Deadly Creatures - first look

Take the underground tutorial. Among the gnarled roots you wrestle with wolf spiders and rival scorpions. Cocoons add a real ick factor to an already murky atmosphere. Look closer and you’ll see that ain’t no cavern you’re scrabbling through, but the remains of a ribcage, and the metal prong at the entrance is the spur of a cowboy boot. Scuttle up the cave and you get all the confirmation you need: a slack-jawed skull sitting next to the used shotgun cartridge that slackened it.

At this point in Pixar-land, the scorpion, voiced by Robert Downey Jr., would say something like, “Make no bones about it, I sense skullduggery”. Thankfully, this isn’t Pixar-land. So on our hero wanders, oblivious to the wheels this rootin’ tootin’ cadaver has set in motion. Later levels promise human interaction - a dash between spade blades as men dig up the desert sounds particularly exciting - and bug-on-man combat is on the cards.

You know what they say: the bigger they are, the harder they eat your face. This Gila Monster is huge, so yourbite isn’t much use. Instead you use your dig ability - pedaling the remote and Nunchuk - to expose an escape route. Run away! You'll also go up against rats, rattlesnakes and even, yes, even… a dung beetle. These may be mere insects, but a zoomed camera and bodyslamming takedowns aim to add scale to every encounter.

A lock-on helps you in busier ambushes, while killing certain numbers of enemies fulfills goals that unlock new moves. The spider will be largely pointer-controlled, with you zapping areas you want to web yourself over to. The scorpion on the other hand can’t climb walls like his web-flinging buddy. Try to scale surfaces and he falls back with a comical thud.

Deadly Creatures has a daringly original narrative experiment and, luckily, it’s built on a really solid game. The scorpion segments of the game are more in line with hack-’n’-slashers, only with his skill set it’s more of a pinch-’n’-stinger. The B and Z buttons control his right and left pincers respectively, while remote flicks control quick stings. Whittle down the health of other bugs - gobbling up crickets when yours wanes - and you can use both pincers to seize them for a finisher move. Plunging in the stinger and seeing a spider’s legs slowly curl up is devilishly satisfying, but does raise the issue that Deadly Creatures might be too icky for some. It’s one of the most unexpected games on Wii, and yet with at least another eight months to go, it’s already looking great. This is one deadly creature worth trapping under a glass and keeping an eye on.

Apr 2, 2008