Pinobee: Wings of Adventure, known in Japan as Pinobee no Daibōken (ピノビィーの大冒険, Pinobī no Daibōken,
lit. "Pinobee's Great Adventure") or Pinobee: Quest of Heart, is a
platformer for the
Game Boy Advance, developed by
Artoon and published by
Hudson Soft.[1] The game was released as a
launch title for the system, on March 21, 2001 in Japan and June 11, 2001 in North America.[2] A version was developed for
PlayStation in 2002, simply titled Pinobee outside Japan.
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Development and release
Pinobee: Wings of Adventure was developed by
Artoon, which was founded by former
Sega senior director Yoji Ishii in August 1999 with other ex-Sega staffers such as Yutaka Sugano,
Naoto Ohshima, Manabu Kusunoki, and Hidetoshi Takeshita.[3] Sugano, who co-directed and co-designed the game, stated that Ohshima conceived the game as a story that expressed the growth of the human heart.[3] The story about a robotic bee brought to life by a grandfatherly scientist was inspired by the fantasy novel The Adventures of Pinocchio.[4][5] The game's original main theme was that of the love between a parent and child, but this was eventually toned down.[6] Ishii claimed that the transition from Sega platforms to the
GBA and the game's development were smooth due to the handheld's 32-bit
CPU and
C-based programming. The new GBA hardware presented a unique challenge for the project team and was chosen as the best fit to represent the game's art style.[3] The characters were created using
pre-renderedCG models while the backgrounds were hand-drawn.[3] The CG models differed little from their initial concepts, although the antagonists changed from living insects to robots.[6] The game's world map was modeled after the
Vincent van Gogh oil painting series
Langlois Bridge at Arles.[7]
Leading up to the release of Pinobee, it was shown at
Nintendo Space World, the
European Computer Trade Show,
Jump Festa, and the
Tokyo Game Show.[4][5][8][9][10] The game was published by
Hudson Soft as a launch title for the GBA in Japan on March 21, 2001. A
software bug that softlocks the game in two instances was found by consumers shortly thereafter. A workaround for the bug and an apology was posted by Hudson on its official Japanese website on April 11, 2001.[11]Activision struck an overseas distribution deal with Hudson to release Pinobee alongside the GBA in North America and Europe on June 11 and June 22, 2001 respectively.[12][13] Artoon and Hudson collaborated on a sequel titled Pinobee & Phoebee, released in Japan for the GBA on July 18, 2002. The game gives players the ability to switch between the titular brother-sister duo, each with unique abilities, in search of 20 heart pieces in every stage.[14] Ohshima said Hudson suggested Pinobee could be enjoyable as a
PlayStation game and a port of the original game was developed for it.[15] Hudson began advertising both the port of Pinobee and the GBA release of Pinobee & Phoebee (including
English language promotional artwork for the sequel) on its North American website in 2002.[16][17]Konami acquired the distribution rights to the Pinobee series and displayed both games at its
E3 booth in May 2002.[18] Hudson released the PlayStation port of Pinobee in Japan in September 2002 while Konami handled its release in North America and Europe in 2003.[19][20][21]Pinobee & Phoebee remained exclusive to Japan.
The Game Boy Advance version received "mixed" reviews according to the
review aggregation website
Metacritic.[24]NextGen called it "A cute but ultimately underachieving entry in an already crowded market."[32] In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 25 out of 40 for the GBA original,[28] and 27 out of 40 for the PlayStation version.[29]
^Lake, Max (September 3, 2000).
"ECTS: Small GBA Showing". Nintendo World Report. NINWR, LLC.
Archived from the original on August 31, 2023. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
^Hudson staff (April 11, 2001).
"Bug report". Hudson Soft (in Japanese). Archived from
the original on December 27, 2002. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
^Hudson staff (2002).
"Current Games". Hudson Soft. Archived from
the original on August 5, 2002. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
^Hudson staff (2002).
"Wallpaper". Hudson Soft. Archived from
the original on October 11, 2002. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
^IGN staff (May 23, 2002).
"Konami: E3 Booth Report". IGN. Ziff Davis.
Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved September 22, 2022.
^Hudson staff (September 9, 2002).
"ピノビィーの大冒険 【ハドソン ザ ベスト】" [Pinobee's Great Adventure {{[Hudson the Best]}}]. Hudson Soft (in Japanese). Archived from
the original on August 4, 2004. Retrieved September 17, 2022.
^Metts, Jonathan (July 1, 2001).
"Pinobee: Wings of Adventure". Nintendo World Report. NINWR, LLC.
Archived from the original on September 2, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2024.