Opposite of Dream Creatures

This week I'll be reviewing several N64 games that I have beaten on my way to my 50 by 4-19 goal. The first is a bargain bin title called Nightmare Creatures that I bought without knowing anything about the game, other than I remember the commercial back in 1997-ish with a voice-over by Maurice LaMarche, who does the voice of Brain on Pinky and the Brain.

Alright, so the game follows the story of the London fires of 1834 (history, anyone?). Apparently, some jerk named Adam Crowley found a secret recipe for a potion that would horribly deform and disfigure whatever drank it. Naturally, this is where werewolves come from. And giant leprous sewer rats. And other... creepy... things.

When you begin the game, you can choose to play the heavily clothed and bearded man, or the scantily clad woman (stereotypes, anyone?) Your job is to rid London of the monsters and track down the turd who started this mess. Actually, you don't actually have to kill everything. Unless you want to clear each level with 100%. It's up to you.

Most of the levels are very similar. You run around, kill monsters, hit switches, and make your way out. But it's not a totally monotonous game. Your player has several combos you can use, like spin moves, jump attacks, etc. These can do more damage and kill enemies quicker than by just mashing B the whole time.

There is also a nice weapon system that lets you combine guns and explosives with your attacks. For example, my personal favorite is the buzzsaw weapon. Basically it makes every take slice enemies to bits. Plus, each enemy can lose appendages and still live, so with the buzzsaw item you can hack off the arms and legs and heads of your zombie attackers. Schweet. In the first picture above, you can see me slicing trenchcoated zombies in half (gratuitous violence, anyone?).

Naturally, a platformer such as this has to have boss battles. For the most part, they work well. You hit a switch to shoot spikes at the guy, or throw dynamite at him. As you can see to the right, a civil war veteran is throwing large kitchen knives at me. How quaint. The problem is it seems like they didn't test the boss levels very well, because they can be extremely frustrating if you don't do it right. Plus, your character does not become invincible after you get hit, so you can get pummeled with no chance of recovery.

The game isn't overly lengthy, which is good because it gets pretty crazy towards the end. The last couple of levels are actually really hard, simply because there are so many enemies to kill. I prefer to run past them if I can, but even that can become difficult since they like to bust through windows and jump on your head unexpectedly.

All in all, it's a decent game for its time. The controls work well and the items add some excitement and hilarity to the already-neat zombie slaying. It's probably a little too difficult and frustrating for most people, but the first half of the game is quite fun.

Pros:

• Kill zombies and monsters with dynamite and saw blades!
• Learn made-up early-19th-Century British history!
• Chop things in half!

Cons:

• Too hard toward the end.
• Controls are a little funky sometimes.
• Enemy AI is all over the place

This game has earned a Blatantly Biased: