Daikatana (2001)

Daikatana for Game Boy Color

Most people know Daikatana as a PC first-person shooter, but fewer know that a completely different version was developed for the Game Boy Color — and it turned out great. Rather than trying to replicate the PC experience, the GBC version was designed from the ground up as a top-down, Zelda-like action-adventure. It’s fast, fun, and tightly designed, with a surprising amount of depth packed into an 8-bit cartridge.

When development wrapped, I made sure to give it a careful final review before calling it finished — including going through the English translation line by line to ensure everything read clearly and naturally. The result is a polished, well-localized experience that still feels fresh to play today.

You can now experience it for yourself. Here’s the GBC ROM file for use with emulators: Download Daikatana GBC. Whether you’re revisiting it or playing for the first time, it’s a great example of how creative design can reimagine a game for completely different hardware.