It would take too long to go into the debacle of Japanese videogame developer Konami, so just know that one of their prominent developers, Koji Igarashi, left the company during that turbulent time and struck out to found his own studio, Artplay.
Igarashi is most well-known for the 1997 hit title Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, a seminal platform action game that has few competitors to this day.
The first crowd-funded game for his new studio, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, is due out this year and is more than a little similar in gameplay, theme and name to his 1997 hit. Stick to what you know, eh?
The wait is killing me - but in the meantime, as a result of his crowd-funding campaign doing really well, Igarashi hired the studio Inti Creates to develop a short, retro-themed prequel game to tide us over.
That game is Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, and it was released a few days ago. If you've ever played the old NES Castlevania trilogy, specifically Castlevania III, you'll know exactly what to expect.
It's a side-scrolling platform game in which the player controls demon-hunting swordsman Zangetsu, who meets three other characters: the agile, whip-wielding Miriam (who is also the star of the upcoming game), the magic-casting but frail Alfred, and the shape-shifting Gebel. The player can switch between the four characters at will, and each has a unique set of abilities that they can employ against enemies or use to find hidden paths through the levels.
WATCH | The game trailer for Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon..