When the world first got a chance to experience Wii back at E3 2006, there was a little-known title playable called Necro-Nesia - a survivor-horror title built from the ground-up for the Wii.  The title wasn't well received, and as such some last minute tweaking occurred just before the game's launch in Japan.  Unfortunately, the game released to a very cold reception, with both press and gamers criticizing the game's numerous faults.  So, as a result of much of the harsh criticism and poor sales in Japan, Eidos, the North American and European publisher of the game, decided to push the intenational release back well into 2007 in order to refine the game even further.  The result is sadly still a very mediocre game.

Escape from Bug Island, the game's official title in North America, is very reminiscent of a Resident Evil title.  The premise of the game is to essentially explore a massive, unknown island crawling with larger-than-life insects that try to thwart the path of Ray, the game's protagonist, at every turn.  The action is very fierce at points, and the atmosphere lives up to the lofty standards set by previous survival horror gems.  Unfortunately, that's about where the similarities and praise end.  Ultimately, Escape from Bug Island is a title that suffers from very uninspired gameplay and rather atrocious controls.

The game has players exploring a mysterious island after your two colleagues, Michelle and Mike run off and don't return.  The player is quickly forced to wander about the dark and foggy landscape, occasionally encountering bugs that impede progress.  Actually, except for mini-boss and boss encounters, there really isn't any enemy that stands in the way of the player progressing, so one could simply run away if they wanted - which is what many will do once they realize how combat works.  

Movement is controlled through the analog stick, although rolls and hops are performed by shaking the controllers in various directions.  To attack with the item equipped, players most hold down the B button and then swing the Wii remote.  Unfortunately, there is no lock-on for combat, and many times it felt like swinging the Wii remote would lead to an unintentional combo.  Players can swing their weapons consecutively for a three-hit combo, but unfortunately, trying to manually swing more than once without getting locked into a combo is very frustrating to do. In fact, not only do players get locked into the combo, they're going to be attacking in that same direction until the moves end. 

In third-person mode, even the smallest and easiest enemies do not stand still, so players need to move and attack.  Unfortunately, this proves to be quite difficult to accomplish.  Even the first-person mode, in which players can move and use the Wii remote to aim their weapon to attack with, feels very clunky and unresponsive.  This will become apparent very early on when the player encounters their first wave of bugs which simply crawl around Ray in circles.  Swinging aimlessly takes care of many of them, but there are so many, and they keep rotating around the player, that it feels like a near impossible task to take them all down.  Thus, many will simply fight off a few, and then run off to avoid taking unnecessary damage.

Besides combat, players basically will be going around looking for bright spots on the map in order to progress.  These spots flash on the map letting you know where to go next.  Sometimes, a clue as to your next destination or objective is revealed.  Other times, it's a parchment explaining the story of previous inhabitants who seem to have gone through exactly what the hero is going through in the game.  Or worse, it could simply be the save point, which in the game is in the form of a lantern that you light.  Not quite a typewriter, but still oddly suspect.  If this is beginning to sound a bit boring, then perhaps the message is getting through; after the initial mystery factor dies down and the occasional shocks from a sudden jolt of frantic music or a random enemy popping out of nowhere grow tiresome, the player is left with little more than running from place to place with  no motivation other than to find Ray's missing friends.

Of course, the large draw of the game is exploring the unknown, and though visually not the most impressive game on the Wii, let alone of the next generation titles, Escape from Bug Island certainly sets a very appropriate tone with the visuals and art direction.  Every area of the island is shrouded in thick fog, and though objectives may be boring, landscape never gets too open so that it feels empty and devoid of interaction.  In fact, many of the regions blend together quite seamlessly and each area has enough diverse terrain and elements that as the player progresses, it feels like really moving across the island rather than crossing repetitive looking zones.

The lighting poses some problems.  Though the game is supposed to be set in a dark, foggy world in which seeing should not be easy, even with a flashlight as an aid, it was sometimes very frustrating to see things lying around or to see what was ahead in order to effectively traverse some areas.  Again, this is obviously intentional, but it still affects the gameplay and some might find it too bothersome.  As for the character models and enemies, they're a bit underwhelming; thankfully, other than cutscenes, you see the back of Ray the whole time so the low-quality character models don't really stick out.  Still, the enemy models, except for a few bosses, are very bland and low quality.  The first real boss battle on the island is with some generic, all black looking giant gorilla that seems to blend in more with the dark environment than anything else.

One aspect where the game does shine (somewhat) is in the audio department.  Though the soundtrack sounds ripped right out of a Resident Evil title, it still does a very good job of emulating that feeling that there is danger waiting at any given moment.  The introduction of the frantic tracks, whenever a foe tries to get a sudden drop on Ray, do seem a bit abrupt and not as polished as they could have been, but they definitely will get many to jump at least once in the game.  Everything sounds very eery, melodramatic, and surprisingly, rather well-composed (even if it's heavily influenced by Resident Evil). 

As for the story, there's nothing special awaiting those who complete the game.  While the mystery of what happened to the people who wrote all the letters Ray keeps reading, what happened to your two friends, and why the island is inhabited by giant bugs may intrigue some, the mystique and appeal will quickly wear off and all that is left is the player and the unknown, which presumably is the big draw of the title.  Experiencing the creepy and frightening portions of the game are what the presentation is all about, but again, don't expect a stellar story.  The dialogue and voice acting are terrible, with bad pacing, poor delivery times on spoken responses, and overall just very cheesy writing.

Though, for those looking for a challenge and relatively long adventure game, Escape from Bug Island makes the cut.  The game is around 20 hours long for the average gamer, and the game has three varying difficulty settings, making the game a cake walk or an all out nightmare.  There are some fun, engaging uses of the Wii remote, but ultimately the control scheme is not very conducive to action sequences, and it seems like the developers should have spent more time on puzzles and more interesting exploration and objectives in order to drive the game.  Players also can also track down new items for their inventory, ranging from health items to new weapons, which sadly are activated solely by going into a menu and manually equipping the weapon or using the item; a quick-toggle option would have done wonders.

Video Footage:
High Quality [Divx .avi/348MB] |