Dead Head Fred is a 3rd person action platformer coming soon exclusively to the PSP. No, this is not a game about an imaginary friend in a weird green jacket and shiny red shoes – that would be Drop Dead Fred. Dead Head Fred, on the other hand, is something completely different.

Set in a 1940’s inspired alternate universe, you’ll play as the recently deceased private eye Fred Neuman. Well, he had been recently deceased. More recently, he’s been reanimated and brought back to the world of the living by a crazy mad scientist. Fred’s head is, well, gone and so are all of his memories. You’re out to solve your own murder by essentially decapitating all of your foes.

Fred can change his head at any time, and that’s one of the most important aspects of the gameplay. There are 9 heads in total (although you start with only 3) and each provides a different gameplay advantage. The stone idol head is a brute, the corpse head allows you to ingest fluids like gasoline and spit them back at your opponents...and there’s so much more! You’ll need to switch around a lot, so thankfully it’s made easy by bringing up a simple selection dialog with the left trigger at any time. Sometimes clues will help you decipher which head to use where, but other times you’ll need to use...well...your ACTUAL head.

The characters you’ll meet here are quirky. Well, that’s putting it lightly. Early on in the game, you meet Lefty – a guy with an enormous left arm, and a twig of a right arm. Oh, and he uses his tommy gun for a crutch, since he only has a left leg. The Mafioso he works for is a boil-covered monster of a man. The mad scientist is a neurotic mess. They may not be the most likable characters, but the design is perfect for this atmosphere.

The graphics here really help to sell the character designs. For the PSP, it looks really quite good. There are some lighting effects and a little bit of motion blur that serve to hide the lack of power on the system. Be sure to go underwater, because the effect the game turns on then is very, very cool. The music and voice acting (what we’ve heard so far) is also really well done, and the writing is funny.

The gameplay consists largely of button mashing type combat that’s well augmented by the different abilities that the heads provide. You’ll also need to solve puzzles and jump around platforms, so expect some variety. There are minigames included as well, so you’ll be able to play “Dirty Pool” (I love that name) and Pinball, among other things. Oh, and did I mention that you get to rip the heads off of your enemies? Because you do, and it’s gruesomely fun.

All in all, Dead Head Fred is shaping up to be an inventive and entertaining new handheld title. Check back with Game Almighty in a few weeks for our full review of the final version.