Pigsy, the developer behind the Genesis / Mega Drive port of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, has teased another Castlevania-related project – but before you get too excited, it won't be a full remake of the game.
Instead, Pigsy has shared a mocked-up screen of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse on Sega's 16-bit console before pointing out that the most we'll see is a demo, rather than a complete port.
"I'm not planning to do a full remake of the game," Pigsy says. "Earlier this year, I did a lot of work upgrading the GG Shinobi graphics from Game Gear to Mega Drive and before I go back to touch them up I wanted to get more "8-bit to 16-bit graphical upgrading" practice. A 8 to 16-bit "remake" has different challenges from 32-16 bit "demake". In the former, you pretty much have to redraw the assets completely (including re-sizing, adding colours, etc), whereas the latter is all about reducing complexity while still making it look good in its own way."
Even so, a demo is going to be interesting – and we shouldn't have to wait too long to see it. "The assets for level one are pretty much done, so I'll eventually try and use an altered version of my SotN code to create a little Castlevania 3 demo in time for Christmas," the developer adds.
Released on the NES in 1989, Dracula's Curse is considered to be one of the best "Classicvania" entries.
The Genesis is also getting a fan-made port of Super Castlevania IV, while Castlevania Bloodlines is headed in the opposite direction.