Last week saw the European launch of Clockwork Aquario on Switch (North America has to wait until next week), finally letting players enjoy a title that’s been 30 years in the making. It’s been a long time coming, but it was certainly worth the wait.
As it happens, the game’s well-documented delay in development (the project actually started way back in 1991) has earned it a Guinness World Record. That’s right, Clockwork Aquario now officially holds the record for the longest time between a video game project start and final release.
Here’s a recap on how it all went down:
“The initial development of Clockwork Aquario started in 1991. It was the last arcade game ever developed by the legendary company Westone. With the advent of 3D gaming and other genres vying for dominance, Clockwork Aquario’s development was canceled. Nearly 30 years later, ININ Games and Strictly Limited Games – two labels dedicated to preserving popular but also forgotten or never-released retro gems – joined forces to unearth this video game treasure.
A development team including members of the original Westone team such as Ryuichi Nishizawa – co-founder of Westone and creator of legendary Wonder Boy – was put together with the aim to bring Clockwork Aquario to life. With a motivated team of passionate retro game fans and the original creators of Clockwork Aquario, it was ensured that the lost arcade title gets its well deserved release, losing none of its charm, but staying true to its roots.”
Incidentally, Clockwork Aquario takes the world record from Duke Nukem Forever, which held the title until now after reportedly being in development for 14 years and 44 days.
It’d take something pretty spectacular to beat a 30-year development cycle. Is there a long-lost version of Pong that we don’t know about, perhaps?
