Deadly Creatures (Wii) Review
Posted by Derek Robbins on 04.02.2009
The Wii often gets flack for not having many third party titles, but does Deadly Creatures help change that perception?
Title: Deadly Creatures
Publisher: THQ
Genre: Platforming
Players: Single Player
Console: Wii
Price: $49.99
The Wii is often criticized for not having the best third party support. Just glancing over my Wii collection, I only have a couple of third party titles. Sure, they’re out there, but when you’re playing the Wii most likely you’ll be playing a game made by Nintendo. Early 2009 seems to be dead set on changing this trend with games such as Mad World and House of the Dead Overkill, but there is one other title out there that you may not have heard of that joins the ranks of those two: Deadly Creatures.
Deadly Creatures is a game that if you were to see it in the stores, your first instinct would be to pass over it. The cover-art for the game does not exactly scream “top-tier” title. Honestly, it looks like something I would buy for a bug-obsessed nephew as opposed for myself. We all know that a book should not be judged by its cover, and that’s exactly the case with Deadly Creatures.
Gameplay
The gameplay consists of you playing as two different creatures. You have the scorpion and the tarantula. As you traverse through the levels, a story is going on in the background related to a search for a dead man’s gold. It’s interesting to see the story progress through the eyes of the little creatures, but at the same time it’s not horrendously interesting. I like that I can be moving through the level and over-hear people talking about things or seeing a shovel pierce the ground right in front of me, but I really think they could have done more with it. You won’t find yourself traversing through this title to see what happens to the two gold-hungry men (voiced by Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Hopper). Luckily, there’s plenty else to see here.
When you take control of the tarantula, you will find that the majority of the gameplay is platform based. You need to climb walls, web sling, and battle enemies as you force your way to the end of the level. I found that tarantula levels involve a lot of wall climbing and feature a bit of exploration and as such, you may need to press the “2” button on your wii-mote to see where you’re going. It’s cool that the levels are so open ended; it allows me to see the world that the creators crafted and kind of appreciate how much work they put into the level design.
Combat for the tarantula is done through combos that typically involve starting with the “A” button and then waggling in some fashion. I’m not a huge fan of waggle and again, this game didn’t exactly bolster my fondness of it. I found myself wishing: “Gosh, I wish I could just press buttons to do this” but hey, that kind of thing happens. The tarantula is less combat worthy than his co-star the scorpion and as such, I found myself evading combat more as him. I felt that it was very easy for me to get overwhelmed. This helped emphasize the differences between the playable characters but it also made me really dread combat.
The Scorpion on the other hand is more combat based than the tarantula. He is given the ability to block – the tarantula can jump – and his combos tend to be more drawn out. Waggle is re-introduced for some of the scorpion’s moves, but to be totally honest I found myself just jamming on the A-button for him to make it through a level. It’s kind of bothersome that the game gives me a lot of different moves to use but I don’t really need to as I can just mash on the-A button. With that said, there is a need to block every once in a while and this simple addition makes combat for the scorpion way more enjoyable than the tarantula. For this reason, I prefer scorpion levels.
As a result of the scorpion being more combat heavy, his levels seem to be more straightforward. Instead of web-slinging, the scorpion gets to clear weeds and dig. This seemed un-necessary to me and was a way to kind of buffer time, but really, it wasn’t a huge inconvenience. You spend most of your time fighting anyhow, so it almost felt like a break to me! Again, I expect this kind of thing because if they gave the scorpion platforming on top of combat expertise, why would anyone want to play as the tarantula?
While playing through the game, you’ll find larvae and grass hoppers to collect. You don’t need to do this for the gameplay, but if you want to unlock all of the art galleries you need to collect everything. To be fair, the art galleries are quite beautiful, but I think collecting every single thing in this game should be awarded with a little more than just that. The game is only four hours (through 10 levels) or so long without collecting things, so in my opinion, these collection aspects were brought in just to buffer playtime a bit. That’s fine, but for most normal people out there this game will end at the four hour point. You can always just look at galleries online.
Really, that’s my one main problem with this game. The individual levels are fun enough, but when you get right down to it, there are only four hours worth of levels here and in this economy, a price tag of $50 is just too much for that. The game has very limited replay value as is and not very many extras, so even if you decide to go all-out you probably will only have spent a total of 10 hours on the game. There are games that can play well off of short playtime due to immense replay ability, but this game is not one of those.
Before the four hours is up though, you will have four different boss fights. The first boss of the game, the snake which can be seen on the cover, is fought twice as the tarantula and, while the second battle is longer for obvious reasons, both fights are largely the same. The tarantula has two bosses, one which oddly enough encourages you to run away and a second, final boss fight which, well, I won’t spoil for you. Let’s just say that it’s foreshadowed in the game how you beat it. It’s probably the highlight of the scorpion and is a pretty enjoyable fight. I think in this game a boss at the end of each level would have worked VERY well, but whatever, you can’t have everything you want.
The game is a pretty fun playing one with two different styles of play for you to mess with. Luckily, unlike some games that force this mechanic, both styles work well and make you want to come back for more. Unfortunately, there isn’t a whole lot more to visit on this package. For an afternoon, there isn’t a whole lot better you can do though.
Graphics
The art style for this game is really lovely and doesn’t require our current generation wizardry to pull off. The world looks wonderful and it’s nice to see a company use the Wii’s power creatively. The models for the various creatures you fight are all very well detailed and the attack animation is also quite fluid. You won’t see something and go: “Hey that looks disjointed”, which is always nice. The only real problem here is that sometimes the camera will be tricky – during the penultimate tarantula level, I remember a couple of moments where I was climbing and had trouble keeping track of my character – but that is very rare and doesn’t detract from the experience.
No, you won’t be writing home to tell people how great these graphics are. The thing is though, for a Wii game, it looks very nice and certainly looks like a current game as opposed to a dated game which is important. So for those graphic whores out there, no! This won’t detract from your experience!
Sound
This game has a particularly good soundtrack that really helps to set the mood of what’s going on around you. These aren’t the types of songs that a gamer may place on their mp3, but it works with the levels amazingly well. The bone-chilling sound effects combine with the tone-setting music to help create a memorable experience. When I first picked up this game, I really wasn’t expecting sound to be one of its strong-suits but by God it is.
Complimenting this would be the celebrity voice actors. Generally speaking, I don’t like when game or movie companies advertise celebrities as voice actors for their games. Just because we’ve heard of them doesn’t make them better than any other voice actor out there. Sometimes, it actually detracts from the experience. This is not the case with this game though as Dennis Hopper and Billy Bob Thornton both expertly voice act their characters. The two also have interviews. While Hoppers serves as more of an inside look at the recording process, Billy Bob’s interview gives a lot of insight into his personality and came off as a very cool extra. The two really leant themselves fully to the game and wound up being a credit to the project as a whole.
Lasting Appeal
If you’re a completionist, I believe that this game will have you come back after you beat it. After all, you have to explore every inch of the beautiful level designs if you want to collect every larva or grass hopper. That’s the minority of gamers though. For the rest of you, the game will run its course in about four hours and you’ll probably not touch it for a couple of months.
I would love to enthusiastically say that the “Deadly” (hard) mode adds replay value to the game, but it really doesn’t. Unless you’re super hardcore about your love for this title, it is probably something you won’t even try. This game really, really, REALLY could have used a versus mode of some sort. Multiplayer may have helped flesh out this experience a bit more but for whatever reason they left it out and it kind of hurts the replayability of this title. It bugs me.
I mean, let’s think about the things they could have had? There are enough different models of bugs, lizards and rats to make a competent versus mode or something. Heck, you could even include a bit of co-op? How about a mode where you control a boss while your buddy controls the scorpion or spider? I really don’t know, but I would have really liked for them to throw something out there instead of the nothing that we got.
So really, no, this game doesn’t have much lasting appeal.
Fun-Factor
For as short as the game is, I found myself just begging for more of it. About half-way through I had an inkling that this title would be a fairly short one and I was dreading the end. When a game has me dreading the end, you know that they’ve done a good job. Yeah, as I have mentioned in the gameplay section, there are a couple of flaws, but really…every game has flaws. This game over-comes then and will be a pretty fun ride from beginning to end. There are only a couple of times in where I thought to myself: “Eh, this could have been better.” Given the amount of time this game lasts, I would say that they got about as much out of it as they could.
Deadly Creatures also has another advantage – it features insectoid (and very limited human) violence. As this is the case, I could see certain violent-fearing parents allowing their children to play this game. This is the sort of title that younger gamers can play and older gamers can play, which is pretty good. The cover may look like something designed for someone who is twelve, but don’t let that fool you. This game is damn fun.
The 411
Deadly Creatures is a pretty fun little game that offers two ways to play. Both ways are fairly fun and which one you prefer will ultimately come down to whether you enjoy fighting or platforming more. The glaring issue with this title is game length. Even if you go out of your way to collect everything, the game can be beat in less than 10 hours which is just not good. If you just play it normally, it will take you probably four hours.
The graphics and sound help to round out this relatively fun package, but if you find yourself in a store and are wondering whether you want to buy this game, you will ultimately need to decide whether four total hours of normal gameplay is worth your money and in the end I would have to say no. This is a good game, but unfortunately, it is only a rental. No multiplayer options hurt the game and prevent it from being more. If there is a sequel to this title, I hope they double the length and add multiplayer, because if they do that, then maybe…THQ would have an instant classic on their hands.
Please note: The final score is simply because of length. Had the game been longer, it would have scored an eight. I just don't think it'd be a good idea to hand out a score like that to a game that can be cleared in an afternoon and has almost no replay value.
Graphics
8.0
You won't be writing home about the graphics, but they work very well and the detailed character models are nice.
Gameplay
8.5
Very tight controlling and playing game. A few problems, such as needless waggle, but that's easy to overlook when you look at the package as a whole
Sound
9.5
A surprisingly competent sounding title with beautiful music and superb voice work.
Lasting Appeal
4.5
This is probably being generous. There isn't much actual content here.
Fun Factor
8.0
The game is very fun and I didn't want it to end, but the thing is...the game was so short, I honestly think it hendered the fun I did have which is kind of a shame. A versus mode or something really would have helped out.
