Prior to the release of the
Game Boy Advance in 2001
Nintendo put together a demo of what their new portable machine could do. They chose to recreate a piece of a level from 1998's
Nintendo 64 release
Yoshi's Story to prove that the new machine was nothing like the
Game Boys of old. While the
demo was never supposed to be seen outside of
Nintendo and its partners, somehow someone dumped the demo to a
ROM and set it loose on the Internet where, if you know where to look, you can find a copy to try out in an
emulator. The graphics come right from the
Nintendo 64 game, but there is no music or sound to be heard.
The demo opens with a rotating rendered Yoshi's Island and then switches to the sample level. The level repeats endlessly over grassy happy terain. Shy Guys and Bullet Bills pass by Yoshi as he bounds down the path. Spikes and anvils rain from above as well. Occassionally a giant enemy wanders by and Yoshi can stomp it to shrink it down to normal, thus showing off the Game Boy Advance's scaling abilities. A trail of eggs follow Yoshi, but he cannot do anything with them. Likewise, his famous tongue is not available in this demo either. Yoshi's sole move, in fact, is his famous flutter jump. The level ends when Yoshi runs out of energy (or if the Select button is pushed enough times). When this happens the toadies appear and carry Yoshi off to Baby Bowser's castle. Then the demo returns to the rotating island screen. There are no goals or objectives in this demo, but it is fun to wander around the small level and see what the Game Boy Advance can do with a Nintendo 64 title. Expect to see this demo expanded into a full Yoshi game someday.