Escape from Bug Island - hands-on: Page 2 - Page 2

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What will not change, though, is the game's definitively campy tone and style. This was never meant to be survival horror, says the publisher; it was always intended as over-the-top B-movie fun. Thus, the new title... if Escape from Bug Island doesn't sound like something at the very back of the rental store, we don't know what does. American gamers should have a more accurate idea of what to expect - in-your-face action and not eerie suspense. To emphasize this arcade aspect, a scoring system has been grafted to the end of every level, detailing stats like how many times you died or how many killer fish you eliminated.

How does this slightly new, slightly polished package come together? Well, when you start playing with the right perspective, the cheesy dialogue and melodramatic story do amuse rather than grate. In other words, you feel like munching on popcorn rather than hurling it at the television. We just wish the game took its monster movie sense of humor even further. Sure, the enemies are entertainingly strange, but why aren't the heroes, weapons and settings as well?

We're still concerned about the controls as well. Attacking everything with a stick in the game world requires a ton of repetitive arm swinging in the real world. It's a cathartic blast at first, but has a tendency to grow tiring quickly. Getting our character to face the right direction using the Nunchuk's analog stick was also tricky. Finally, locating the weapon switch button so near the flashlight button caused us to constantly plunge ourselves into darkness at the exact moment we were frantically trying to attack a swarm of deadly insects.

Though, to be honest, that kind of added the missing scare factor those disappointed Japanese reviews were talking about... Okay, we're prepared to give Escape from Bug Island another chance. That is an awfully catch name, after all.

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