We’ve been following the release of Gumball in Trick-or-Treat Land, a new GBC RPG from developer Adam Lewis Graf and publisher Mega Cat Studios. While we await news of when the GBC carts will be available to buy, the game is coming to Steam on February 19th, 2026, and we’ve had the privilege to play through it to bring you a full review. The premise of Gumball is what you expect from a game in this genre. You play as a lonely gumball, looking for a way home after falling into the halloween themed Trick-or-Treat Land.
As you explore, the world map grows, and you take on almost every NPC in battle who can’t be passed until they’re defeated. After the battle, they sometimes become friends, help you in some way, and allow you to continue or simply vanish. The battles start easily, with only basic moves needed, and start to ramp up and take on an almost puzzle-like quality. Towards the end of the game, the battles require some deeper thinking about what moves you have, what enemies are vulnerable to, and unlocking the system to take them down.
A great aspect of Gumball is its variety in both areas and enemies. Each new town you come across has its own distinct theme, such as swamp or city, and different enemies, all of which have unique attributes. It’s this variety that keeps Gumball interesting, given the lack of depth to upgrading your character, who only has magic and health to upgrade, alongside the odd item to equip. Not having deep character building means the world in which you explore needs to be vast, and Trick-or-Treat Land is impressive, and there’s lots to uncover, puzzles to solve, and townsfolk to interact with.
As you would expect for a full RPG released on the constraints of a handheld, Gumball in Trick-or-Treat Land has to make some concessions in its scope and size. This is mainly felt in your party, which is actually just one main character, Gumball, and a small team of helpers, who act more like pieces of equipment that help, rather than fully fledged party members. As you progress through the game, more of the team join your quest and each one adds a different buff to your attack, defence, or overall abilities. We enjoyed mixing and matching, and choosing the right helper for each fight became crucial towards the end when the battles became more complex.
In most areas, there is a boss fight of sorts that usually involves fighting multiple enemies one after the other and trying to survive. These battles are quite tough and are certainly the difference between knowing whether you’ve done enough to warrant entering the next area. A complete failure lets you know that more work needs to be done in the current town, whereas an easy victory is the nod that it’s probably time to move on.
What is great about Gumball, though, is that sticking in an area and finishing all the side quests usually gives access to the helpers as well as the extra stat upgrades. Towards the end of the game, we felt it prudent to go back and finish up some of the extras so we had enough power to get through the final battles. Gumball isn’t a particularly hard game in that regard; it actually is fairly straightforward, especially if you have retro RPG experience. It’s just good that it sets a certain level needed to stop you flying through it without some graft.
The presentation in Gumball is what you would expect from a game made for the GBC. The pixel art is straightforward, lacking any real detail, but the use of color and some delightful animations bring the world to life. Some of the worlds do look a little sparse in places, but this is usually helpful as it means puzzle objects or quest sections are easily identified. The music is decent enough for a GBC game, but it does become a little repetitive if you end up in the same area exploring or having to traverse the map. Luckily, early on, you gain the ability to fly around as a fast ghost that stops a lot of slow back and forth.
Overall, Gumball in Trick-or-Treat Land is a well-made RPG that makes good use of the limited hardware. It doesn’t do anything particularly new, but it does a great job of making sure the expected RPG mechanics are implemented to a good standard. The story bumps along nicely, and it’s enjoyable, slowly upgrading your character’s abilities. Hardcore RPG fans will appreciate the structure, and pixel art fans will love the minilaist GBC graphics. If you’re planning on playing this on a desktop, it may not quite have the depth and scope of modern RPG titles, but it definitely feels like it would be a cracking game to take on the road in your trusty GameBoy.
