Proto:Maya the Bee & Her Friends

This page details one or more prototype versions of Maya the Bee & Her Friends.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

Download South Park (GBC) File: SouthParkGBC.zip (512 KB) (info)

The Game Boy Color South Park was supposed to be released alongside the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation versions, but ended up being cancelled in 1999 due to Nintendo, Matt Stone, and Trey Parker not wanting to release an adult game for a system that was mostly owned by children.

The game ended up being reworked and released as Maya the Bee & Her Friends in Europe, which itself was reworked and released as both The New Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley and Mary-Kate & Ashley: Get a Clue!.

A ROM of the prototype was released by the Lost Media Wiki in August 2018.

To do: Add general sprite differences. Subpages detailing level differences. Table showing the world sequences between the two games. Sound and music differences with comparisons between both soundtracks. Text differences with comparisons in both scripts. Content specific to both versions of the game (test menus, copyright screens, Kenny's deaths, etc.).

Sub-Pages

On The Way To School/In The Bee Hive Both versions establish very different settings for our characters.

Text Differences The script received quite the overhaul- and oh boy, what an overhaul.

Sound & Music Differences The two games ended up receiving very different soundtracks.

General Differences

Title Screen

South Park	Maya the Bee & Her Friends

The title screen would be changed around appropriately to suit the license. The South Park title screen has an animated "Press Start" prompt and a blinking animation for the boys, while the one in Maya is completely static.

Cutscenes

South Park	Maya the Bee & Her Friends

The South Park boys' source of advice and guidance, Chef, is appropriately replaced by the teacher at Bee School, Miss Cassandra. The cutscenes' speech bubbles were changed from black to white and lost their blue border, while the font was similarly recolored from white to black and changed from a unique, anti-aliased design to the more standard one used throughout the rest of the game, gaining lowercase characters in the process.

South Park	Maya the Bee & Her Friends

Likewise, the boys have been replaced by the troublemaking insect trio accordingly.

Main Menu

South Park	Maya the Bee & Her Friends

The rather smart use of Chef's Menu as the main menu has been substituted for the decidedly less smart use of Maya and a leaf. The options were moved down 8 pixels to accommodate the new graphics.

Password

South Park	Maya the Bee & Her Friends

In what will be a recurring theme throughout the two games, the snazzy Thunderbird font was changed to this still-impressive honey-dripping font.

Bonus Game

South Park	Maya the Bee & Her Friends

The rather elaborate Select Bonus Game screen involving Stan attempting to kiss Wendy and failing horribly was simplified to a simple static graphic of the three playable characters. The unselected icons no longer differ in color, and they also gained a teeny tiny bit of extra anti-aliasing.

Game Over

South Park	Maya the Bee & Her Friends

Once again, the rather fancy South Park font was replaced with a more appropriate one in Maya the Bee.

Level Skip

If you press Start during a level, you'll see this screen. Press Select to skip to the next level.

Hidden Menu

If you press Select on the main menu, you'll access a hidden menu. From here, you can (with A) select any of the 9 worlds (plus the 3 complete bonus worlds), the individual maps within each world, the music tracks, and sound effects. This screen still exists in Maya the Bee, dummied out and completely unchanged from its appearance here, though the level select no longer works.

Unused Text

Found at 0x00038000:

(C)Probe

This is for the sound driver, which is used in most Game Boy games developed by Probe. This game was not developed by Probe, but most of the staff that worked for Crawfish previously worked for Probe, including the sound team.