Game Reviews

Vampire Rush

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| Vampire Rush
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Vampire Rush
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| Vampire Rush

During a recent bout of channel surfing, I happened across an old episode of Jerry Springer that featured a young man called Zack who believed he was a vampire.

Sporting jet black hair and nails, fang-capped teeth, and a travelling coffin, he certainly looked the part.

As he sat there sucking a quart of blood gingerly through a sippy-straw, two things occurred to me. First, the portly Zack obviously relies on more than plasma for sustenance. Second, fake vampires are seriously uncool.

Not that I've ever met a real vampire.

Grim Fanged Damned Glow!

Arriving in timely fashion for Halloween, Vampire Rush is the bada debut for A-Steroids, the team behind Underworld: SweetDeal on the iPhone. Featuring strutting swordsman Captain Greg, this new title is an unusual blend of tower defence and survival action.

Controlling Greg via virtual thumbstick and buttons, you position a variety of upgradable towers along the path of the oncoming hordes.

The gaudily dressed Greg can be freely manoeuvered around each map, allowing you to chase down the various enemies and give 'em a poke with your sabre.

Vampire Rush is immediately appealing. The bright primary tones of the towers and vampires contrast sharply with the macabre underworld, while the sound is crisp and clear through the handset's speaker.

The orchestral title screen music deserves a special mention, too, reminiscent as it is of a swashbuckling movie soundtrack.

Bloodsuckers for punishment

The genre-duality is brilliantly executed, and there are a couple of nice touches that force you to think carefully. The vampires often have multiple routes to their goal and, crucially, there's a no-man's-land surrounding the gate preventing tower placement.

As you progress through each wave of vamps, you'll be rewarded with cash for every one that you turn to dust. This can be spent on additional towers, upgrades, and skills for your avatar or to boost the strength of the Underworld Gate.

Vampire Rush is not completely without fault. Casual players might not enjoy the steep learning curve. At a mere five levels, it's also a little short, although A-Steroids has promised an update that will add new content.

A-Steroids has taken a genre-blending gamble, and the end result is much greater than the sum of its parts. Despite a few minor gripes, Vampire Rush is a satisfying, polished and highly original vampire-slaying experience.

Vampire Rush

A quirky yet stylish blend of action survival and tower defence that sucks you into its dark embrace
Score
Wayne Turton
Wayne Turton
Wayne's childhood ambition was to become a superhero. However, having been told that running round in tights is improper adult behaviour he now spends his days playing video games and watching cartoons instead. Millions of citizens sleep more soundly in the knowledge that he isn't watching over them.