Vampires always get such a bad rap. They’re just going about their lives, trying to suck a little blood here and there, and crazy stake-toting vampire slayers are always kicking down their front door. Someone needs to think of the vampire children whose lives are being ruined! Well, Legendo entertainment invites you to do just that in their gorgeous new action game, Dracula Twins.

At heart, it’s essentially a side-scrolling action platformer. You jump, shoot, whip, and roll through level after level of shuffling zombies, axe-wielding maniacs, and floating head-things while activating switches, collecting blood rubies (for vampire magic), and solving puzzles. The controls are very fluid and easy to learn, and they give you a wide variety of abilities to play with. I didn’t find playing on a keyboard to be too difficult, but if you have a gamepad they kindly give you the option to use it.

The puzzles aren’t too challenging and the game is very forgiving. You get lots of save points and plenty of chances to try again (which is a plus for kids). Don’t assume that it’s too easy to be fun, though—the difficulty ramps up at an acceptable pace and I was fondly reminded of other childhood platformers while playing this. It has a next-gen Castlevania for kids feeling to it.

From a technical standpoint, I really have to give Legendo credit for trying something cool. When I said it’s a side-scroller, that’s technically true. The action largely takes place on a 2D plane. But the world is 3D, and your 2D plane winds through it. Sound confusing? Play it and you’ll see what I mean. I really liked this, honestly. It gives you a 3D world to enjoy while maintaining the simple and fun gameplay of a 2D game. One complaint I had about the system was there were some places where it was poorly implemented. For example, sometimes the screen would swing halfway through a jump, causing the gap to be larger than it looked (and you to miss your jump, which often ends in a pit full of spikes).

Overall, the game is very entertaining with one minor gripe: The levels make you go through all the content, and there are no secret areas or special objectives (that I found). That was one of the best parts of the old-school platformers that this game emulates. Like I said, it’s minor (food for thought on the sequel, though). This one is definitely worth a try if you’re at all into platformers, and I guarantee the kids will like it even if you don’t.

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