Rockstar Games has rubbed shoulders with Nintendo a few times over the years, with amazing titles like GTA Chinatown Wars putting new spins on the open-world franchise. However, it isn’t just GTA that was destined to get a Nintendo makeover, as a new interview with ex-Rockstar employee claims that 2005’s The Warriors almost found a home on handheld consoles. It wasn’t the only Rockstar banger destined for Nintendo’s shores either.
According to a recent interview with Time Extension, a former Rockstar developer (who wishes to remain anonymous) alleges that the movie tie-in fighting game was headed to Game Boy Advance, and it was “going for four-player co-op using the link cable and stuff. We finished the game. It was actually f****** fun to play.”
The Warriors revolves around a New York gang that needs to traverse across the city to their home turf on Coney Island, after getting framed for murder. Its premise is ideal for co-op game antics, however, the ex-Rockstar employee alleges that Nintendo wasn’t keen on promoting a particularly violent.”
“Nintendo at the time didn’t like promoting M-rated games. We were comfortable in Sony land, so we went with The Warriors direct port on PSP,” the ex-Rockstar developer purports. However, this perspectively clearly changed, as Rockstar Games’ aforementioned open world game GTA Chinatown Wars released on Nintendo DS and PSP in 2009 – just four years after The Warriors. We’d loved to have seen this port of The Warriors, as it allegedly would have used the same engine as Rockstar Leeds’ Max Payne GBA port.
To add salt to the wound, another bona fide Rockstar classic was supposedly eyed up for Nintendo treatment too: Bully (Canis Canem Edit). “We had Bully on the [Nintendo] DS. Right away [after] Chinatown Wars, we did Bully. The same thing. Top down and everything. But it didn’t make it too far,” it is claimed. These days, Nintendo’s relationship with Rockstar Games is certainly interesting. Last year, Red Dead Redemption galloped its way on Nintendo Switch, with a sturdy port of the 2010 western adventure that became one of the best Switch games available.
Prior to this, though, the same reputation isn’t afforded to the GTA The Trilogy Definitive Edition project, due to a myriad of bugs and technical issues at launch. However, a lot of these obstacles have been fixed, and playing this version of Vice City or San Andreas on the go is worth reconsidering.
If you’re looking for a similar adventure to the GTA franchise, we can help. Check out our guide to the slickest games like GTA around, or how you can play GTA V mobile with some handy tricks.