You will also have reason to replay the game when you finish, as there are various difficulty levels and items to collect that allow you to unlock concept art, increase your health and increase your attack power. Grubs, of which there are 450 in the game, are scattered through the environment, and the only way to find them all is to explore fully with both characters, using their special abilities to your advantage. Green crickets are the ticket to increasing your abilities, and are also scattered throughout the game, but in far smaller quantities than the grubs. You’ll want to find these even if you aren’t interested in unlocking all of the concept art, because they give you back health that you will need for your constant battles and large-scale boss fights.
The music is perfect in this title; it sets the mood and creates an atmosphere that creeps you out as you play, which, given the nature of the content we are dealing with, is a positive. Even if you don’t get a shiver up your spine thinking about crawling around as a tarantula or scorpion, the music and sound effects help to create an environment where you will catch yourself feeling a bit uneasy. Between the graphics and sound, Rainbow Studios created a perfect place for you to experience life as a scorpion or tarantula.
Well, almost perfect, if not for some technical flaws that bear mentioning. See all of the gushing I just did about the atmosphere, and how important it is for the game’s creepy vibes and effectiveness as an example of playing through a National Geographic segment? Now picture how aggravating it is to be in the midst of feeling those vibes, and then have them cut out by a loading screen in the middle of a level that stops you in your tracks. If this happened once or twice, it wouldn’t be a significant issue, but it happens once or twice per level, which detracts from the atmosphere that is so crucial towards making this game what it is.
The framerate also dips, and for the strangest reasons too. Rarely did it happen when the screen was full of enemies or action, but it would instead happen at random while crawling around-possibly, it was a very short load that didn’t occur smoothly. Lastly, while the camera works often while just crawling around and during much of the platforming, in battle it can be a hassle, especially when it starts panning side to side for you when you just want to see in front of you. This can get you backed into corners or attacked from behind when all you are trying to do is avoid just that situation.
The camera is also responsible for a few deaths from on high as well, as sometimes with the tarantula you can’t see where you are going or where you need to go next, and moving around in the wrong direction may knock you off of where you are and send you falling to your death. If you just finished off a battle against multiple enemies and then started climbing, you’ll have to repeat that battle until you nail the landing; death sends you back to the previous save points, which are few and far between. That mechanic is fine, but it gets annoying when you die because of faulty camera work and not your own poor platforming, but you’re still forced to head a ways back before you can try it all again.
Even with those issues though, Deadly Creatures is a joy to play, and comes highly recommended from us. The ambiance created by the music and visuals resonates creepy vibes, the controls–even the motion ones–work and work well, and certain parts of the game are just too fun to pass up, such as battling as the brutal scorpion or listening to Billy Bob Thornton make a fool of himself as a redneck searching for treasure. Do yourself a favor and get a copy, as it’s the first Wii title in 2009 to fully deliver on its promise to take advantage of the system and come up with a quality product.
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