One of the Wii’s big promises was that we’d be playing games that are not like anything we had played before. To an extent, that is true – Nintendo will come out with a game that is different to everything else that precedes it or breaks entirely new ground, but then every third party developer would jump on the bandwagon and come out with a cheap copycat game. For those of you who are sick of endless mini-game compilations with Mii rip-off characters and want something that’s actually different, THQ has got you covered with Deadly Creatures.

Deadly Creatures sets out to subvert the trope of every third-person action game needing to star some form of gun- or sword-wielding anthropoid by placing you in the role of two arachnids; a tarantula and a scorpion. These two creatures are featured in their natural form; they’re not stylised or anthropomorphic, so they scurry around in ways that are bound to give the nearest female the creeps or nightmares, depending on their level of bug tolerance.

With such relatively small protagonists, Rainbow Studios had to pull out all the stops when it came to presenting our world from their perspective. Scale and detail are the keys to the success of Deadly Creatures presentation. Though the game is set in the desert wastes of America, the developer manages to give the player a host of interesting environments to crawl through, like the inside of a utility vehicle, and the finer parts of a desert shack. Environments are littered with the signs of human occupancy; a damaged mobile phone will be needed to light the area in one section, while in another you’ll be attacked by a group of spiders launching their assault from the back of a pre-loved garden gnome.

Another highlight of Deadly Creatures is the game’s technical presentation. The animation of the tarantula and scorpion is ludicrously good; they scurry and climb around the world with astonishing fluidity and a high degree of realism. The characters are highly detailed and when combined with the previously mentioned environments make for one of the better looking games on the Wii. The way the creatures act in the game is quite convincing too, particularly the larger boss creatures like the rattlesnake and Gila monster. Some traits of the creatures are hammed up a little bit for the video game; some research into tarantulas indicated that they don’t growl and roar quite so commonly.

While the concept and setting of Deadly Creatures maybe be relatively unique, the gameplay is actually quite straightforward. The game is broken up into ten separate chapters, with control of the tarantula and scorpion alternating between each chapter. Control is handled through a mixture of button and motion control using the Nunchuck combo; basic movement, jumping and defence/webbing are handled on the Nunchuck while all of the attacking movements are handled using the Wii Remote. The creatures have quite contrasting approaches to combat; the tarantula is a more stealthy beast with a preference for lunging, while the scorpion is all about strength and toe-to-toe combat. Unlike many games which rely on motion control for combat, Deadly Creatures does a commendable job of reading players movements and reacting to them in the intended manner. It’s too bad that the same cannot be said for the camera control, which is fiddly and prone to become physically stuck on the environment.

Deadly Creatures essentially plays like a beat ‘em up, with common insects and arachnids replacing the common street thug, and grasshoppers and crickets in place of health pickups. As such, the basic fighting structure of the game can become pretty stale, but the game does a good job of introducing new abilities (such as webbing and stinging) to the creatures at regular intervals. The scorpion gains a hold attack which triggers a quick-time event that will result in an instant kill if executed successfully. The combat can become cheap at times, particularly when you encounter the tarantula hawks, the sneaky airborne attackers who ignore collision detection, but is enjoyable for the most part. The game is always clear about its objectives, and holding the 2 button on the Wii Remote will bring up an arrow which shows you exactly where to go. Level design is generally quite good, but the reuse of certain types of scenery (particularly small burrows) can become a little grating.

Boss encounters against larger creatures (such as the aforementioned reptiles) or groups of smaller creatures (widow spiders and tarantula hawks) seem underused; these fights are the only time you ever seem to be on the back foot, and the execution is fantastic. Perhaps there is potential in someone taking this concept in a Shadow of the Colossus-style direction, toning down the standard fights for a series of more complex and memorable encounters.

The tightly-woven setting of Deadly Creatures springs a few loose threads when you approach its narrative. It just doesn’t seem like an overriding story of any kind is required in order to give context for a bunch of insects, arachnids and reptiles to kill one another, but Rainbow Studios insisted. Also of little sense is the casting of veteran actors Dennis Hopper and Billy Bob Thornton in such superfluous roles – perhaps there is more to their inclusion in the game than we know about. From what one can gather, Hopper and Thornton play two blokes (who, unlike the creatures in the game, are heavily stylised) from the southern United States who are on a bit of a treasure hunt. They cross paths with the spider and scorpion throughout the game, but there never seems to be any sort of allusion to why the creatures are tracking the humans. The game’s climax feels tremendously rushed; there’s no explanation for the absurd final battle (surely you’d feel a scorpion climbing into your pants before he stung your genitals) and the ending is an unbelievably low-quality pre-rendered cinematic.

The arachnids’ adventure is somewhat short-lived, with Deadly Creatures’ 10 chapters occupying the 6 to 8 hour space. One opportunity for filler is provided with the grub hunt, Deadly Creatures’ equivalent of the eponymous hidden package. There are 450 of the little creeps to hunt down and munch on, with your troubles rewarded with bonus content at regular intervals. Other than that and a few hidden areas only accessible after beating the game, Deadly Creatures does not really inspire replay value.

Deadly Creatures is not a perfect game by any means, but is worthy of a thorough look. The attention to detail Rainbow Studios has paid while developing the game is really quite amazing; the scale, the environments and the way the creatures move and act are all really impressive. It’s a little unfortunate that they felt the need to shoehorn in a superfluous plot that remains too distant from the game to be of any use, and that said plot was wrapped up so quickly and anti-climactically. The combat seems to get a little stale, and the camera could have used a lot of optimisation. While it’s not quite as good as we’d hoped, Deadly Creatures makes a strong case for new content on the Wii that appeals to more traditional video game tastes.