BloodRayne Betrayal is a Bloody Ode to Classic Gaming

Majesco Entertainment showed off a variety of games at E3 this year. They had the next iteration in Cooking Mama, ghost hunting AR game The Hidden, and even the self explanatory sim Pet Zombies. But the best game on display was also the simplest. BloodRayne: Betrayal brings the sexy half-vampire killing machine to 2D platforming in HD on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network this August. The blood isn't just in name, this game is a bloody, bloody mess. The Castlevania comparisons will only last you so far as the motif and involvement of vampires. The developer, Wayforward Technologies, claims a lot more influence from Ninja Gaiden's combat and Mario's platforming. I would definitely draw comparisons to Muramasa: The Demon Blade. I had a long conversation with the producer of BloodRayne: Betrayal about the details of the game and how Wayforward is making a name for itself yanking games out of the past and giving them its own personal touch. Read on for details.

The first thing I was told about BloodRayne, is that everything in the game is hand-drawn, including Rayne herself. I'm not an artist, but I think this gives the game a visually soft feel, with characters and backgrounds having more naturally rounded edges. Either way, it looks great. Rayne herself is a bit different from previous versions. They toned her down a bit for this more retro styled game. She is sexy, but not overtly so. They also left out the moaning noises. It's in her jumping and flipping in the air like an acrobat as she slices up a monstrous horde of enemies that the sexiness lies. In fact stylish movement is an important part of the gameplay. You get points for killing enemies as well as looking cool while you do it. When attacked from behind, Rayne does a face plant and you actually lose points.

BloodRayne: Betrayal contains 15 levels of single player adventure with 5 bosses of increasingly mammoth scale. The boss fight I saw at E3 involved riding on the back of a giant crab down an infinite chasm while attempting to kill it. I was told that there are tricks to killing each boss that can make it take a few seconds, but otherwise it might take several minutes. The online leaderboards will track both high scores and speed run times, so a few tricks have been included to allow for faster speed runs. When Rayne starts a level she drops from the sky in a coffin rocket. If you hit a button at the correct time (somewhat like in Mario Kart), she will kick the coffin door open and hit the ground running, shaving a few seconds off the level time. The idea of a coffin rocket, apparently, was a simply insane method to get Rayne from level to level. Much of BloodRayne is as over the top as possible. Blood splatters everywhere, heads fly, and a coffin has jet propulsion.

Miraculously, BloodRayne: Betrayal is rated T for Total Annihilation. I mean Teen. I suppose since all of the blood and violence is in cartoon form, and there aren't really any sexual themes beyond a low cut blouse, it passes the ESRB's muster. Majesco has not yet set an exact release date, but the press release says Summer 2011, and I've been told that it should be in August. It will be priced at $14.99 on PSN or 1200 MS points on XBLA. As I may have mentioned before, I love classic platformers. So every time a developer releases a new game in beautiful HD with crisp, fast, 2D platforming, I get really excited. Look for my full review when it hits digital shelves in August.