself in the all-natural food section at the local supermarket. That is, next to never. Still, occasionally some information does leak out of the site that makes you wonder if there is a reason to go back. This time, thanks to our friends over on the Penny-Arcade forums, I was made aware of a tidbit tucked away in the current IGN Pocket mailbag, as written by Craig Harris: 'Well, this was something that I've known for months about, but was literally sworn to secrecy by the people involved (just like many OTHER things I know but can't say). But since it's been mentioned in another publication, I can confirm that, yes, Halo is in the works for the GBA. That's all I can say, on risk of having my fingernails ripped off with a bottle opener.'" But are we sure they're not talking about this GBA Halo? Update: 06/12 12:05 GMT by S : There's a rather definitive official denial of this rumor over at Bungie.net.

false rumor

[dsyu]

This has apparently been dismissed [bungie.net] as a false rumor from Bungie themselves.

Re:false rumor

[wheresdrew]

"The Bandai Pippin version is taking up all our development bandwidth..."

Sweet! That one's gonna rawk!

Re:false rumor

[krel]

It's worth mentioning that Bungie once ported Marathon 1 to the Pippin. I'm not sure if they ever released it, but since the Pippin never got anywhere, no big loss. Someone reported seeing a copy of Marathon for Pippin once in Bungie HQ's webcam some time ago...

Re:Even if this were true?

[FlipmodePlaya]

I don't know, Metal Gear Solid took the move to the GBC pretty well, and this is more powerful hardware.

Re:Even if this were true?

[cgenman]

Yes, but Metal Gear was a game whose gameplay was flushed out on the NES*, a system not very much more powerful than the GBC. Halo, however, relies upon the third dimension. Could you imagine the charging guns, dramatic landscapes, etc, etc working on a 2D plane with vision limited to 7 or 8 character widths? It *could* be done, but it would be a dramatic reinvisioning of the franchise with as little to do with Halo's current gameplay as Mario Sunshine does to Sonic Advance.

*actually, it was a computer

Re:Even if this were true?

[johannesg]

Yes, but Metal Gear was a game whose gameplay was flushed out on the NES

Metal Gear originated on the MSX2. The two original Metal Gear games were works of absolute genius - and completely in 2D. The "Solid" part of the title of the Playstation game was there to indicate the move to 3D, and should really have been dropped for the GBC conversion...

Actually 'Solid' was dropped in the GBC conversion

[xDCDx]

In Japan, the game was called Metal Gear Ghost Babel, as can be seen here:

http://www.konamijpn.com/products/ghostbabel/japan ese/index.html [konamijpn.com]

It were the stupid market people who changed the title. Shame on them, always changing covers, titles or, even worse, content, to make games "more suitable" for the western market.

Re:Even if this were true?

[fr0dicus]

Normally it's purely because they have to do something new and original when porting to GBA that makes the ports it receives above average.

Strange as it may sound I'm glad they didn't manage to pack any more power into the GBA.... limiting it to roughly what the SNES was capable off meant it was a firm base for 2D, and tough to even attempt anything better.

Re:Even if this were true?

[ajservo]

Um, hello? Contra/Super Contra? Wasn't this kinda halo with no flood?

Re:Even if this were true?

[SnoBall]

I would. My comp isn't the greatest, but it runs Quake 3 nicely. If it were just a bit faster, I would buy the Halo PC version, just for the hell of it.

Z-Axis

[schild]

No advanced first person shooter for the game boy will ever exist, just like they didn't exist on the super nintendo. Sniping would be impossible, the z-axis would be horribly crippled with no analog stick, and the aiming would just be nightmarish. That said, I may have believed this if the rumor had been "a 2-d sidescrolling version of Halo is in the works for the GBA."

Re:Z-Axis

[Txiasaeia]

It would make *much* more sense if it was developed for the DS platform - a pointer would simulate a mouse, making it that much easier to snipe, for example, not to mention the better graphics capabilities.

Re:Z-Axis

[TechniMyoko]

ah gross. You like the idea of taking your hand off the buttons and using a pen to aim?

Re:Z-Axis

[Jerf]

Who modded this "Troll"? It's true, and I say that as a gameboy owner.

Doom is a lot of fun, because it's 2.5D. (And also because it originally ran on PCs who's only advantage over the GBA is resolution.) A full 3D FPS really can't work. Not enough buttons.

Mind you, Doom just barely works, and some people will probably say it doesn't. I like it, but someone raised on post-Quake games might not agree.

Re:Z-Axis

[SamSim]

FPSs on the GBA just strike me as a bad idea generally. Personally, I'd settle for a top-down version. You know, maybe similar to the SNES Zelda games, but obviously with a different graphical style. Or the Game Boy version of Perfect Dark. That could actually work.

Re:Z-Axis

[gl4ss]

well.. GTA is for gameboy color.. also CARMAGEDDON is fro gameboy color..

they're both pure crap though on gbc, but that never stopped them from releasing them.

Ditching Co-op and now?

[Goyuix]

So assuming this does actually come out - what on earth on they going to axe to make it fit the GBA? I would be inclined to say it most certainly won't have cooperative multiplayer, and with any luck they will make sure to eliminate a level or two....

Oh wait, that would be an improvement. Can't have any of that as it goes to a non-xbox platform.

Before getting too excited...

[tm2b]

You should take a look at the GBA versions of Splinter Cell [gamezone.com] and Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow [metacritic.com].

Think franchise instead of port.

Re:Impossible.

[dogbowl]

1. In case you haven't noticed, MSFT *IS* making gameboy games - through Rare. As a matter of fact, I've heard (can't say for sure) that Rare has made/is making more titles for the GBA than for the x-box...

2. Gameboys are the single best selling video game system. You think they sold a lot of copies of GTA3? Mario laughs at that market share.

3. While there are FPS on the GBA, most 'ports' are just converstions of characters and themes, rather than the exact game. Think of it just as a regular GBA g

Yeah, mod me down, whatever.

[ajutla]

1. MSFT is finishing the games that Rare already had in development.

2. I fail to see what relevance this has to my original point. Do you think that the average Xbox owner / Halo freak has or wants a GBA?

3. This is your only point that makes sense.

4. Well, granted, so does this one. :)

Re:Impossible.

[Ayaress]

So long as its confined to Doom/Duke Nukem 3D style autoaiming on the verticle axis, it's doable. Unfortunately, the maker of the James Bond FPS games on the GBA seemed to overlook this fact.

Re:Impossible.

[dancingmad]

Just to dispute your points:

1. Microsoft also now owns Rare which is happily developing for the GBA.

2. I'm the Xbox's exact demographic (well, right age and gender). I have a GBA SP, a PS2, and a Gamecube. I don't have an Xbox.

3. You could play early FPSes with the arrow keys, if I'm not entirely mistaken.

Re:Impossible.

[ajutla]

Just to dispute your disputations of my points, or something like that.

1. Rare had already been in the process of developing GBA games so MS did not immediately pull the plug on them. They're still happily developing for the GBA but once they've completed their current projects, do you honestly believe MS is going to encourage them to take on more?

2. I have a GBA and a PS2, and I too am in their exact demographic. But neither of us are Xbox owners so it's irrelevant what we have. The majority of

Re:Impossible.

[ajutla]

But the same could be said for the DS and it seems pretty clear that they're not developing for that platform...

Re:Impossible.

[Allison Geode]

for the duke nukem advance game, the default controlls are dpad for looking around moving forward, triggers for strafe, and A and B for jump and shoot... however, I think the best control option (and one that makes it almost as good as halo controls) are:
dpad for strafing/moving forward/back.
a and b for turning.
triggers for shoot and jump.

makes it almost as good as a console fps.

A few thoughts

[antin]

As a huge fan of the xbox version I am very happy to hear that this is most likely a false rumor - as much as I love Halo I just can't see what they could do with it on the GBA.

We would likely either get something like Wolf 3D or a side-scroller like Splinter Cell, neither of which really sound that appealing.

However one thought that struck me was that if they wanted to, they could go in an entirely different direction with the handheld version. After reading the Halo books (they are better than you would think) and noticing the focus the books have on space battle between human and covenant ships, it got me to thinking that a Halo game similar to Escape Velocity could be pretty cool.

EV is a very fun game, and you could prolly recreate something pretty close to it on a handheld. Anyways, just a thought :D

Oh, and to the submitter of this story, you really come across as a little lame with your huge disclaimer... You realise that more than half of your story was you telling us that you don't like IGN? Either you or the editor should have chopped that.

Re:A few thoughts

[SnoBall]

Speaking of First person shooters, DooM and DooM II on the GBA was a great idea, because it is not too complex, is 2.5D, and uses sprites for charater and item graphics.

Shoot me if I say this, but I've never played Wolf3D, but I have heard of it.

Looking back on Splinter Cell for the GBA (which I don't own, mind you), it's console/PC variant was a first person shooter, and it still held together when it was ported to the GBA. Let's just hope that Halo for the GBA (in any form) stays together through th

Advance Wars

[fr0dicus]

When thinking about a suitable way of porting Halo to GBA I couldn't help but think of something similar to Advance Wars, using more stuff from the novels, and not just attempting to port an FPS which clearly wouldn't look any good at all.

:( shame

[Sv-Manowar]

Shame about the denial, this would have been rather fun sitting on the tube round london blasting some aliens