Bloody Ports: BloodRayne Betrayal Rising Next Week

I remember when vampires were cool, before they were ruined by girls with their soft emotions and squishy bits. Vampires should wear uncomfortable amounts of PVC, have names like Sisters of Mercy song titles, pose moodily on rooftops, and kill loads of soldiers in slow-motion. Not, I don't know, sparkle or something? They sparkle now, don't they? And hold hands? And we're supposed to want to hold hands and kiss too? Gross. YOUNG PEOPLE.

In a post-The Matrix, pre-Underworld time, Terminal Reality gave us a blade-slinging, leather-clad, half-vampire Nazi-hunter in the 3D hack 'n' slash BloodRayne, spawning two so-so games in the early noughties then a dire movie trilogy from Uwe Boll. Something something wordplay about the undead or whatever, after a seven-year break Rayne returned to games in BloodRayne Betrayal, a 2D stabby platformer for consoles. Which is now ported to PC, arriving next Wednesday.

Betrayal was more than a mite difficult, so's the word on the Information Superhighway, with combo-heavy combat and cruel platforming level design. Not wanting to stereotype or anything, but if you're big into vampires in shiny leather with giant blades I suspect you probably dig that sort of challenge. It was made by WayForward, the folks behind Contra 4 on Nintendo DS and other retro shooty platformers, though Abstraction is behind this port.

Publisher Majesco's yet to formally announce the port for whatever reason, but those Joystiq ratsuckers caught a Steam listing and this characteristically over-the-top Japanese trailer: