Fan-Made 'Mega Castlevania IV' Project Is Alive And Well In This New Footage

Holy crucifix. That looks amazing - actually it looks and sounds almost too good for the Megadrive! The trade off is really minimal.
Bit hard to fully tell from this video recording but this looks and sounds better than New Generation/Vampire Killer, which for me always paled in comparison to the SNES game in these departments.
Amazing stuff.

That's really impressive, but I'm very curious as to how they'd handle the Mode 7 rooms in that game!

Looks and sounds impressive! I do have to say though, the gameplay looks much faster and more frantic than the SNES game, which I’m not sure I like. I’m so used to the way the SNES version plays.

May the Genesis live on forever. May my Genesis live on forever 🤞 lol

@NinChocolate Blast to infinity!!! 👍

@Nontendo_4DS haha it definitely looks like gameplay moves faster but I don’t mind the methodically slower movement speed in the early games. You have time to react to your inevitable death lol 😂 Tough but fair, usually.

The Genesis processor is faster than in the SNES hardware 👍 two amazing pieces of hardware

Well, you know what they say: [rough] imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

The jump physics look way off. Seems to jump too high then drops like a stone. Definitely needs more time in the oven. Also, the enemy and platform placements are different.

its a 1991 snes game - try porting Dracula X or something like Yoshis Island and watch the sega fanboys cry

It needs work, of course. The jump is definitely not right and is likely preliminary. It's not surprising that the Genesis can handle the basic look and feel of the game. It's nothing special in that regard. There are better looking games on both systems. As for the music, I like what they did with the stage two music. Simon's Theme from stage one is in Castlevania Bloodlines so we can compare. The version in Bloodlines is excellent.

I think the Genesis got the better end of things when it came to Castlevania. I found CV4 to be very disappointing because I prefer the look and feel of the other games of that classic period. CV4 deviated too much for me, and I also didn't like about half the soundtrack. So my only interest in this port is seeing how they handle things. As far as potentially increased performance, there are speed hacks for the original.

Can we get a ban on users calling people names like "Sega fanboys" on every Mega Drive post? Does this not violate this site's own rules?

That kind of immature behavior really lowers the rest of the retro gaming community who know they can play on multiple platforms without devolving into petty tribalism. All of the games are here for all to enjoy, no one is attacking Nintendo or saying the MD is better.

We get enough of that kind of name calling on Reddit and Youtube. It should be left on a '90s playground.

This looks really impressive. Hopefully the dev working on it sees it through to the end.

@Hexapus I agree regarding childish name calling and console wars stuff, which there has been a lot of in recent times, especially initiated by one set of fans in particular in my experience. Although, calling someone a fanboy is about as tame as it gets and an actual dictionary term, so I'm not sure we should be banning its use or people who use it.

And to that point and to be completely fair, a port of this game to Genesis really only exists for one reason in my opinion. So, I guess certain reactions are just an expected response to these kinds of needless exercises trying to prove by demonstration some long-irrelevant system vs system argument. This is just what such motivations breed.

Imagine the reactions if, for example, someone started a port of Bloodlines to SNES right now, and maybe even added in more colours, proper transparency, additional background layers, Dolby Surround sound, improved SNES controller button mapping, a "move player faster [to the point of clunkiness]" option just because, etc. . . .

And, to be honest, I don't think he will see it through to the end, if the end is a complete port of the SNES game to Genesis with everything up to the same level of quality across the board as the original, with nothing missing and the only changes being things that literally had to be adapted to work on Genesis.

But, it's an interesting example showing you can basically port anything from one console onto the other, which is true of really any systems of that era when just quickly ripping assets and getting the core basics down while ignoring the finer details that are more specific to each system.

Very realistically, you could even port basically any Neo Geo fighter to PC Engine for example, if you don't mind losing some background layers and additional particle effects and seeing some sprite flicker and so on.

@bryce951 There's certainly some things in X that couldn't be done on Genesis, such as the lovely semi-transparent fire in the very first level that also uses three proper fully-overlapping background layers for example, at least not without some pretty big visual/aesthetic compromises there. I expect most of the game would be pretty standard to port across though.

But Yoshi's Island did use the FX2 chip on SNES, so I guess it would be fair of Genesis to use the SVP chip in that case if a port were ever to be attempted. I'm sure it could do a basic version of the game even without the SVP chip, but then quite a lot of the cool rotation and scaling sprite effects and such would definitely be compromised in that case. And there's still some cool transparency effects in that game that just wouldn't look anywhere near as good on Genesis, and some levels with three proper overlapping background layers, smooth backdrop colour gradients, use of the windows, and so on.

This is one of these things like I said above, where it's possible to port almost any game from one console to the other for the large part, if you're just going for the obvious core elements with maybe some compromises here and there to get an approximation of the original. So it doesn't really prove much as far as I'm concerned.

What would be far more interesting to me--if we're going down the whole port to prove a point route--would be to see whatever game ported across and then stuff added to it that actually wasn't/isn't even possible on the other system. I think then people would start to understand what makes each console unique and special.

If that's the aim, I would love to see some Genesis games ported to SNES like that for sure.

I can, for example, imagine Bloodlines getting ported across, and then someone going in and improving the colours throughout so it looks just orders of magnitude prettier, adding in proper transparency effects like on that level with the water reflecting the scenery and when it rises up through the level too, adding in more overlapping background layers and added parallax to every level, making the HUD properly overlaid rather than in an opaque bar, adding in Dolby Surround sound to every tune and sound fx, taking full advantage of the SNES' controller for some really cool mapping there, and so on.

Now that's something that would actually capture my imagination and impress me personally. Although, I imagine it would upset a whole lot of people if it ever did happen, because then it would be real and undeniable.

@sdelfin Colour is your main problem porting from snes onto megadrive. It gives me a cold shudder to think of Yoshis Island being imprisoned on a brown, greeny Sega landscape with fart noises for music. oh the humanity

@bryce951 please keep your Yoshi’s Island over in Nintendo land. No one needs to waste hundreds of hours porting that to any other system.

@bryce951 okay. I didn't say anything about Yoshi's Island. This article is about Castlevania 4. The palette wouldn't be a issue there. As for the music, I can't think of any Japanese games that had that issue you describe, so generalizing like that is rather silly.

@sdelfin The palette would definitely be an issue if you want it to actually look the same as the original. It could get a decent approximation to the casual observer though, just obviously with less colours, likely more dithering, and a slightly more contrasting and garish look due to the greatly reduced colour gamut.

But, get Pyron on it and I'm sure he'll do the best possible job.

Like I said though, if the goal is just to get a decent enough representation of a game from one system on the other, it's possible to do that with basically every console of that generation to varying degrees.

Even the humble PC Engine could do most of what you see in the typical Genesis and SNES game, if you are cool with less background layers and overlapping parallax in 99% of cases, no proper transparency effects, probably the most basic impersonation of any Mode 7 stuff, potentially increased sprite flicker, etc.

I think it would be a very interesting experience to port the main Castlevania game from each system to the others, making sure to actually do the best possible job and even push each port to get the most out of its new home in some of the ways that make sense and are pretty standard for that respective console, and see what results we'd get.

@RetroGames You're right, it is a pretty tame insult. You have always had well thought out arguments, whether I agree with them or not, I appreciate that kind of discourse. It's the repeated drive-by middle finger from some people that triggered me. That's on me though, I shouldn't read the comment section first thing.

I would like to see more cross platform ports and this is kind of a "what could have been" project. For example, the remake of Ghouls 'n Ghosts on the MD, it looks incredible so far.

I'm guessing Konami had their reasons like budget restraints, but SNES versions of their MD games would have been really great, not only for Nintendo but for the consumer as well. I'd love to see Castlevania Bloodlines on the SNES.

Capcom kind of went down that road with Strider, SF2, and Mega Man but I can understand why it might not have been in the company's best interest to make a version for every platform.

@Hexapus Yeah, what those remakes and updates and ports and so on show is that you can always do even more on these consoles with enough time, talent, and effort.

I have literally zero doubt almost every game on both Genesis and SNES could be made even better in modern times if both pushed to the max and polished to the max. Maybe not the best Treasure games, as I think they really are about as good as you could squeeze out of the Genesis and use pretty much every trick it's capable of to be honest, but almost every other game for either system.

And I'd love to see some of them, especially on SNES, as right now that system ain't getting anywhere near its fair share of indie/homebrew/hacker love (outside of a LOT of SMW ROM hacks mostly).

@BulkSlash Block 4-3 might've been completely forgettable gameplay-wise, but it was either Displaced Gamers or (more likely) Retro Game Mechanics who managed to do an entire video explaining just how its visuals were executed.

Super Castlevania IV is one of my faves of ALL time, the soundtrack, visuals AND the game, and it's nuts that the music in this fan-port is nigh-on identical. I love it!

Until all the special effects and rest of the animations are in, the visuals still look relatively incomplete. And the speed seems (intentionally?) a bit off to me, but it's really getting there on that front

The game is coming along very, VERY nicely. Can't wait to dig in when it's available!

oh jesus what is the point of any of this. anyone playing megadrive games in 2024 (us) also has a snes and a flash cart or an fpga or pi doing everything. just play it on the snes

@Hexapus

By the way, following on from one of my previous comments regarding people's reactions if someone did the same in reverse and ported Bloodlines to SNES adding in stuff like proper transparency and more layers and such:

https://x.com/Proteus_Ressus/status/1826693579290673213

https://x.com/Proteus_Ressus/status/1813087383031804285

https://x.com/Proteus_Ressus/status/1818108405183033722

https://x.com/Proteus_Ressus/status/1815403857075429746

Warning: There are some flashing lights in the third link.

He's not done much on it lately, and I'm not sure if he's going to be able to get a properly high standard to be honest, but it would still be very interesting to see how far an upgraded port to SNES could be taken in the right hands.

Also, I think it's kinda cool to see the two versions of IV next to each other to compare how things are coming along on Genesis too:

https://youtu.be/iKJX1ItAlWY?si=4v63wjNdYjGB3Aj1&t=26

https://youtu.be/0fQ54I5N2kU?si=w76tDnYqvy8FwxGE&t=205

@city952 the MD doesn't slowdown half as much.

@X68000 Have you seen the FastROM version of IV on SNES?

And that's still running the original 33 years old '90s code other than the switch to FastROM, so there's no doubt the game could not only be optimized further still, but actually pushed much further in terms of graphics, audio, and even gameplay in many areas too.

It certainly doesn't need any of that extra stuff, but just saying.

@RetroGames Yeah the MD SCIV intro looks pretty rough at the moment but the gameplay seems to be largely intact.

I'm definitely more excited about a possible SNES Bloodlines. Hopefully they see it through to the end.

@Hexapus Yeah, I don't think the guy working on the Bloodlines port will do too much to be honest, but I'm happy to have him maybe complete even a couple of full areas with some added effects and such, just to at least see a hint at the possibility of what could be done there SNES.

There's also this updated title screen that he's not used yet:

https://x.com/iNCEPTIONALNEWS/status/1820850236216037718

I expect the guy doing the Genesis port of IV will actually bring over a lot more of the SNES game in all honesty.

But I guess we'll see how both projects progress and turn out.

@RetroGames Man it really pisses me off to this day that there was an option to reduce slowdown in SNES games with FastROM and bloody developers didn't use it to save costs!! I didn't hear about this till a few years ago - we were all just unaware of it at the time.
ARRRGGGGH!!!!

@bring_on_branstons Yeah, tell me about it. And it just bugs me all the more because there's still a whole lot of people going around trying to misinform others that the slowdown in most of these games is entirely due to the SNES being "slow" rather than in the vast majority of cases because it was actually running at only 70% full speed due to cheap publishers going with the budget cartridge option. Just imagine if you took any other console from that generation and ran the games on it with the CPU suddenly artificially throttled to only 70% speed. So it's rather disingenuous for people to tarnish SNES based on such a situation, especially in modern times where I know most of the people doing that know better. But thankfully some people are now patching most of these SNES games to run at least in FastROM finally.

I really appreciate and respect developers bringing new content to these old machines, but this looks pretty bad, honestly. The basics aren't even right, you can tell just by looking that the controls and physics are completely off. The graphics have taken a pretty big hit, and I don't think the 2612 is really suited to the atmosphere that SCV4 conveys on SNES.
I'm sure the physics and timing will get better, but then what? You've got a version of SCV4 that looks and sounds worse. The only thing I think I could say the Genesis might do better is alleviate slowdown, but the FastROM patch for the SNES version already mostly did that, and further optimization (and there's probably plenty to do; it was a launch-window game for the SNES) would likely get rid of the rest.
I hope that what the developer is doing is making something original that's SCV4-inspired and using this as a test-bed, kind of like Pigsy did with the SotN stuff, because I just don't see the point of a lesser version of a very accessible 33-year-old SNES game.