ESCAPE
FROM BUG ISLAND
Published by: Secret Stash Games
Developed by:
Spiked
Available on
Nintendo Wii
INTRODUCTION:
Escape From Bug Island the first ever Survival Horror game
developed only for the Nintendo Wii. If you’re like me (and I sure hope you
are), you’ve picked up Resident Evil 4 already for the Wii, and enjoyed the hell
out of it. Now, you’re left wanting for more. Touted as a 3rd person
survival-horror game that takes a quirky, creepy and over-the-top journey onto
an island filled with giant evil insects and mutant creatures, it would seem
that this Island is one you want to visit immediately. With a search-and-rescue,
B Movie in a Box storyline, you’ve got all you need. This riveting description,
paired with sure to be awesome innovative Wii controls should be everything
you’re looking for. Read on, true believers to see if you can survive the horror
that is
Bug
Island
.
GAMEPLAY:
Gameplay is the key element to any game, and
Bug
Island
botches this right out of the starting gate. For god knows what reasons, your
character, Ray is controlled very poorly. It’s like he’s on two axes, where you
have to rotate his upper torso to decide where the rest of his body is going to
go. And of course this can’t be done on the fly- you have to point him in his
direction, and then make him walk. Weak, I know. As if this isn’t bad enough,
the attacking is even worse.
Bug
Island
throws tons of silly monsters at you with little remorse- and this would be
acceptable if you were able to just hack and slash your way through them with a
flick of your Wiimote a-la-Zelda. Alas, this is not to be. First, you must hold
in a button. Now, any momentum you had is stopped dead in its tracks, as you
stop completely, frozen where you are. Then, you have to swing your Wiimote and
this will cause your desired weapon to swing as well. Doesn’t sound too bad,
right? Well, one swing isn’t too bad. However, one swing isn’t effective enough;
to destroy the monsters you need to use combos. Stringing combos together is
easy, but the delay between each move is staggering and a true handicap. Not to
mention that your grenades are just as awful, you have to hold two buttons, go
into a 1st person viewpoint, and then throw the weapon. It’s a true pain.
On top of all this, the game is f’n boring. All you do is
hack and slash (and look pointlessly for useless items) in a foggy environment
until you get to the end of the level. Oh, and have I mentioned the camera? It’s
hindering to say the least, sticking in smaller environments and pretty much
never being where it’s supposed to be. There’s a mini-games in a few levels that
are okay, but that doesn’t add much to the proceedings.
My biggest beef with the gameplay is that when you’ve reached about the halfway
point of the game, the game sends you back to the first level, and you start all
over again. Yeah, I’m not kidding. All over again. There’s a bit more stuff in
each level this time, but who are we kidding? This is obviously developers
trying to make up for shoddy craftsmanship.
Gameplay: 2/10
GRAPHICS:
There’s no way around it, this is a butt, butt ugly game.
Yuck. Muddy textures, tons of clipping issues. Characters are blocky and jagged,
not to mention generic looking. There haven’t been many games to take advantage
of the Wii’s admittedly moderate graphical capabilities, and this is no
exception. This game would have looked terrible on the PS2, and in fact looks
more like an okay Nintendo 64 game. That was almost ten years ago, people. The
only decent looking thing in this game is the bugs, but still, they aren’t
enough.
Graphics: 2/10
AUDIO:
The sound is as generic as can be, with lots of stock music
in the backgrounds and sound effects. The dialogue is pretty decent, but does
that even count? It’s all B-Movie lines that will have you cringing. The aural
presentation is completely average and forgettable, and the worst part is that
it is the game’s best feature.
Audio: 5/10
FINAL VERDICT:
At the end of the day, you can’t Escape from
Bug
Island
quickly enough. It is admittedly somewhat ambitious and does show the slightest
bit of promise in the control scheme, but the niceties end there. This is an
unfinished, hideous looking game that plays almost as bad as it looks. It is not
fun due to its many gameplay flaws, and will undoubtedly be doomed to bargain
bins, where suckers like me will walk by someday and ask “How bad could it
be?” Unfortunately, not all of us can read this website as often as we’d
like. Although we all should, let that be a lesson to ye!
FINAL SCORE: 3/10
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