Clockwork Aquario wins Guinness World Record after spending 30 years in development
After 30 years of development, Clockwork Aquario has secured a title with Guinness World Records.
Work on Clockwork Aquario originally began way back in 1990 at Westone Bit Entertainment. Unfortunately, the cutesy 2D action platformer was canceled due to the popularity of other genres in arcades at the time.
Remarkably, thanks to a publishing agreement with ININ Games and Strictly Limited Games, Clockwork Aquario finally sees the light of day on Dec. 14 when it comes out on Nintendo Switch and PS4. Co-founder of Westone Ryuichi Nishizawa, along with several other members of the original development team, took the original game files and finally completed Clockwork Aquario all these years later!
Since development began in 1990 and finished in 2021, the Guinness World Records awarded Clockwork Aquario the title of “the longest time between video game project start and release.”
Check out a trailer for Clockwork Aquario below. It’s a beauty in motion, that’s for sure. We might have to update a certain list with this one.
Before Clockwork Aquario came along, Duke Nukem Forever held this title at Guinness World Records at 14 years of development. So yeah, Westone utterly shattered the competition.
“I would like to express my heartfelt respect and gratitude to those who have worked so hard to restore it,” Nishizawa said on Inin’s website. “I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that this work is a great piece of 2D art, where the pixel artists of that time put their hearts and souls into. I’d be happy if people would appreciate and enjoy it.”
It’s a safe bet that Clockwork Aquario will hold this title for a long time.
Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.