Hands-on with Army Corps of Hell for PS Vita

Given the choice between charging from the front into battle or hanging back and eating kippers while my comrades get bloody, I'd pick kippers every time.

The King of Hell belongs to the same school of thought if the upcoming action game Army Corps of Hell is anything to go by.

He's still running around on the battlefield, but instead of wielding a fiery sword with a silly name and getting himself killed by a no-good hero he's surrounded at all times by a hundred little goblins, ready to throw themselves into the fray like fleshy bullets.

In many ways, Army Corps of Hell is a rather unusual recipe for a hack-and-slasher, with hints of the PSP versions of Dynasty Warriors, a whiff of PS3 title Overlord, and some healthy splashes of originality simmering on top.

Each stage is split into a number of floating islands (essentially rooms) that fill up with demonic foes for your minions to beat up. Clear an island and a bridge appears to the next, with the occasional branching path and keys to collect.

While the level structure holds few surprises, the combat itself is surprisingly tactical, revolving around using the three different types of goblins in the most efficient fashion.

Each has its own unique features: Soldiers are your basic grunts, leaping frantically at foes; Spearmen dash forward in a straight line; and the Magi hang back and unleash remote death on those that oppose you.

You attack by holding down R and letting your followers do their thing rather than by tapping wildly or pulling mad combos, and you can alter the basic attack by holding down the L button (to switch into formation).

It's only possible to command one unit type at once, but switching between them is a simple matter of hitting the respective troop type's face button.

While not dashing at foes, your followers bunch around your billowing cloak, holding fire unless you command it. It's as adorable as it is foolish.

Keep your enemies close

Your foes, you see, have a few nasty surprises up their rotting flesh socks in store for our brave master of all things evil.

For one, they love flinging fireballs or sending their own little minions after your group, picking off stragglers, or - gasp - even hurting your main man if you can't press X to dash quickly enough.

One of the trickier weapons at their disposal is a series of traps placed around each island, like fire plates or electric gates. While you can circumnavigate the latter trap by using your spearmen and their focused attack, the way the soldiers jump at short range means they often end up sizzled.

Because you're a huge floating undead skeleton in a cloak with unlimited evil powers, getting a slain minion back up on its feet is as easy as moving near its fallen body. Getting a minion back that's been roasted to a crisp, however, means buying new bodies from the plentiful cages that litter each stage.

It's best to keep as many alive as possible despite the ease of replenishing troops, as doing so earns a better medal once the dust settles.

Between stages, gems and loot accrued from getting your little fellows to feast on your enemies' dead bodies go towards purchasing upgraded weaponry and armour for your troops, as well as special items to help the head honcho.

But using these items isn't quite as simple as just tapping a button. The Life Drum, for instance, requires you to tap with both hands on the back panel in a speedy, consistent rhythm for its power to grow.

Throw in the heavy metal soundtrack and some fetching comic-strip style cutaways for cutscenes and you have one unusual take on a normally fairly restrained genre.

We'll see if Army Corps of Hell is worth following all the way to a certain set of gates when the game launches on February 22nd.