Castlevania Sega Genesis | CRT Shader
23Bloodlines is one of the most technically impressive titles on the Sega Genesis. Despite the console's limitations—particularly compared to the SNES's Mode 7 effects—Konami's developers pulled off some serious wizardry.
One of the game's most iconic moments comes in the Leaning Tower of Pisa stage, where the entire background tilts and shifts as you climb. It mimics a rotation effect that looks eerily similar to Mode 7, but it's all done through clever sprite scaling and background manipulation. The developers used tilemap tricks to simulate a rotating cylinder, giving players a sense of depth and motion rarely seen on Genesis.
Another showpiece is the mirror room, where your reflection mimics your movements in real time. That’s not a visual overlay—it’s a second character sprite being rendered with flipped animations. It’s subtle but eerie, and a great example of how atmosphere was built with small but effective illusions.
The game also uses multi-layered parallax scrolling extensively. Backgrounds feel alive, with several layers moving independently to give stages a real sense of scale. From the stormy skies of the opening stage to the surreal, blood-soaked hellscape near the end, the environmental detail is top-notch.
Blood effects, enemy dismemberments, and destructible elements all push the Genesis’ capabilities. While the system is known for a darker color palette, Konami embraced it here—leaning into gothic reds, purples, and deep shadows to reinforce the horror aesthetic. It's grittier than Super Castlevania IV, but it suits the war-torn, apocalyptic setting.