Game Boy detective RPG Quest Arrest is coming to modern consoles

The Retro Room's 2020 Game Boy homebrew RPG Quest Arrest is coming to modern consoles this week. Ratalaika Games is publishing the digital release across PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch platforms starting July 9.

Developer John Rioux (also known as Roo) originally built the game using GB Studio. He released it on a physical Game Boy Color cartridge in 2020 through his label, The Retro Room. The project started because Rioux wanted to combine the top-down perspective of 1990s handheld RPGs with the police procedural elements of Sierra's PC adventure games. Creating a new game for a thirty-year-old handheld required working within strict memory and color limitations. The final product has an authentic retro aesthetic.

You play as Detective Allison Bennett. She just received a promotion and immediately has to handle a massive crime wave in the city of Strange Meadows. A notorious gang leader named Athena is trying to take full control of the town. She coordinates robberies and street violence. Bennett has to stop her, but the game leaves the methods entirely up to the player. The dialogue is extensive for a Game Boy title. It pushes the limits of what a standard cartridge can hold.

The morality system drives the narrative. You can play by the book, follow police procedure, and protect citizens. Alternatively, you can break the rules, use excessive force, and act like a vigilante. Your choices change how citizens treat you, alter the dialogue trees, and ultimately lead to multiple different endings.

Turn-based policing

Combat ditches traditional fantasy RPG commands for law enforcement tools. When you encounter a suspect, the battle screen has four main options: Pepper Spray, Taze, Shoot, and Arrest. The goal is often to subdue criminals so you can safely cuff them, rather than just draining a health bar to zero. Using non-lethal force like pepper spray or the taser tires out suspects. If you rely too heavily on your firearm and just shoot everyone, that feeds directly into the bad cop morality path and alters your reputation.

The ESRB gave the console release a Mature 17+ rating for strong language. The cute 8-bit pixel art heavily contrasts with the gritty subject matter. Rioux crowdsourced some of the game's dialogue during the original development process. He asked his social media followers if they wanted to be written into the game. The result is a town full of varied personalities and custom NPCs.

The modern console port

Ratalaika Games is handling the digital distribution. The Spanish publisher has a long track record of bringing indie games and retro homebrew to current digital storefronts. They previously published other Game Boy aftermarket titles. This gives people an easy way to play these games without tracking down original hardware, importing flash cartridges, or configuring emulators. You can find direct store links on the official Ratalaika Games page.

The PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions launch on July 9. The Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch versions follow on July 10. The game is also available on PC via Steam.

It is always interesting to see new Game Boy games escape the niche physical collector market. Quest Arrest takes a genre usually reserved for fantasy tropes and applies it to a modern police procedural. You get the nostalgia of a classic handheld RPG, but with the option to taze a bank robber instead of casting a fire spell.