This week on Spiffing Reads, we begin with an eye-opening behind-the-scenes look at a certain 3D vampire series.

“We got caught in a s***storm” (Eurogamer)

This interview with the developers of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is fascinating. It’s interesting to hear how the two LoS games were by far the most successful Castlevania games in terms of sales, even though LoS 2 underwhelmed reviewers. Also interesting to hear the developers’ reactions to those poor reviews, and how much of a shock it was. Oh, and the boss’s evasive reaction to being asked about where the funding is coming from for their next project spoke volumes… A studio stretched too far? After all, self-publishing is a big gamble.

Five most underrated female characters in videogames (Very Very Gaming)

I highly enjoyed this post, especially as I hadn’t even heard of half of the video-game females listed here. It also gave me a hankering to track down the game D, as it sounds batshit mental.

Nintendo raises the banner for premium mobile gaming (GamesIndustry.biz)

The author labels Nintendo’ as a “latecomer to a battle that was lost some time ago” in terms of the companies plans to use premium prices rather than adopt the free-to-play model. But if any company can do it, Nintendo can. And things aren’t as clear-cut as they seem – Nintendo also seem to be embracing in-app purchases, according to some.

Pokémon Go fans are hungry for some more minor text fixes (Polygon)

I love me a meme, and this cracked me up. After Niantic frustrated everyone by dragging their heels when it came to fixing the game’s many technical issues, instead offering up update after update with only ‘minor text fixes’, the Pokemon Go community has taken the phrase to heart. The reddit forum even translates ‘edited’ to ‘minor text fixes’.

Luigi’s Miiverse Has Become A Shitposter’s Paradise In 2016 (Kotaku UK)

Thanks to Very Very Gaming for bringing this one to my attention last week. The normally innocuous Miiverse has something very odd happening on the New Super Luigi U page, where people seem to have gathered to post random nonsense.

10 VINTAGE GERMAN ATARI ADS EXPLAINED (Digitiser 2000)

And finally, something to get your grin muscles working. “The boy on the right suspects that there is something going on between his girlfriend and his father, but lacks the strength of character to confront them directly.”

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Spiffing Reads is a regular feature where we pick out the best gaming articles of the week. If you’ve read anything interesting, please let us know in the comments.