If you’ve never heard of The Warriors, I’m disappointed in you. In 1979, this low-budget action flick directed by Walter Hill was released, and it became a cult classic, doing well at the box office and achieving a timeless status despite featuring some stale dialogue here and there and having some issues behind the scenes.
It’s one of my favourite movies of all time, and in 2005, Rockstar Games released an authentic representation of the film in game form, bringing an expansive and highly entertaining title to fans everywhere. It builds on the universe kicked off by the 1979 movie and broadens the narrative immeasurably, and according to a recent report, Rockstar Games almost released a port of the game on an unlikely device.
The Warriors on GBA, Suckah
Rockstar Games came remarkably close to releasing The Warriors on Game Boy Advance. That’s what was recently claimed by former Rockstar Games employees close to Time Extension, which is where the original report surfaced regarding the GBA port.
In the report, it’s said that a former employee of Rockstar Leeds said:
We were going for four-player co-op using the link cable and stuff. We finished the game. It was actually fun to play. But there it sits never to be released because that’s when the PSP was gaining momentum and we weren’t really seeing good returns on Nintendo. 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 Warriors was a phenomenal game, letting players assume control of almost every member of the gang in a series of missions that transcended the basic timeline of the movie. In a ‘build-up phase’, players are shown the inner workings of the fictional gang that headlines the 1979 movie before transitioning to replicate the events as they unfolded in the film.
In The Warriors, there are also side modes that involve tagging areas with spray paint, and there’s an ‘arena’ mode of sorts that allows players to duke it out against other gangs in a ‘last man standing’ kind of environment.
Forget GTA 6, I want The Warriors 2.
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