Wednesday 30 Aug 2006
A gothic girl, the undead, leather and guns. Yes we know, but for the moment put any thought of Bloodrayne out of your noggin. Temporarily wrestle those mental images of sapphic suckers and vamps from the bongo storage area of your cerebellum.
Instead imagine the dynamism of Ninja Gaiden but high on oestrogen, the athleticism of Devil May Cry but with slightly more mascara or Dead Rising in thigh-length boots. All of these are better comparisons for Bullet Witch and not just because Bloodrayne was rubbish.
They are also worthy comparisons because Bullet Witch, like the rest of those games, is being developed in Japan but seemingly crafted with a global audience in mind; there's more carnage than conversation, an emphasis on levelling the land not levelling up, and physics matter more than psychics.
So while the plot dabbles in the darker reaches of Manga, mixing the occult, the demonic and the gothic, what unfolds on screen looks more akin to a balletic version of The Outfit.
Roasted zombies rag-doll out a dance of death while hovering brains explode in a shower of cells and screen-filling behemoths are brought down by lobbing trucks into their bloated faces.
