Digital Trends can exclusively reveal that ModRetro is publishing Chantey, a pirate-themed metal rhythm game from Greek indie game studio Gortyn Code that’s coming to both Game Boy and Chromatic.

The Chromatic is a new video game handheld inspired by the Game Boy. It’s compatible with cartridges for original Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, but ModRetro is also publishing titles on dedicated Chromatic game cartridges. Chantey will be one such game when it launches in the first quarter of 2025. Developer K.C. Apostolakis tells Digital Trends that the Chromatic is “identical to the Game Boy Color in every respect (right down to the screen resolution), but everything has been cranked up to 11 so that the Game Boy playing experience can be modernized and brought up to speed with today’s gaming standards.”

Chantey is an 8-bit open-world rhythm game built to work on the original Game Boy and follows an up-and-coming pirate as he gets swept up in a conflict between descendants of the legendary Nightingale Pirate and collects mystical sea chanteys. It features a soundtrack with original pirate metal tracks and chiptune versions of sea chanteys such as Drunken Sailor and Bully in the Alley. Check out its reveal trailer below to see the game in action.

Chantey features an open world with 11 different cities to explore via The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening-style top-down gameplay. There are also battle of the bands-style rhythm battles where players will have to hit the Chromatic’s A, B, and D Pads to the beat of pirate metal chiptunes. Rhythm is a game genre we didn’t see much of on Game Boy, which Apostolakis says caused some challenges during the development process.

“Unlike the top-down adventure elements, there were no major Game Boy game references (that I was aware of, at the time) to work off of, to base the rhythm sections on,” Apostolakis says. “I had to try (and fail) with several different prototypes, scene layouts, and optimization tricks before I finally found a way to implement the synchronization and reaction-heavy gameplay in a way that made the note-matching responsive and fun to play. It probably did not help that I elected to cram the admittedly demanding rhythm gameplay into what are probably the most visually complex scenes of the game, such as offering a close-up view of the combat and depicting the portraits of commanding officers, whose expressions change based on the player’s performance. Despite the added challenge, I believe that these rhythm scenes are exactly what gives Chantey a unique edge. Managing to make them work as originally intended was one of the most rewarding experiences in Chantey’s development journey thus far.”

Apostolakis cites Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games such as The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Pokémon Red and Blue, Guitar Hero, Advance Wars, and Yggdra Union: We’ll Never Fight Alone as inspirations. If you enjoy any of those games, Chantey is worth keeping an eye on.

Chantey will be released for Game Boy and Chromatic sometime during the first quarter of 2025. You can preorder a physical copy of the game on ModRetro’s website for $40 or try out the game for yourself at the Indie Arena Booth at Gamescom.