Ludography
72/100
Players6 ratings
61/100
Critics3 reviews
Deadly Creatures cover

2009 · THQ · Action · Adventure

Deadly Creatures

Nintendo exclusive

Deadly Creatures allows players to play as a young male desert hairy scorpion and an adult female tarantula and engage in brutal combat against other arachnids, insects, rats, and reptiles.

Released
9 February 2009
Platforms
Wii
Genres
ActionAdventurePlatformer
Developers
THQ
Publishers
THQ
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Third person
Themes
ActionSurvivalStealth
Country
United States
Age ratings
ESRB TPEGI 12

About

Deadly Creatures is an action video game for the Wii released in February 2009. It was developed by Rainbow Studios and published by THQ. The game allows players to play as a tarantula and a scorpion, engaging in combat against other creatures.

Keywords

  • western
  • animals
  • insects
  • cricket
  • animal protagonist
  • action-adventure
  • multiple protagonists
  • snake
  • climbing
  • phobia
  • spider
  • voice acting

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Players can control a young male scorpion and an adult female tarantula and engage in brutal battles against other arachnids, insects, rats, and reptiles.

The two creatures have different playing styles, with the scorpion's levels featuring more action-oriented gameplay, while the tarantula is more stealth-oriented, with less linear levels. The Wii Remote and Nunchuk are used for both movement and attacks, with motion controls incorporated for special attacks and finishing moves, while the tarantula also utilizes the pointer function to shoot webs. New abilities are also gained as the player progresses through the game.

Story

Two men, George Struggs and Wade (voiced by Dennis Hopper and Billy Bob Thornton), are looking for a location in the Sonoran Desert where they believe gold from the American Civil War has been buried. The story is told from the point of view of both a tarantula and a scorpion with both creatures often seeing the same thing but from a different perspective, both also being stalked by a rattlesnake that the tarantula battled in the first level, as well as continuously fighting each other. When Struggs and Wade finally find the gold, Struggs turns on Wade, knocking him out with a shovel and taking the gold for himself. On his way back to his gas station, he finds the tarantula and rattlesnake and keeps them in glass tanks; the tarantula is able to climb out of the tank, with the rattlesnake escaping as well.

Meanwhile, the scorpion finds its way into Struggs' gas station and "battles" him by repeatedly stinging his crotch. Outside, the tarantula is attacked by the rattlesnake and the two fight on one of the station's gas tanks. Struggs chases the scorpion outside and is startled by the rattlesnake. Both the tarantula and scorpion are able to flee, and Struggs shoots at the rattlesnake and hits one of the gas lines, causing the gas tank to explode, presumably killing the rattlesnake.

Development

The game's concept was inspired when lead designer Jordan Itkowitz had a dream about using the Wii Remote to control a snake, slithering through the grass and striking a mouse. In brainstorming, the idea of the snake and other creatures were left on the cutting room floor, leaving the scorpion and tarantula.

For promotion, Rainbow Studios released a fake "behind-the-scenes" video dated from January 2008 revealing a motion capturing session involving a scorpion. However, the video shows a computer generated creature from the game itself with motion capturing dots on its body doing tasks.

Reception

Deadly Creatures received an "average" review of 72 out of 100 according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.

Video game and entertainment news website IGN reviewed Deadly Creatures as "Great" with an eight out of 10 score.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Wii9 February 2009North America · Australia 12 February 2009 · Europe 13 February 2009

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Platform libraries

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.