Odds are you’ve played a game like Vempire at some point in your life. The core gameplay revolves around rotating squares of items to get four in row, either horizontally or vertically. Vempire slaps a few tweaks into the mix, but ultimately it won’t be your go-to puzzle game on the PSP.

Vempire sets itself apart from other matching-style puzzle games by allowing you to buy power-ups and unlock Artefacts (their spelling) to change up the game. By lining up gold bars, you’ll earn money to buy new power-ups to get through each level before the clock runs out. As you match more blocks, you’ll also be filling a meter that brings on a boss character that will use varying types of attacks to stop you from matching said blocks. It’s a nice addition, but unfortunately the game has too many problems to allow you to really enjoy it.

The first thing you’ll notice with Vempire is just how long it takes everything to load. Starting up the game and going from level to level, you’ll be doing a lot of staring at the screen waiting to play. As a PSP Mini, which should be designed for a quick pick-up, it’s annoying. The on screen meters are problematic as it’s tough to judge how full they are, making it difficult to know how many more matches you need before time runs out. The clock is also a problem in that it’s analog and does not give you much warning before time runs out. I lost a few levels because I had no idea I was running out of time.

Vempire takes a nice approach to the matching puzzle genre, but executes them poorly on the PSP. For $4.99, I expected better, especially considering the game only costs $0.99 on the iPhone. As it stands, I can’t recommend picking this one up on the PSP. The iPhone version is a better option.

[A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.]