Midnight Bite Review

Parents usually do their best, but occasionally they bung things up pretty badly.

Even vampire parents can be similarly absent-minded. Take Midnight Bite, for example. Little Draku, a vampire tot that's used to getting his crimson sustenance through a bottle with a straw, is left with an empty pantry when his parents take off on vacation. Now Draku is forced to hunt for live victims for his supper. Not that he seems to mind very much.

Midnight Bite is a stealth-action game. Draku prowls through several levels populated by sharp-eyed villagers. Some of these villagers are relatively helpless, and are good targets for snack time. Others are armed, and therefore don't make for tantalizing snacks. If Draku is lucky edible villagers will be sleeping (or sleepwalking), which  makes it easy to sneak up on them. If anyone catches Draku in their cone of sight, they'll raise an alarm that brings armed villagers running, and if Draku is caught by an armed guard he's off to jail (kind of a light penalty for an abomination that's going around sucking people's blood).

Midnight Bite provides plenty of ways for Draku to outsmart his pursuers. If he stays out of a villagers' cone of sight, he won't raise an alarm. He can also hide in boxes, barrels, and coffins (of course) and wait for them to pass. Occasionally he gains access to potions and items that help him out, like a hypnotic swirl that puts villagers in a daze for a few seconds. And if he's seen despite his best efforts, he can leap into a barrel or box to shake off his pursuers - though riling up the villagers costs one of the three stars on that level, and since stars are required to progress a slip-up can prove costly in the long run.

The nice thing about Midnight Bite (aside from being allowed to play as a "bad guy") is that it's relatively forgiving without being too easy. If a villager catches a glimpse of Draku, their cone of sight goes yellow, and Draku has a second to get away before everyone lapses into a red alert. Dotted lines mark the guards' paths, so their movements aren't a surprise as long as one is paying attention. Expendable items re-appear again and again, so Draku can pick them up as needed.

That said, playing it on a small screen can be a touch difficult at times because fingers can get in the way of the action; especially in levels with narrow passageways that are tightly patrolled. Midnight Bite is still wholly playable on small-screened devices, but a larger one may be preferable.

Stealth fans will enjoy Midnight Bite. It provides just the right amount of stress and challenge without being too aggravating. It's also cute, which is an odd thing to say about a game featuring a neck-biter on a rampage across the countryside.