US, October 30, 2008 - THQ's Deadly Creatures -- a game about two creepy-crawlers: a tarantula and a scorpion -- is wrapped. It won't make it's original Halloween release date, but it absolutely is coming out this year. This December, in case you're wondering, and you should be if you want a Wii game both very different and beautifully stylized. Rainbow Studios veteran and lead game designer Jordan Itkowitz recently stopped by our Los Angeles offices for a final demo of the game before we get our dirty claws on the final, boxed copies. With Halloween on the horizon, we figured now was the perfect time for an update.

"Given the concept, Halloween certainly seemed like a great fit, but we wanted to ensure that we had enough time to put the final polish on the game," said Itkowitz when asked why Deadly Creatures didn't meet its initial launch date. "It's said that 'a game is never finished, it's just shipped,' but that extra time really made a difference, and we're very pleased with what we've shipped."

So what has the extra time afforded Rainbow Studios?

"Since we last showed the game at E3, we've revamped our combat and camera systems. We added more of a strategic element to combat, relying on a light-heavy-block triangle to define the NPCs' attacks and put more emphasis on the player's range of abilities," said Itkowitz.

"Light strikes are done with the A button, and you can follow those up with gestures to create heavy combos. In this way, the gestures act as the exclamation point at the end of the sentence; it's much more satisfying than when we had you using a gesture as your primary attack, which got repetitive and allowed you to spam attacks on your opponents. There's more risk and reward now, with a heavier reliance on blocking (or jumping out of the way, for the tarantula), so if you expect to charge into a fight and mash away, you're going to have a harder time of it. Enemies block and evade attacks as well, so you need to wait for the right opportunity to attack.

"Given the variety of enemies (everything from beetles to wasps to rats to lizards) and their different attacks, you'll need to formulate different strategies to defeat each one. For instance, the tarantula can leap out of the way of a lizard's charge, fire a web shot to gum it up, then rush back in to attack. The scorpion is not as agile, so you'll need to watch the lizard's charge and dash out of the way at the last moment before returning in to try and get some hits in. Or if you have the Burrow Strike unlocked, you can dig into the soil as the lizard starts charging, then pop up and sting its underbelly as it passes over you. There are a lot of options depending on what you're fighting and which of the two playables you're using. We also added a venom mechanic to combat; hold the B button to charge your venom (leaving you defenseless in the meantime), then strike to land a damage-over-time attack on your opponent. (Some opponents can also poison you as well, so watch out).

"You'll also notice that the game no longer uses manual targeting. This allows for a more open, chaotic combat experience, especially when you're fighting a bunch of enemies at once (for instance, the black widows at the bottom of The Brambles). This move away from lock-on necessitated a complete combat camera change – the camera is more fluid and shows the action much more freely, pushing in or pulling out depending on how many and what type of NPCs you're fighting."

Based on our admittedly brief hands-on time with the finished product, the camera system -- previously a little wonky and unable to always predict and follow player movement -- seems much more streamline and polished. It more closely followed our characters as we took them up walls and over ledges, or even positioned them upside down on ceilings.

Deadly Creatures is an atmospherically creepy game. It's also a bit on the violent side, but since you aren't killing humans (just insects and critters), the ESRB went a little easy on the title. "We got a T rating from the ESRB, mostly for the goo splattering on the screen whenever you eviscerate a lizard or rip a wasp's wings off. It was great fun to see all the particle systems go in – smack a beetle up in the air, and a spurt of green goop arcs out of its body as it tumbles. Or use the tarantula to pounce on an overturned rat and start sinking your fangs into its belly – lots of gushing blood and wriggling," said Itkowitz. "There's also some violent content to do with the two men you encounter through the game (played by Dennis Hopper and Billy Bob Thornton), but we'll leave that to you guys to discover on your own.

And that in and of itself is pretty big news. THQ nabbed the two aforementioned very accomplished actors to supply the voices of the two main human characters in the game. These two guys have been spotted in previous Deadly Creatures videos -- walking out into the desert and ready to dig for something.

"We were very lucky to get Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Hopper to sign up for the parts of the two men that you continually encounter throughout both the scorpion's and tarantula's separate/interweaving journeys. They were drawn to the unique, indie-feel of Deadly Creatures and delivered the earthy, weathered quality we needed for Struggs and Wade," said Itkowitz. "You'll uncover pieces of the human storyline (as Struggs and Wade search the desert for buried Civil War gold) in each chapter via cutscenes, but always from our creatures' perspectives. The men are always distant, impossibly large giants – we never cut into a two-shot like you would with a normal dialogue scene. We also overhear the men's conversations as they walk around the surrounding area – some are additional backstory and story details but others are amusing banter to flesh out their personalities more)."

Deadly Creatures is one of Wii's prettiest games. When the title first boots, a black, simple title screen is perpetually interrupted by gorgeously animated and completely realistic tarantula models -- the same ones from the in-game sequences. When you're playing through the title and ready to, say, pounce on an enemy, the camera shows these in-game models up close from a behind-the-back perspective, and you will actually be able to spot the hair on the tarantula's legs. Meanwhile, the 3D environments sometimes resembled painted backdrops, but it's all geometry -- sometimes, quite a lot of it. You will regularly run through areas with cross-crossing branches, broken down vehicles, and more, all requiring high polygon counts. Not an easy task.

"Learning what the Wii can and cannot do was one of the earliest challenges. Our first inclination was to use the gestures for too many functions, which can get repetitive and chaotic really quickly, not to mention gimmicky. We eventually settled on a much more balanced blend of inputs, using buttons for simple attacks (strike, jump/block, venom charge), gestures for combos and quick-time-events (like finishing moves and other sequences), and the IR-pointer for things like the tarantula's web jump and stealth-pounce abilities," said Itkowitz. "Far as horsepower goes, we had to design a sector-based system that broke our world into 30-meg chunks, and a streaming system to blend seamlessly between them. Design, art and animation had to find the right balance per sector to get everything in that we wanted, while still maintaining a uniform density and quality so that we put you in a lush, immersive world."

We give Rainbow credit for pushing the hardware, but it hasn't come without a few sacrifices. The game's framerate isn't fluid. It tops out at 30 frames per second and sometimes dips below. Meanwhile, in our latest hands-on with the game, we noticed a few spotty issues in which some enemy characters would occasionally get stuck on an object or glitch out. These are not gameplay deal-breakers, by any means, but signs of development struggles, both against the hardware and undoubtedly against a release deadline.

Even with a few technical setbacks, we love the theme and the presentation is impressive. This is the type of series we definitely want to see continued on Nintendo's system. Is that a possibility? "We hope so – the concept of being a predator, and exploring the world from its perspective is something we think has a lot of legs (ba dum bum)," said Itkowitz. "Gamers seem to be really intrigued and excited by the concept and what we've shown so far, so hopefully the sales and reception are positive enough to allow us to make another."

Where might the series go next? "Well, I can't say specifically just yet, but again, the idea of being a predator could be applied to a wide range of fascinating creatures and experiences. We could choose another creature or group of creatures and set them loose in another environment, or find new ways to make our scorpion and tarantula even deadlier," he added.

Right, we know, yes -- it's not coming out for Halloween. Still, Deadly Creatures will be available for the holidays and it's definitely a very different beast from all Wii competitors. "Deadly Creatures is a really unique take on the action/adventure genre, with brutal creature combat, a fascinating and immersive world, two distinct playable characters, a surprising, cinematic storyline and a dizzying 360-degree wall-crawling perspective. And there's nothing like it on the Wii – or on any other system," said Itkowitz. "If you're looking for something new and different to sink your teeth into, this is it. And if you're a lifelong arachnophobe, here's your therapy."

looks pretty good, the preview seems very positive and it seems to be a lot more polished. I reckon it will score around 8.7 from ign which is good enough for me. Plus its uniqueness should hopfully see it sell very well in the America's at least. I also liked the talk of expanding the IP, mayb the next deadly creatures (if there is one) could focus on lions, or sharks. as wii most liekly wont see all the big third party franchises launche don the PS2 it needs to build some of its own. it seems to be doing so.

how much do you guys think this title needs to sell to be profitable?

After some deliberation, I've decided I'm buying the game. I just can't pass up the opportunity of being able to play as a spider and a scorpinon, that's something very intriguing for me.

I would really love to get this game... but I really hate spiders, i cringe every time I see one (and yes I do realise how much of a pu**y this makes me sound but i dont care)...

... so I think I'll give it a miss. it does look really good tho

This is the third time this preview has been posted. Nice to see there's some genuine excitement for the game.

I thought this game was shovelware. Not knocking the game, it may be great. ( I honsetly know very little about it) I usually picture ToS2 as the Wii hardcore game of this fall that I am going to buy, but whatever suits you.

I thought this game would be crap as well, but there obviously has been great effort put into it.

I would be content with it getting like a 7.5 or something. That would meet my expectations.

I hope that this and Mushroom Men wiil be some kind of a sleeper hit.

It looks great, it seems like they're trying to make it as great as possible.