Q Boy is an unassuming platformer about the titular character who goes on a globe-trotting adventure in order to defeat the evil Dr. Mouse, who seeks to utilize the Rainbow Flower for evil.
In stark contrast to many unlicensed efforts at the time, Q Boy shows great display of quality and care in its design, music, and ideas - practically a then-rarity in the sea of hacks and ports. Much of the game's aesthetics and art style take inspiration from the then-recent Kirby games and puts a Sachen take on them; even the gameplay is practically original. Had it been official, the game could have comfortably passed as a late-era Famicom title alongside Kickle Cubicle and Cocoron.
One can only wonder what the development was like...
Sub-Page#
Unused Graphics#
A sprite of Q Boy turning around, found within the Special Stage mini-game's graphics. Could be a leftover from a version of the mini-game from earlier in development.
A variation of the drone enemy used throughout World 5. It appears that this variation was intended to appear in World 5-3, but possibly as a result of how the game handles sprites on-screen, it never does.
Credits#
Unused |
Used |
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Although technically used in-game, an entire row of Dr. Mouse's body is completely hidden behind the bottom row of tiles, meaning that the sprite that actually appears in-game has a quite noticeable seam.
Mario Mode#
A rather strange Easter egg: pressing Select while the game is paused will make it Mario-themed! Aside from making Q Boy look like Mario, several enemies are changed to Goombas, Koopa Troopas, and Spinies.
Level Select and Sound Test#
Press Select on the title screen.
Setting the Round to "Game" (found near the end of the options) will take the player to the Special Stage mini-game, then to Stage 1-1.
Unused Music#
The song used on the title screen is somewhat longer than what is heard in-game. Even stranger is that it's not present in the sound test.
To hear the title screen song in its entirety, use Game Genie code TXSAGOZA or change ROM offset 1E4 from 0A to 26.
(Source: SuperfishMEMZ (Game Genie code discovery))