It was the middle of the summer of 1991 in Centreville, Virginia. I would often wait around the house for a friend to show up so we could play Nintendo in the basement. Despite having a lack of two player games, we had fun with taking turns playing a variety of titles, but these sessions were cut short by my Dad forcing us to play outside.

Running around the dog-shit ridden forest trails, my friend and I would run around, pretending we were video game characters fighting each other. I would always pretend to be the hero of my favorite game, Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse: Trevor Belmont. Ironically, my friend's name also happened to be Trevor.

Other than an opening text scrawl with the trademark chiptune gothic musical bloops escaping from the TV speakers, Castlevania III had little story. Trevor Belmont was just an ancestor of famed vampire slayer, Simon Belmont, hero of the prior two games in the series. His appearance was just like Simon Belmont--lots of tans and browns, with a hint of yellow.

Despite the fact that nothing about the appearance or the functionality was original, the secret that endeared the character to me was the game itself. Castlevania III was a hard side-scroller with branching paths, intricate music, and a convoluted password system. It was a game that did away with the poor translation and loose RPG conventions of Castlevania II and returned to its roots, screaming, "See this? This is a real Castlevania game!"

I've enjoyed Castlevania games since, but Castlevania III holds a special place in my heart with Trevor Belmont warming my ice-cold cockles. Perhaps Trevor will appear in Castlevania Judgement, the upcoming Castlevania fighting game for the Wii... Or perhaps he will say fangs for the memories!