No one expected ‘The Amazing Adventures of Bill and Ted’ to be a success in the late 80s. Two unknown actors at the time (Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter) living mischievous time-traveling adventures with absurd humor: it quickly became a college cult film, a sequel was hastily approved and video game companies and comic book publishers started preparing adaptations at full speed.
Excellent!
On February 17th of this year, the Bill and Ted video games were unexpectedly released by Limited Run, the company that releases retro titles with the idea of preserving them and ensuring they are never lost. Specifically, the ones released under the title ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Retro Collection’ were two: ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Video Game Adventure’ for NES, and ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Portable Adventure’ for Game Boy.
What’s the problem? The problem is that this Sunday, less than a year after putting them on sale, they will disappear from the PS Store and the Nintendo eShop. The reason, according to themselves, is that they no longer have the rights to the franchise and they were only given a two-year license: the development took longer than they thought and this is the result. If you were lucky enough to buy it physically, you can play it as much as you want. If not, you better hurry because Bill and Ted won’t be available in 2024.
They are not the only games whose licenses will expire soon: Scott Pilgrim or Turok are also part of those that will disappear from stores as soon as the agreement ends… But at least these have had more time to shine. In fact, you may find out by reading this that there were Bill and Ted games for sale, just before their execution. Definitely not an excellent decision.
