The unlikely gang of unwitting, time-travelling criminals is back in action, following Non ci resta che il crimine (2019) and Ritorno al crimine (2021), directed by Massimiliano Bruno. Their goal in this third film is to return to 1943, to the days preceding 8 September, and steal Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, from the French. In their travels they meet famous characters and stumble into real historical events in an Italy overwhelmed by WWII.
By the end of the fast animated opening sequences, over the film titles, the gang has already stolen the Mona Lisaand is now by the aqueduct of ancient Monterano. Everything seems to be going well, the three prepare to return to the present-day with their haul. The time-travel portal is located in Camogli, however it will not be simple to travel through Italy in the chaotic aftermath of the armistice, amidst Nazis, Fascists and partisan fighters (“they haven’t built the A1 motorway yet!”).
The Fascist party headquarters where Moreno (Marco Giallini) and Claudio (Giampaolo Morelli) are taken after blowing up a bridge on the orders of Sandro Pertini (Rolando Ravello) and his group of partisans is Villa D’Antoni Varano, in via Barengo 182, northwest of Rome. King Victor Emanuel is expected to arrive at the Castle of Crecchio, actually Brancaccio Castle in San Gregorio da Sassola, to the east of Rome. shantae advance gba rom top download
As the story unfolds, the band’s priority is to help Adele (Carolina Crescentini) rescue her daughter, Monica, the child who will become Moreno’s mother, from a Nazi ship travelling to Naples. On a beach in Bacoli, near the Marina Grande dock, Claudio improvises a conversation in pure Neapolitan dialect to find out if the ship has docked: the headquarters of the Nazi army in Naples is actually the Castle of Santa Severa, in the Macchiatonda Nature Reserve, on the Lazio coastline north of Rome. On the beach there the Germans organize a firing squad and an unlikely battle between Nazis and the Magliana Gang breaks out.
The production also shot in Cerreto di Spoleto and on part of the disused Spoleto-Norcia trainline in Umbria. The Mirage That Became Real: Unpacking Shantae Advance
The unlikely gang of unwitting, time-travelling criminals is back in action, following Non ci resta che il crimine (2019) and Ritorno al crimine (2021), directed by Massimiliano Bruno. Their goal in this third film is to return to 1943, to the days preceding 8 September, and steal Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, from the French. In their travels they meet famous characters and stumble into real historical events in an Italy overwhelmed by WWII.
By the end of the fast animated opening sequences, over the film titles, the gang has already stolen the Mona Lisaand is now by the aqueduct of ancient Monterano. Everything seems to be going well, the three prepare to return to the present-day with their haul. The time-travel portal is located in Camogli, however it will not be simple to travel through Italy in the chaotic aftermath of the armistice, amidst Nazis, Fascists and partisan fighters (“they haven’t built the A1 motorway yet!”). Fully improved 32-bit graphics using the GBA’s hardware
The Fascist party headquarters where Moreno (Marco Giallini) and Claudio (Giampaolo Morelli) are taken after blowing up a bridge on the orders of Sandro Pertini (Rolando Ravello) and his group of partisans is Villa D’Antoni Varano, in via Barengo 182, northwest of Rome. King Victor Emanuel is expected to arrive at the Castle of Crecchio, actually Brancaccio Castle in San Gregorio da Sassola, to the east of Rome.
As the story unfolds, the band’s priority is to help Adele (Carolina Crescentini) rescue her daughter, Monica, the child who will become Moreno’s mother, from a Nazi ship travelling to Naples. On a beach in Bacoli, near the Marina Grande dock, Claudio improvises a conversation in pure Neapolitan dialect to find out if the ship has docked: the headquarters of the Nazi army in Naples is actually the Castle of Santa Severa, in the Macchiatonda Nature Reserve, on the Lazio coastline north of Rome. On the beach there the Germans organize a firing squad and an unlikely battle between Nazis and the Magliana Gang breaks out.
The production also shot in Cerreto di Spoleto and on part of the disused Spoleto-Norcia trainline in Umbria.
Copyright: ph: Samanta Dalla Longa
Marco Giallini, Carolina Crescentini, Gianmarco Tognazzi, Giampaolo Morelli
Copyright: ph: Samanta Dalla Longa
Gianmarco Tognazzi, Carolina Crescentini
Copyright: ph: Samanta Dalla Longa
Marco Giallini, Giampaolo Morelli
Copyright: ph: Samanta Dalla Longa
Marco Giallini, Gianmarco Tognazzi
Copyright: ph: Samanta Dalla Longa
Massimiliano Bruno, Giulia Bevilacqua
Copyright: Sky
Massimiliano Bruno
Copyright: Sky
Giampaolo Morelli, Marco Giallini, Carolina Crescentini, Gianmarco Tognazzi
Copyright: ph: Samanta Dalla Longa
Gianmarco Tognazzi, Giampaolo Morelli, Marco Giallini
For nearly two decades, the name Shantae Advance was the gaming equivalent of a ghost story. Whispered in ROM hacking forums and on prototype collector blogs, it was a tantalizing "what if" from an era when WayForward Technologies was a plucky underdog, not the celebrated indie icon it is today. The original Shantae (2002) for the Game Boy Color is a legend—a late-cycle masterpiece that pushed Nintendo’s 8-bit hardware to its absolute limit, featuring sprite scaling, fluid animation, and a day-night cycle that rivaled console RPGs. A proper Game Boy Advance sequel was announced. Then it vanished.
Until it didn’t.
In 2020, a verified, playable build of Shantae Advance (dated 2004) leaked online. What follows is a deep dive into that ROM—why it matters, where to find it responsibly, and why downloading the "top" result from a random aggregator is a bad idea.
To understand the frenzy around the ROM download, you first need the backstory.
In 2002, following the cult success of the original Shantae on the Game Boy Color (released in 2002—yes, after the GBA launched), WayForward began development on a true sequel: Shantae Advance. The game was set to feature:
The game was nearly complete. However, in 2004, publisher Capcom (who was helping distribute the game) pulled out, citing low pre-orders and the impending launch of the Nintendo DS. The project was shelved indefinitely, and the master ROM was locked away in a digital vault.
For years, fans believed the game was lost forever—until 2020, when a nearly-finished build was accidentally included in a different game’s asset dump. In 2024, a group of ROM hackers and preservationists finished what WayForward started, patching the build into a fully functional GBA game.
The original leaked ROM (Build 0415) had missing collision data and glitched NPCs. The top community-approved download is the Shantae Advance Restoration Patch 2.0, which fixes:
For nearly two decades, the name Shantae Advance was the gaming equivalent of a ghost story. Whispered in ROM hacking forums and on prototype collector blogs, it was a tantalizing "what if" from an era when WayForward Technologies was a plucky underdog, not the celebrated indie icon it is today. The original Shantae (2002) for the Game Boy Color is a legend—a late-cycle masterpiece that pushed Nintendo’s 8-bit hardware to its absolute limit, featuring sprite scaling, fluid animation, and a day-night cycle that rivaled console RPGs. A proper Game Boy Advance sequel was announced. Then it vanished.
Until it didn’t.
In 2020, a verified, playable build of Shantae Advance (dated 2004) leaked online. What follows is a deep dive into that ROM—why it matters, where to find it responsibly, and why downloading the "top" result from a random aggregator is a bad idea.
To understand the frenzy around the ROM download, you first need the backstory.
In 2002, following the cult success of the original Shantae on the Game Boy Color (released in 2002—yes, after the GBA launched), WayForward began development on a true sequel: Shantae Advance. The game was set to feature:
The game was nearly complete. However, in 2004, publisher Capcom (who was helping distribute the game) pulled out, citing low pre-orders and the impending launch of the Nintendo DS. The project was shelved indefinitely, and the master ROM was locked away in a digital vault.
For years, fans believed the game was lost forever—until 2020, when a nearly-finished build was accidentally included in a different game’s asset dump. In 2024, a group of ROM hackers and preservationists finished what WayForward started, patching the build into a fully functional GBA game.
The original leaked ROM (Build 0415) had missing collision data and glitched NPCs. The top community-approved download is the Shantae Advance Restoration Patch 2.0, which fixes:
