If you are like me, Castlevania Adventure, and the sequel, on the original Nintendo Game Boy just did not cut it for me. I wanted the authentic NES experience on the go. I am not aware of a point we could have that until now, a fan is making it happen. Even cooler, their port of the original Castlevania is for the original Game Boy.
Castlevania Game Boy an Interesting Port
I am hesitant to call this a demake but technically, I guess it would be. It feels more like a port considering the two platforms were on the market at the same time and were similar in power. Just the Game Boy lacked color.
Castlevania Game Boy was created with Game Boy Studio, a software development kit that allows fans to make their own games to run on real hardware. It is an interesting game to tackle for the Game Boy, one that will garner more than a few fans, I am sure.
The developer, Alexspectror on Itch.io claims this demo can be played on original hardware from the Game Boy to the Game Boy Pocket and Color. It is also playable in your browser, as well as downloaded to play in your favorite emulator.
It is odd that Konami never released the original Castlevania on a portable platform. Sure, they did the Adventure games and then on the GBA they released the “Metroidvania” versions but not the original.Keep in Mind This Is a Demo
This is a demo, and many features, creatures, and items are not in yet. I have no information on if this is due to limitations of the Game Boy Studio or if they are coming later.
Items such as the cross, holy water, dagger, etc are not in but hearts are. This is a sign that alternate weapons are probably coming later – if not then hearts have no use at all in this version that I could find.
Bosses only require one hit with the whip, I didn’t even hit the first level boss, the bat, and still beat it. I am pretty sure these will be fixed later.
There is a lack of animation when dispatching enemies, they just kind of flicker out of existence with a small flame animation in their place. This could be a limitation of the hardware.
Graphically, Castlevania Game Boy is super impressive. It looks phenomenal already.
Are you excited about this port? What other NES games would you love to see on the Game Boy?