I had my heart set on getting back into the swing of publishing GameSpite print material here after the TGS-induced photo-blog hiatus (which, admittedly, was a lot of fun), but then sometime in the middle of the afternoon yesterday I started writing a short blog to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Japanese debut of Castlevania on Famicom Disc System. Which goes down tomorrow. Or today, right now, if you’re on Japan time (like my body is).

Somewhere along the way, my quick blog musings became too long for a blog and were repurposed as a new op-ed piece. Then at the end I was at about 3700 words and decided, well, might as well add more spot art and make it a full feature. And here we go: A three-page Castlevania retrospective that, with no planning or anticipation, flew from my brain to the Internet by way of my fingertips. I’m happy with how it turned out, but I can’t tell if it’s good despite its improvisational nature or because of it. Maybe the latter. 1UP has probably lacked for mad passion projects lately.

What really surprised me about this is that I thought I was pretty well burnt out on Castlevania for the foreseeable future. But as soon as I started typing, all those warm fuzzes came flooding back, and my happy neurons began firing. It’s like finding a photo of your ex in your sock drawer and realizing you’re still in love. Well, that’s never actually happened to me. But I bet this is what it would feel like!

Listen, I know more about video games than interpersonal human relations. OK? That’s just how it is.