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ModRetro Shadow Dropped Earthworm Jim and Rayman 2 on Game Boy: The Library Is Now the Reason to Buy

2026-08-29 · News and analysis

ModRetro put two new Game Boy cartridges on sale earlier this month with no trailer, no countdown and no press push. Earthworm Jim and Rayman 2 Forever simply appeared on the store at $44.99 each.

The shadow drop is fun. The bigger story is what it says about the company.

When the Chromatic launched, the pitch was the hardware. A premium FPGA Game Boy for your existing cartridge collection. Two years on, ModRetro has quietly become a game publisher with 23 cartridges in its catalog, and the library has turned into a real argument for the device on its own.

What The Two New Games Are

Rayman 2 Forever, $44.99. This is the Game Boy Color Rayman follow up, and it is the more elaborate of the two releases. It runs in full color, it ships on a yellow cartridge, and it comes with a color booklet, a box and a Chromatic charm. The headline change is an entirely new soundtrack composed from scratch. You get 42 levels across 10 worlds, 800 Lums to collect and 4 Masks of Polokus.

Earthworm Jim, $44.99. The Interplay original, and a deliberately different treatment. It stays in traditional DMG green monochrome on a plain grey cartridge, because that is what the game looked like. The enhancements are quality of life instead of cosmetic. You get auto save and level select, which matter more than they sound. Earthworm Jim on Game Boy was brutal, and being able to stop mid run without losing the session changes how playable it is now. Figure around three hours if you are pushing through.

Both carts include a charm modeled on a character from the game.

The Part Nobody Is Saying Loudly Enough

These are real Game Boy cartridges.

Not Chromatic exclusives. Not a proprietary format. They run in an original Game Boy, an original Game Boy Color and an Analogue Pocket, the same as any cartridge from 1998.

That reframes the whole thing. You do not need to own a Chromatic to care about this. If you have a battered DMG in a drawer, ModRetro is currently one of the few companies making new, boxed, licensed games that will boot in it.

Twenty Three Cartridges Deep

The catalog splits into three rough tiers.

Licensed classics at $44.99. This is where the two new games sit, alongside Rayman, Croc: 25th Anniversary Edition, Croc 2: 25th Anniversary Edition, Chikyu Kaiho Gun ZAS, Project S-11 and Toki Tori Ultimate Edition. Mostly Game Boy and Game Boy Color titles brought back with modern conveniences bolted on.

Original games, $29.99 to $44.99. Buck and the Cursed Cartridge, Wicked Plague, Self Simulated, Sabrina: Zapped!, Gravitorque DX, First Contact Protocol, Hermano, Chantey, Patchy Matchy, Dragonyhm, Traumatarium Penitent, In The Dark 2, Tales of Monsterland DX and Baby T-Rex. New games, made now, for a console from 1989.

The Atari '90s Rewind Collection at $99.99. The outlier, and the most expensive thing in the catalog.

The pattern across all of them is the same. Physical cartridge, printed color manual, collectible box, character charm. ModRetro is selling the object as much as the game, and the pricing reflects that.

Now The Annoying Part

Almost everything is sold out.

At the time of writing, the great majority of the catalog shows no stock, the two new releases included. This is not unusual for ModRetro. Runs are limited, they sell through quickly, and restocks are irregular.

So treat this as a watchlist rather than a shopping list. If a specific title matters to you, the practical move is to watch the store and GameStop directly, and to be quick when something comes back.

ModRetro sells these cartridges through its own store and through GameStop. Neither is an affiliate link, and we are not linking a marketplace search for these, because searching for boxed Game Boy cartridges by name turns up reproductions and unrelated listings far more often than the real product.

What This Changes About Buying A Chromatic

Our FPGA handheld guide has always framed the Chromatic the same way. Beautiful, premium, and narrow. Game Boy and Game Boy Color only, no Game Boy Advance, no adapters, no community core scene like the Analogue Pocket has.

That is still true on the hardware side. But "narrow" was doing a lot of work in that argument, and a 23 game first party library softens it. The Chromatic is no longer only a nicer way to play carts you already own. It is now the flagship device for a small but active new release pipeline.

Whether that is worth $199, or $299 for the Sapphire model, still depends on how much you care about Game Boy specifically. The full comparison with the Pocket is the place to start if you are deciding.

One honest caveat. Because these are standard cartridges, the library is not a lock in. Everything ModRetro publishes also runs on a Pocket or an original Game Boy. The games are a reason to buy into the platform. They are not a reason to buy this specific handheld over another one that reads the same carts.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much are the new ModRetro Game Boy games?

Earthworm Jim and Rayman 2 Forever are $44.99 each. That is the standard price for ModRetro's licensed classic re-releases. The catalog ranges from $29.99 for smaller original titles up to $99.99 for the Atari '90s Rewind Collection.

Do ModRetro cartridges work on an original Game Boy?

Yes. They are standard Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges, so they run in an original DMG, a Game Boy Color, a Game Boy Advance and an Analogue Pocket, as well as the ModRetro Chromatic. You do not need to own a Chromatic to play them.

What is different about the ModRetro version of Earthworm Jim?

It keeps the original DMG green monochrome look rather than adding color, and adds auto save and level select. The auto save is the meaningful one, because the Game Boy original had no way to stop partway through a run without losing progress.

What is different about Rayman 2 Forever?

It runs in full color and has an entirely new soundtrack composed from scratch for this release. It ships on a yellow cartridge with a color booklet, a box and a Chromatic charm, and covers 42 levels across 10 worlds.

Why can I not buy any ModRetro games?

ModRetro produces limited runs, and most of the catalog is sold out most of the time. Restocks happen but are not on a published schedule. Watching the ModRetro store and GameStop directly is the only reliable approach.

Is the Chromatic worth buying just for these games?

Not on its own, because these cartridges also run on an original Game Boy or an Analogue Pocket. Buy the Chromatic if you want the best dedicated Game Boy and Game Boy Color hardware available. Treat the growing library as a bonus rather than the deciding factor.