Today is the birthday of the Nintendo Game Boy, the grand daddy of portable gaming as we know it today. With that special birthday upon us it is only fitting to cover a brand-new release for the little portable that could. That is exactly what we have here with Death Planet by Catskull Games. This is not your usual portable title either, just check out the media after the jump.

Stop me if you heard this story before

There is an evil galactic empire that has created a planet sized battle station referred to as the “Death Planet”. This monster of a base is equipped with a giant laser cannon that can destroy whole planets. Everyone in the galaxy is at risk while this machine exists.

There is a weakness though, as all bad guys must flex their muscles just a little too much. The core of the Death Planet is vulnerable, and your rebellious team has gotten this information just in time.

Setting out to end the evil empire you must pilot your ship on a suicide mission of sorts to blow up the core of the Death Planet.

Familiar story, not so familiar gameplay

Created by Mackerel Interactive, Death Planet features a viewpoint that is very reminiscent of Star Fox. That is if that classic Nintendo title featured a very “Star Wars”-esque storyline.

The gameplay is viewed from behind your ship as you venture down corridors. You can move up and down and all around the screen as you see fit to avoid the obstacles and enemies in your path.  This was a mistake on my part as I based my assumptions on the limited amount of information that was available for Death Planet at the time of writing. Movement is limited to up and down and there are no enemies in the game as pointed out by Dalton in the comments below.

Supporting developers that support us with new games

It is interesting that we are still seeing new Nintendo Game Boy games. Factor in the fact that those games are like Death Planet, which takes on new challenges for the hardware and appear to pull it off quite well and it is even more special. Fans of the Nintendo Game Boy know what you should do, if your finances allow it – please support stuff like this. New and original games are rare.

Before you go though, did you know that we here are RETRO are keeping print alive via our Patreon? You can secure your copy of the magazine that is chock full of new content that you won’t find elsewhere. Just head over to Patreon and make the pledge and help keep RETRO alive and well for years to come.