Review: Deadly Creatures

To be honest, I've never been too fond of bugs. Other than their suicidal generosity in prolonging shoe leather, I've always found them to be inscrutable critters, neither likeable nor dislikeable. So it's a mite perplexing to have to confess to quite enjoying Rainbow Studios' Deadly Creatures, an unusual action-adventure title which casts you in the role of one of those multi-legged beasties.

It's set in the Sonoran Desert, and there's not much of a storyline to speak of, but let's face it; insects aren't exactly renowned for their verbosity or yarn spinning capabilities. Instead, the focus of the game is simple: kill or be killed. As an interesting aside, however, there is a minimal plot involving two human interlopers who are scouring the sands in search of a cache of long lost gold, and from time to time you cross these treasure hunters' path and get to eavesdrop on their conversations.

Deadly duo

Split into chapters, the game keeps things fresh by alternating between two protagonists, a tarantula and a scorpion. This disparity is more than purely aesthetic, as the two creatures require different play styles, with the tarantula employed best in hit and run style tactics while the scorpion is more suited to standing toe to toe (or pincer to pincer) and slugging it out.

Initially, you have access to only a few combat moves, but by collecting the points awarded for each kill you work toward combat upgrades, gaining access to additional abilities as well as other enhancements such as a larger health bar. Feasting on the many grubs scattered about the terrain replenishes lost health, and if you stuff your mandibles with enough of them, you get to unlock some of the game's concept art, which will no doubt please the hordes of completist entomologists out there.

Spider (non)sense

It has to be said that many of the combat moves are highly unrealistic (the tarantula's 'whirling dervish'-style spinning attack being one obvious example that comes to mind), but at the very least they are quite entertaining to the eye. Additionally, there are combination-style finishing moves that you can execute when an enemy bug is close to death, at which point the camera pans around to the side and zooms in for a satisfying close up of the kill.

Reasonably enough, the number of bugs that you fight in any given encounter depends on their overall difficulty. For the most part you'll be simultaneously taking on a handful of smaller, easy to squish bugs, whereas less frequently you get to measure up against more formidable opponents such as a pair of (wait for it) tarantulas or scorpions. There's even the odd boss encounter now and again, although these are less about fighting and more about evasion as you try to escape some of the creatures that are higher on the food chain, such as Gila Monsters and Rattlesnakes.

The camera never flies (well, most of the time)

The action is viewed from a third person perspective above and behind your bug, and usually the camera does a decent job of tracking the combat, swivelling round behind you as you change direction. That's not to say it's perfect, however, as there are instances where it doesn't quite pan the way you want it to, something that can easily disorient old duffers who aren't used to crawling around upside down as a tarantula (that would be me, then). More happily though, there is functionality that allows you to centre the camera behind you, before it starts wandering off again.

Even though the game is essentially a one-way subterranean corridor fest, the environments do a good job of disguising this linearity. Thanks to the top drawer level design and the variety of the visuals, you'll crawl through spaces ranging from dark creepy tunnels to almost alien-like surroundings. Also, there are lots of nice little touches here and there that add to the foreboding atmosphere such as silk-cocooned prey and the seemingly gargantuan bones of long dead miners. Furthermore, the environment can be used in different ways according to which creature you are playing: the tarantula's agile ways endow it with the ability to reach and scuttle over practically any surface you can see, whereas the scorpion can use its claws to bury itself or to smash through weak walls into other areas.

Mate with the game, then eat it

If Deadly Creatures were an arachnid, it would be a male Black Widow spider. Or put another way, its longevity is quite limited; I managed to finish it in around 11 hours and I'm not exactly revered for my speed gaming habits. Furthermore, there's no real reason to play through the campaign again once you've completed it the first time through, unless you really must unlock all six concept art galleries. Still, there's enough content to shame most of the shallow third party shovelware that's appeared on Nintendo's innovative little box in the past couple of years, particularly at the budget price at which the game is offered.

And it's with that all important price-to-enjoyment consideration that I would recommend Deadly Creatures. Make no mistake, it hardly comes close in terms of quality to the most vaunted titles of the console, but then again, addictive, joyful games for the Wii have been so thin on the ground of late that Deadly Creatures is bound - and perhaps deserves - to make some kind of an impact. Let's just hope it's not on the bottom of someone's boot.