Hold onto your hat – we're hands on with Dead Head Fred

There are few names more straightforward than Fred, which is probably why it works so well in snappy titular sandwiches such as Right Said Fred (cheesy pop group) and Drop Dead Fred (cheesy imaginary friend movie). Now we've Dead Head Fred – but there's nothing cheesy about this 1950-era gothic horror action PSP game.

One of the playable surprises at E3, Dead Head Fred is the product of two relatively new companies – publisher D3Publisher is working with US studio Vicious Cycle to create the PSP exclusive. And in keeping with the gamemakers's name, it's quite a vicious little offering too.

Taking the role of headless corpse and one-time private detective Fred Neuman, your goal is to find out what originally happened to the hapless fellow when he's later resurrected in a bizarre scientific experiment. (Well, this is the 1950s.)

The head part of the title comes into play as every level of the game provides Fred with a new head to plonk onto his shoulders. Each head puts different abilities at your disposal, both in terms of taking down the various swarms of enemies Fred comes across as well as enabling you to solve the various puzzles.

For example, there's a huge stone head that you use to headbutt all and sundry, and because of its weight it will drop you to the bottom of a lake, just like, well, a stone. (Which – ahem, spoiler – might just come in handy.) The corpse head meanwhile enables you to suck up gases and fluids, and in certain situations you can use it like a flamethrower.

There are nine of these heads in total and you can cycle between your collection at any point using the PSP's left shoulder button. It's like having Dr Frankenstein to hand as your own personal plastic surgeon.

But how do you get the heads? Well, by ripping them off the shoulders of their previous owners. Yep, at this point it's probably sensible to point out this is one macabre game, despite its comic schlock horror atmosphere. There's plenty of red stuff and other bodily fluids spilling onto the floor, so it's not one for the kids, for all the puzzle-based elements.

For those PSP owners with a strong disposition (or evil streak), Dead Head Fred certainly seems one game worth keeping track of, which is something you can do with our appropriately-named "Track It!" button.

The early version of the game at E3 was slightly buggy though, and the claim the thirdperson camera will be the "most revolutionary camera to date on a handheld" is yet to be justified in our view.

Still, with almost a year of development time left – it's currently tagged for an early 2007 release – there should be plenty of time for the brainiacs at Vicious Cycle to get their heads around any problems.