Many moons ago, this screenshot of a rumoured ‘Yoshi GBA game’ surfaced online. Found in the pages of IGN Pocket, it drew a lot of speculation from fans and critics, with people saying it was anything from a cancelled GBA title to a tech demo never meant for release.
It was quite the mystery, and led to an interesting video by LSuperSonicQ back in 2018:
Now though, we finally have our answer. And sadly, it’s a lot more disappointing than you might have hoped.
Put simply, it’s a mock-up by Famitsu64 magazine. Yep, as discovered by someone called ‘PineappleCarl’ on the Gaming Alexandria Discord server, the mystery ‘screenshot’ first appeared in the Japanese magazine before being covered by IGN, complete with the former saying it was just a concept for what a GBA ‘could be’.
Here’s a tweet about it by Mario Wiki for proof:
In 2000, IGN Pocket posted a mysterious image, allegedly from "a Japanese correspondent", showing what appeared to be a Yoshi game or tech demo for GBA.
As it turns out, the thing was a mock-up by Famitsu 64 magazine. Creds to PineappleCarl from the Gaming Alexandria Discord pic.twitter.com/UPC8rRMOb7
— Super Mario Wiki (@SMWikiOfficial) April 25, 2026
So, yeah, the mystery of the purple Yoshi game has now been solved. There was no actual game in development like this at any point, and the screenshot was merely a mock-up by a Japanese magazine in the early 00s. Unlike Super Mario 64 2 and Mario Takes America, this cancelled game was never a thing at all.
Still, what are your thoughts? Are you disappointed that it was just a fan made concept all this time? What other gaming mysteries do you hope to see solved?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below, or on our Discord server today!
Source:
The Purple Yoshi GBA Mystery has Now Been Solved (Mario Wiki on Twitter)