Bloody Vampire

Alas, this is not a game about some guy blasting the heads off blood-suckers, shaking his fist and shouting, "Bloody vampires!" into the night sky.

It's a Metroidvania platformer with some really interesting ideas up its sleeve and some really shoddy design.

You play as Latis, a vampire-human hybrid who sets out to discover why a vampire is laying down his fortress in the human world.

This fortress acts as Bloody Vampire's main stage, as you weave your way through its halls to discover enemies, boss battles, upgrades, and traps.

Bloody Vampire is rather strange, in that the way to attack enemies is to simply walk into them. If you're stronger than your opponent then you'll bounce off him and do damage. The idea is simply to barge around the place, taking down baddies left, right, and centre.

You'll bag yourself coins as you go, and you can use these to purchase items and upgrades, enabling you to explore even further into the castle and bulldoze into larger enemies.

The world is well-designed, with plenty of paths weaving in and out of each other, and the transformation powers later into the game really ramp up the entertainment.

But Bloody Vampire is a bit of a mess, all things considered.

Sometimes you'll jump or walk into an enemy and actually lose health, with no indication whether this is down to them being stronger than you or to you hitting them in the wrong way.

You're given magical powers, but these run out rather too quickly, and they undermine the whole "bashing into enemies" element of the gameplay.

Plus, the inventory system feels under-developed. It sort of works part touchscreen, part buttons, and flicking through to what you require can be a real chore.

On top of all this, there's no map available at all, so you have to rely on your noggin to remember where the heck you're supposed to go when backtracking. This can be hugely frustrating - especially given that enemies all respawn when you leave a room and then come back in again.

Bloody Vampire has the potential to be great, but it's far too sketchy to properly enjoy. Perhaps a sequel will smooth these edges out.