Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2000 video game)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a side-scrolling beat 'em up game divided into eight levels, including a mansion and the Sunnydale zoo.[1] The player controls Buffy Summers, a Slayer destined to fight vampires, demons, and other supernatural entities.[2][3] Gameplay is focused on one-on-one fights with vampires.[2] Although they are the game's only enemy type, there are six variations of vampires: tux, punk, disfigured, tribesman, Euro, and guardian.[3] The player fights two master vampires as bosses: a viking and a beast vampire. To defeat them, the player must knock them down and stake them through the heart.[2] A game over occurs when Buffy loses all of her health. Along with attacking, the player can block an enemy's attack, throw them, and roll on the ground.[3]

Levels do not include any obstacles or traps, and while they incorporate platforming, none of the falls are lethal.[2] AllGame's Brett Alan Weiss described the jumping mechanic as "super leaps".[3] The game does not have any collectible items or different weapons.[2] The player can pick up small objects, like paint cans, to throw at a vampire, but they can only be used when an enemy is onscreen.[2][3] Levels also have power-ups, such as soda cans that provide "super punches and kicks".[3] Each level ends with a password which functions as the game's save points that allow players to replay the level.[3][4] Although Buffy is the game's only playable character, other Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters appear in cutscenes between levels.[3]

Adapted from the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the game is set in the show's fourth season.[5]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was developed by GameBrains and published by THQ.[2] In March 2000, THQ announced the game as part of a partnership with Fox Interactive.[6] The game discussed in this announcement was set for a 2000 release.[7] Both companies would collaborate for a second Buffy the Vampire Slayer video game in 2003 for Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Wrath of the Darkhul King.[8] A pre-alpha demo was available at E3 in May 2000,[9] before being released on September 30, 2000, as a Game Boy Color exclusive.[2][10] The game was not backward compatible with the Game Boy.[2]