Games like Duke Nukem Forever or Beyond Good & Evil 2 are considered to be the longest-delayed and most-postponed titles, but another game takes the cake 22 years after development began: Kien.
Some stories are almost impossible to make up: Games are often announced and then delayed for many years before they either don’t appear at all or are released several ages later. Ubisoft has recently made a name for itself in this regard: The pirate game Skulls & Bones was postponed countless times and finally came out a few months ago. Beyond Good & Evil 2 is the next example of a game that has been postponed several times and for years.
But the crowning glory is a completely different title that most people probably didn’t know about, namely Kien. The development of the game originally started in the early 2000s, but after a 22-year delay, Kien is now actually available – for Nintendo’s venerable Game Boy Advance.
By the end, only one of the game’s original developers was still on board, but Fabio Belsanti just wouldn’t give up on Kien. Now he has reached the finish line with the game and has finally released it.
In the GBA title, you take on the role of a fearless warrior or a mystical priestess and have to fight your way through many different environments to finally save the planet Malkut. Impressions from the game can be found in the trailer below.
Why did Belsanti want to finish the game and release it on the old platform? He himself believes that the gaming industry is currently in a similar phase to that of music with the revival of vinyl and cassettes. According to him, some gamers are returning to earlier and more primitive forms of the gaming medium and he sees the release of the game on the originally planned platform as somewhat romantic and magical.
In any case, some retro gaming fans have already celebrated the release of Kien and are happy that the Game Boy Advance is actually getting a completely new game 15 years after it was discontinued.
