Fuzz & Rocket

Fuzz and Rocket is a cancelled side scrolling platformer inspired by Yoshi’s Island, which was in development around 2003 by Halfbrick Studios (Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2, Fruit Ninja) for Game Boy Advance. It featured an aim mechanic similar to Yoshi’s 16-Bit adventure, where you threw the protagonist’s sidekick (Rocket) to resolve puzzles or to kill enemies. At the time a few gaming websites posted news about the game and it even had a nomination at the 2003 Australian Game Developers Awards. As we can read from the old Halfbrick website:

“Fuzz and Rocket is an immersive 2D action platformer which incorporates both substance and style. It is centered around the main character, Fuzz and his sidekick, Rocket as they try to restore order to the land of Fulu. Mysterious masks have possessed the rulers of the 8 kingdoms of Fulu causing them to make life difficult for their subjects. It is up to Fuzz and Rocket to figure out what’s going on and trace the masks back to their source! Many challenges and obstacles stand in their way.

Fuzz and Rocket features over 8 unique worlds encompassing over 32 levels, numerous bonus games, in-game cutscenes and varied gameplay to keep players entertained for hours.

Fuzz and Rocket is Halfbrick Studios’ first Game Boy Advance title based on an original concept, which is currently in development. Fuzz and Rocket has been developed in-house using Halfbrick Studios’ proprietary engine and tools. We are currently looking for expressions of interest regarding its publication.”

The game was last seen at E3 2005 and as far as we know it was pretty close to being done, but in the end the team was not able to find a publisher before the GBA was replaced by Nintendo DS: Fuzz and Rocket was canned and forgotten by everyone.