Nightmare Creatures

"And the game goes up in flames..."

Ah, the Night of the London Fire... Supposidely caused during the course of this game... Actually caused by how pathetic this game was.

Nightmare Creatures is a horror type game (Ala Resident Evil and Clock Tower), so you would expect to be scared out of your wits, right? After about the third or fourth level, the effect of surprise wears off - You begin to realize that there are ALWAYS monsters hiding behind that big pile of boxes in the corner. It's not Paranoia, by the way, it's true.

Nightmare Creatures takes place on the night of the Great London Fire, as 'The brothers of Hectate' unleash a swarm of beasts upon the city. Go figure! And, of course, only one of them, a rougish, ugly guy, wanted this to happen, so you have to chase him down. Eventually, you think you kill him in the end, but during the ending sequence, it shows him alive... Leaving room for a sequal...

And for some brilliant reason, the company decided to make a sequal. In fact, a THIRD Nightmare Creatures is currently in the works (For X-Box at the very least). Well, I should hope that it's improved over the piece of work I'm referring to right here.

There are two playable characters in Nightmare Creatures (If you don't count the giant monster thingy you play as from a Cheat Code). A young woman and a young man. Both fighters with a weapon of some sort. They play nearly the same - The only thing that differs is how their combos work.

Oh, I'm sorry, did I forget to mention that? At the start of each of the 20 (Argh) Levels of Nightmare Creatures, that AREN'T boss levels, you get a new Combo attacks. These are combos of the A and B buttons usually that will become the staple of your fighting, alongside your items. Of course, if you get good at the game, you'll know that the items that you can pick up almost from the start - the recoveries, the guns, etc. - will defeat almost all of the 13 or so varieties of monsters (I may even be stretching it to say 13...)

Nightmare Creatures gives nothing new, it's just 'another game' that doesn't stand out at all for the N64, in fact, it doesn't stand out in ANY area.

Here's the breakdown

Graphics - 6/10 - Dark and repetitive, there's nothing too special about them.
Controls - 6/10 - The Combos are rather easy to pull off, but annoying when you REALLY have to use them. They're still a bit hard, since you're likely to be trying to pull them off faster then the game registers them. The controls are also tough, and the dang camera never seems to want to co-operate
Sound and Music - 4/10 - The game has almost no variety. I think almost the only time you ever hear music is during boss fights, and even then, it's hard to say that any of it is that great
Innovation - 2/10 - This game offers nothing new to it's genre, although it's nice to have carriable recovery and mass-attacks weapons, even though there were almost TOO many mass-attack weapons
Difficulty - 9/10 - The one GOOD thing about this game. It's challenging the first time through, but after that, it's much easier, since you know how to go about the game. You almost have to find every item in the levels in Hard difficulty, if you even want to survive
Replay Value and Variety - 1/10 - Play it once, then never touch it again. There is nothing new, even if you switch characters
Overall - 5/10 - This game's shortcomings and repetitivity make it nothing too great. The controls are a bit rough, the camera is annoying, the sound gets old fast, the music isn't too good, but it still provides a good challenge and decent graphics.

Rent or Buy - If you buy this, it's going to collect dust. Rent only, unless, for whatever unknown reason, you really like it. If you're REALLY looking for a Horror game - Try Clock Tower or Resident Evil. NOT this.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/04/03, Updated 07/04/03