An endless amount of gameplay, an eerily beautiful artstyle, and enough blood to satisfy any violence-lover.
Pros:
Excellent art direction, perfect difficulty curve, simple - yet driving - story, brilliantly fast-paced gameplay, both online and offline co-op, a huge amount of arcade challenges - plus an endless survival challenge - just to keep the action going past the campaign, plus a grusomely dark feel - injected with an occasional dose of Castle Crashers-esque humor (most likely with the giant syringe you get as a weapon.)
Cons:
The campeigns feel a bit on the short side, the upgrade system for weapons isn't particularly useful - or even all that accessible.
Gameplay:
Fast-paced, combo-centered hack-and-slash action, fused with 2D platforming - it seems like a perfect match, but when you throw in some Metroid-esque "treasure-hunting" in the form of Ghost Beads - items that amplify either your offensive or defensive capabilities, that are often hidden off your main path - you get a concoction that simply cannot be beat. Not to mention, the two characters play so differently that it is a particularly fresh experience for each campaign.
Difficulty:
Perfect. The game gives you a few levels to get the hang of how the characters play, and then begins to ramp it up around the time of the end of the first third of the game. By the end of the game, you will likely die several times per boss, untill you figure out the perfect attack pattern. Most people will be able to beat the game on Normal difficulty, if just barely, but for those who can't, there are two easier difficulties (Easy and Pretty Princess) - and for those who simply want to torture themselves, there is the typical "Hard" as well as "Samurai" and "Speed Run"
Atmosphere:
From the very first level, it is evident that the game is quite dark - cemented by the moody art style, consisting mostly of different shades of gray, as well as plenty of red, illuminated by a different color for each level - in a fortress, everything may be dimly blue-hued, whereas a cave will bathe everything in a bright orange light. That all being said, the game still knows when to make you laugh - everything from the description for weapons ("its 100 pounds of steel girder, covered in sharp things, and wrapped in barbed wire!...") to the weapons themselves (a squirt gun and a toaster) to even some of the bosses (a hockey goalie and a symbiotic squid swordsman) and, of course, the semi-hidden guitar amps, that allow you to play a Guitar Hero-esque minigame.
Graphics:
Those who only play games with uber-realistic graphics, save your $10. Those who enjoy incredibly stylized graphics, however, will find much enjoyment in Vampire Smile. Everything from the environments, to the characters, to the comic book-like "cutscenes" has a vaguely hand-drawn appearance, which fits the moody feel of the game perfectly.
All-in-all, Vampire Smile is well worth the money for anyone looking for an excellent hack-and-slash title - or just anyone looking for a better way to spend their MS points then an overpriced CoD map pack.