sisslethecat
Of all the things I had on my Bingo card for today’s Nintendo Direct (such as Ghost Trick HD, yay!), the porting of one of the GameBoy Color’s only real horror games to Nintendo Switch was not one of them. Amidst other major announcements today, Nintendo revealed that a new catalog of GameBoy, GameBoy Color, and GameBoy Advance games has been added to the Nintendo Switch Online and Online Expansion Pack service. These games include a treasure trove of classics like Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX, Metroid 2, and more… but one inclusion, namely Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare‘s GameBoy Color version, was a complete surprise.
The GameBoy Color only ever had a handful of horror games (or games that were more than simply “spooky themed” at least), like Resident Evil: Gaiden and Aliens: Thanatos Encounter, but even then Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare stands out. Featuring a fairly accurate translation of the PlayStation 1 and 2 version’s static camera angles (or as close as a GameBoy Color can be expected to get), it’s a very wild ride that feels like almost like a modern-day attempt at recreating an old horror favorite on older hardware (similar to things like Bloodborne PSX or Resident Evil: BIO EVIL). Seeing this long-forgotten Alone in the Dark title given new life is shocking if I’m being honest, especially as it’s now the easiest available Alone in the Dark title (besides Inferno via PlayStation 4/5’s PS+ streaming). While I’m not sure I would recommend this game usually, as part of this larger package it’s pretty cool to have access to it on newer hardware.
Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare is available now for all Nintendo Switch Online subscribers.
