Gameboy

The Castlevania SotN Demake for GBC We Never Knew We Needed

This impressive fan project shows us what the best Castlevania would look like on Nintendo's '90s-era portable.

Screenshots and video of a Gameboy Color demake of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night are making the rounds on Twitter, and Castlevania fans are abuzz.

In case you don't know, Demakes are a popular trend where fan-favorite titles are remade for consoles from an earlier era. Most of the demakes you'll find are lovingly crafted illustrations, as was the case for the Symphony of the Night demake by developer @MarcDWyz, who posted this nostalgia-inducing concept art to Twitter:

For comparison, here's what Symphony of the Night looks like on the original PlayStation hardware:

Nailed it! The tone and atmosphere of Symphony of the Nighf absolutely shines through, even with the limited resolution and color palette of the Gameboy Color. Needless to say, the Castlevania community was excited at the idea of seeing what is widely considered the best game in the series ported to Nintendo's '90s-era portable.

Later, indie developer @diablohead took this creative exercise to the next level with a video that put gamers' jaws on the floor:

That's a working tech demo running on an emulator, and boy is it impressive in motion. Alucard's idle animation is just right, and the light roll on the HP bar and parallax effect on the background are subtle touches that really elevate the proof-of-concept. In fact, it looks so good, some wondered if it was even possible on the Gameboy Color. A few hours later, @diablohead posted this casual photo of the demo running on an actual Gameboy Color:

Case closed. Not only is this an impressive artistic achievement, but it's also technically possible!

This isn't the first time someone has tried to port Symphony of the Night to the Gameboy. A Gameboy demake project existed years ago on Game.com but was later abandoned, though a prototype was later uncovered (screenshot below).

Unfortunately, all this buzz has yet to lead to any announcements of a SotN demake project. And historically, fan-made remakes and ports haven't been looked upon favorably by the owners of the IPs. Still, a Metroidvania fan can dream.