A new NES game is in development from a group of veteran developers, which includes former members of iNiS & Elite Beat Agents. And it's just got a great new demo ahead of its crowdfunding campaign that is set to launch in Q2 2025.
Banana Bash! sees players take control of a small monkey called Ooki who must recover their stolen bananas from a group of mischievous crabs, and appears to be a retro take on an earlier puzzle game called Ookibloks that previously appeared on iOS in 2013, and Steam in 2015.
It is inspired by classic arcade hits like Rainbow Islands, Snow Bros., and Bubble Bobble, and features colourful visuals, a beat-matched sound effects system, and brain-teasing puzzle-based gameplay that has the player sliding Ooki horizontally and vertically across the screen to grab bananas, stun enemies, and escape danger.
It is also reportedly being built using a 4-megabit cartridge, making it one of the larger games available for the system.
The game is being developed by a small team called StudioWork3, with Brian Flanagan (a game industry veteran since 1989) taking on the role of director, in addition to handling the graphics, music, and design.
Flanagan has previously worked with studios such as Ocean, Core Design, Capcom, Nintendo, iNiS, Sega, and Microsoft, among others, with his pixel art credits including Street Fighter Alpha 3, Godzilla Domination, Sigma Star Saga, and DodonPachi Saidaioujou Exa Label.
The lead programmer, meanwhile, is an individual simply credited as 'Jesse', who has 14+ years of experience in mobile and game development, working with companies like Glu Mobile and startups in both the US and China.
Finally, rounding out the team, there are two more contributors. These include Robbie Dieterich, a former iNiS developer who previously contributed to Ouendan 2, Elite Beat Agents, and Gitaroo Man Lives (who now teaches game design at George Mason University), and an anonymous ex-iNiS programmer responsible for some final programming and polish to get the project across the finish line.
If you fancy checking out the demo, you can grab the ".nes" file from either itch.io or Google Drive. You might also want to visit the Kickstarter page, to be alerted when the campaign goes live.