Developer: Wow Entertainment Publisher: Namco Release: 11/13/01 Genre: Action
In the mid to late 90s Sega and Namco went back and forth creating arcade hits to compete with each other. When Sega made Virtua Fighter Tekken was not far behind. Daytona begat Ridge Racer, Tokyo Wars is similar to Gunblade N.Y. and Virtua Cop was followed by Time Crisis. While you could argue the games were equally as good there were times they one upped each other. I think it is safe to say the public preferred the Soul Blade series to Last Bronx. The thought of these two titans teaming up together to create a rail shooter is mind boggling but in 2002 that is exactly what happened. Vampire Night is an insanely cool game and another PS2 gem.
300 years ago the vampire Auguste, tired of life, created two vampire hunters named Michel and Albert to end his life. But in the end he does not have the heart to end it so simply and strips them of their powers. In the present day Michel and Albert return to settle the score but standing in their way are Auguste’s followers who are determined to save their master.
The story is fluff and full of the same laughably bad voice acting that plagues Sega’s other arcade games. It would be easy to call Vampire Night the House of the Dead with zombies and technically you would be right. The game is clearly built on that series’ framework with its horror theme and branching paths. However it brings a few ideas to the table and one in particular that Sega would carry forward with their subsequent light gun titles.
Like all light gun games Vampire Night is simple. Using either a guncon or dual shock you blast at enemies as they appear and the environment to find items. You reload by firing off screen, with your gun holding eight shots. With a guncon control is perfect. Just for fun I tried playing with a standard controller and it is pretty manageable. Obviously it is not ideal but with practice you can get through the game just fine.
However despite the simple mechanics there are nuances to the gameplay. The game emphasizes precision in a few ways. Most enemies have a glowing weak point that if hit will kill them instantly. In each level there are parasites infecting villagers. You have a brief window to kill it before they fully transform into a vampire and attack. Or you can “accidentally” kill them and speed up the process. Saving villagers contributes to end level rewards. The biggest feature is the cancel meter. Every boss attack has a big windup that you can stop by depleting the cancel meter. In fact it is the only way to survive the longer more engaging bouts. The impact on gameplay is huge as you are no longer left in the dark as to when you will take damage. It also makes these fights a test of skill rather than speed.
One of the primary goals to differentiate Vampire Night from House of the Dead was to make the enemies faster. The vampires and other assorted demons are very quick. To balance around this they almost always appear from a distance to give you time to attack. The few that do spawn in front of you have long wind ups to their attack. Combined with their glowing weak spot the balance is near perfect. While it sounds like it could grow old the game has a large menagerie of monsters to keep things fresh. In fact almost every level has a new set of enemies and for a rail shooter that is incredible.
A consequence of these gameplay changes is that Vampire Night is a bit easy. With a bigger magazine and weak spots you can blaze through the game pretty quickly. Once you have seen an enemy attack pattern it becomes predictable after that. Even the exceptional two stage boss battles are not hard. Their patterns are simple and with the cancel meter outside of one or two encounters most pose little threat. I prefer this to cheap arcade games that try everything possible to drain your quarters. Luckily the game has more to offer outside of branching paths.
Sega have taken cues from Namco and loaded this home port with extras that give it replay value. The training mode comprises seventeen mini-games that teach you the different aspects of gameplay. My favorite is special mode. This one gives you specific missions to accomplish in the arcade mode. But now you can buy items that have a variety of effects. Some boost your stats or make the game easier like making the target area on enemies bigger or preventing damage. There are over 50 items and 33 missions giving the game more replay value than most games in the genre. It also helps that the core game is versatile so that you want to engage in these modes but still.
In Closing
I like Vampire Night a lot. I knew going in to it what to expect to a degree and was not disappointed. The pacing and action are fantastic and it comes loaded with extras to hold your attention. While I would not put it up there with the later House of the Dead games it is one of the better PS2 rail shooters of which there are a considerable amount.
