There are few experiences more intense than eating your enemy to regain health. And no, we're not talking about a sequel to "Dead Rising.", but THQ and Rainbow Studios' Wii game Deadly Creatures."
At THQ's Gamer's Day last week, I went hands-on with Rainbow's radically different Wii adventure to spend some quality time as a blood-lusting scorpion.
"Deadly Creatures" is unlike anything I've ever played. The closet comparison, which lead designer Devin Knudsen told me was common, is "Spider" on PS One. In fact, while I roamed as a scorpion during the demo, Knudsen told me other playable creature actually is a spider.
We weren't allowed to play as the spider yet. Not to worry. Snapping the Wiimote forward to stab enemies with my scorpion counterpart's tail was good enough.
But something bugged me during the demo: how did Rainbow convince THQ to give the thumbs up to a drastically new kind of game in an unfamiliar genre?
Knudsen said that while Rainbow's experience lies with racers, that isn't everything the company has ever aspired to produce. He said their staff was tired of producing racer after racer, not-so-subtly hinting some folks may not have stuck around if they couldn't try something gnew.
Rainbow pitched "Deadly Creatures" to THQ even before Wii had been released. Popular opinion might peg THQ as a licensed-focused publisher, but if their Wii crop is any indication, that could be a changing perception.
Working on Wii, however, comes with inherent visual limitations. A game like "Deadly Creatures" might tremendously benefit from hyper detailed environments and beasts. But from day one, Knudsen said, Rainbow wanted to see "Deadly Creatures" on Wii. They told THQ they wouldn't develop the concept on any other platform. So, to Wii it went, and the dedication shows, even in a work-in-progress.
"Deadly Creatures" avoids any sense of a tacked-on control scheme. It wouldn't feel the same on a traditional controller. On Wii, each of the scorpion's snappers are assigned separately to the nunchuk and Wiimote. You dig by moving both controllers up and down, just like a scorpion might dig in real life.
Unlike early Wii games, the context helps. Waving your arms doesn't feel silly.
There's an intricate story to "Deadly Creatures," as well, said Knudsen, who described it as Quentin Tarantino-esque. The game opens with a gas station exploding but doesn't explain why. You spend the rest of the game in the hours before that, alternating between playing as the scorpion and spider to piece together how this random accident came to be.
Knusden promised some pretty wild scenarios later in the game, too, including spider vs. scorpion battles and some levels on the bodies of unfortunate humans.
There's no official release date for "Deadly Creatures" just yet -- Knudsen said their team is targeting October -- but we're already anxious for another taste.
Even if spiders do creep the heck out of me.
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