Deadly Creatures for the Wii is a 3D adventure game that puts you in control of a tarantula and scorpion as you take on the entire ecosystem of the desert in a deadly fight for survival. Taking place simultaneously in the background of the game is a tale of deceit and betrayal between two humans who are wonderfully voiced by Billy Bob Thorton and Dennis Hopper.
The style of game play changes as you switch creatures every level. The tarantula requires more stealth and tactics in battle such as using jumping strikes and webbing to your advantage, whereas the scorpion is flat out fighting with counters and finishing moves available to deal a final striking blow to your prey. Animal rights activists or the squeamish might want to avoid this game as some of the finishers are just brutal. For instance, I can now die saying that I know what it would look like if a scorpion stabbed a rat in the head. While the style of game play changes between the creatures, the basic play control remains the same: walking with the nun-chuck, attacking with the A button, and finishers, combos, and other special moves activating with waving the wii-mote. The controls are smooth for the most part and thankfully a move list is available to players in the pause menu, for as the game progresses, you learn more combos and moves which can make it difficult to remember them all.
The environments in the game are large and visually impressive. While the objects you encounter are not incredibly detailed, it is amazing to see how much is fit into a single field. One level, for instance, has you swinging your webs from cacti one minute, to exploring the underbelly of an overturned truck. The maps are so large that it is easy to get lost among all of the foliage and refuse. Thankfully an on-screen compass is available to get you back on track should this happen. All of the insects and animals in the game are well animated. However, when a large amount of action is taking place on screen at once the frame rate tends to lag a bit which can throw off your timing for performing combos. This is not helped by the fact that in certain areas, the camera can tend to get stuck, and in some instances in my play through, vibrate as it attempts to reset. Thankfully, even though you will encounter this more often than you would like to, the occurrences do not last that long.
The soundtrack is standard fare for anything you would find in a thriller or horror movie. While none of the tracks are all that memorable, they fit the game and set the tone and atmosphere perfectly, especially during the boss fights with larger enemies. The game doesn’t take too long to complete on a straight play through but the replay value is boosted by side missions where you hunt for additional prey in order to unlock bonus content which includes art galleries and interviews. Have a snack ready when you play this game as you will get hungry as you watch your virtual hunter feast upon bounty after bounty of grubs. (No I’m not crazy, it will happen.)
