Games you should be playing: The Creeps

December 31, 2008 by Dr. Macenstein
Filed under: Games, Product Reviews 

Thank you we have our winners. This contest is over. Congrats to faithful Macenstein readers Brian and Dav!

Man, we’re going contest crazy here these days!

We’re launching a new feature here at Macenstein called “Games you should be playing”. It’s not quite a full review, just a heads up on games worth buying. We’re kicking the feature off with the adorably spooky tower defense game The Creeps
 ($1.99) , a game you should buy, but we also have 2 free codes to give away, thanks to the developer, Russell Bernau of Super Squawk Software (details below).

The Creeps for iPhone and iPod touch

The Creeps for iPhone and iPod touch

Similar to our game of the year title Fieldrunners, The Creeps is a tower defense game, meaning the object is to stop bad guys from getting from one side of the screen to the other (in this case, you want to save a little sleeping boy from the monsters that hide in his closet). The Creeps sets itself apart from other TD games with it’s sense of humor, creativity, and truly wonderful drawings and animations.

The Creeps for iPhone and iPod touch

You begin the game by choosing a level from a “coverflow”-like interface. Initially all but one level are locked, but as you defeat them (by warding off the creeps for a set number of rounds), you unlock the next level, as well as an unlimited version of the level you beat. Each level has its own set of obstacles and monsters, as well as different types of weapons you are allowed to use.

The Creeps for iPhone and iPod touch

There are a wide variety of little “things that go bump in the night” here – literally. When the creeps make it to the bed the whole bed jumps up! Allow too many creeps to hit the bed, and the kid wakes up, and the game ends.

The Creeps for iPhone and iPod touch
Above: If you can save your money, you can upgrade your defenses into more powerful killing machines.

To aid you in your defense are a wide variety of weapons, just as cute and creative as the monsters they are meant to destroy. Since this is a game meant to take place from the POV of a frightened child, you arm yourself with items a kid might think would stop monsters, such as a toy raygun, glue bottles, flashlights (everyone knows monsters can’t withstand a flashlight), a boomerang, and many others. Some of the “big ticket” defense items actually use the iPhone’s accelerometer to attack, so for instance, if you use the oil can to make the path slippery, you need to tilt your iPhone (depending on the path direction) to keep the creeps sliding away. All these weapons can be upgraded into real killing machines, so you must learn to save up and place your weapons accordingly.

The Creeps for iPhone and iPod touch
Above: Flashlights can be upgraded into serious light canons!

Issues

The biggest thing lacking from the game is sound. The visuals are so wonderful you can almost hear the sounds these creeps and weapons should make (I picture the yellow ghosts sounding like Gloop and Gleep from The Herculoids). Just like Fieldrunners, The Creeps has launched without sound, but Russell assures us sound is coming in an update, along with new levels, which is good, because once you discover the secret to beating The Creeps, some levels are fairly easy (although I spent about 3 days trying to get through them). Russell also says more levels are on the way, so all in all the future looks bright. Or should I say, gloomy, macabre, and scary? :)

The Creeps for iPhone and iPod touch
Above: My super maze basically would have run on forever in unlimited mode.

The only other issue is the unlimited levels seem to plateau in difficulty after a point. I created a super maze and let the game run for 6 hours just to see how long it would go without me having to to do anything to my maze, and after round 450 or so and crossing the 10 million point mark, I got bored and quit. Russell says the update will make the game even harder, so we’re looking forward to it!

The Creeps for iPhone and iPod touch
Above: These things are all so cute you almost don’t want to destroy them.

Conclusion

At $1.99 you definitely get your game-play money’s worth, and even without the host of goodies coming in the next update, The Creeps is a game you should be playing NOW.

OK, wanna win a copy of The Creeps for your very own? It’s easy! just leave a comment telling us the scariest movie you’ve ever seen. We’ll pick TWO winners at random On January 1st, 2009. Entries must be in by 12 noon eastern time. Thanks, and good luck!

Every time you submit our site, an Angel gets its wings.
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • MySpace
  • NewsVine
  • Slashdot
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Fark
  • Spurl

Tags:

Comments

58 Comments on Games you should be playing: The Creeps

  1. Telp on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 12:30 pm

    2. The only movie to actually scare me…

    Nightmare on Elm street. (the first one, the rest just sucked. )

  2. Scott on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 12:31 pm

    3. Scariest movie ever seen: Event Horizon

    Creepy as hell

  3. Dowd on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 12:39 pm

    4. The Descent

  4. Tyler Oestreich on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 12:45 pm

    5. the shining…gotta love it

  5. giantmike on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 12:49 pm

    6. House of 1000 Corpses.

  6. Leopatra on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 12:49 pm

    7. The Scariest Movie i’ve ever seen is definitely:

    Funny Games (Original from 1997)

    It was so weird that my best friend and me started a fight because we were so exhilarated of the intensenes of it.
    The Actors are also really good.

    Watch it if you can get it anywhere:
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119167/

  7. Mercurius on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 12:50 pm

    8. Scariest movie ever seen: The Silence of the Lambs

  8. Noah Hayes on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 1:04 pm

    9. Scariest movie I’ve ever seen was Earnest Goes to Camp. I saw it as a kid, the guy freaked me out so much I had nightmares about him for until I was 10! Nothing else has scared me more than seeing that guys goofy face.

  9. Drew on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 1:07 pm

    10. Arachnophobia- Freaking hate spiders

  10. Tom Foolery on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 1:08 pm

    11. Matilda

  11. Chris Wheaton on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 1:23 pm

    12. Silence of the Lambs

  12. demoabi on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 1:26 pm

    13. karla, its just creepy

  13. /dev/stdout on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 1:28 pm

    14. Donnie Darko - that rabbit freaked me out

  14. Bijan Turkcan on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 1:28 pm

    15. definitely The Thing. when that thing came out of his stomach i was almost done.

  15. jeremy on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 1:34 pm

    16. The Thing.

    When I was a kid, I asked my dad to put on this movie thinking it was Swamp Thing. He kept asking me if I was sure this was the movie I wanted to watch. The dogs turning inside out scared the crap outta me. I was under the sheets the rest of the movie.

  16. Dillon Schuneman on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 1:42 pm

    17. SCARIEST MOVIE I’VE EVER SEEN IS

    THE STRANGERS

  17. k1209 on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 1:45 pm

    18. i was 5 years old an my parents were watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of dome and i came down stairs from and saw the part where they riped the guys heart out and i was so freakin scared i couldnt sleep for a week

  18. billyp on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 2:01 pm

    19. By far the scariest thing I was forced to sit through……..House Bunny!

  19. pdxbrown on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 2:05 pm

    20. The scariest movie I ever saw was Glitter with Mariah Carey. I took my sister to see it in the theater and had a difficult time stomaching the popcorn………(sorry, I just threw up in my mouth) while seeing that giant shrew on the big screen. I had many a scary dreams in the nights that followed.

  20. dav on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 2:15 pm

    21. The Blair Witch Project - it left a lot to the imagination, which to me is creepier than special effects. Thanks for the opportunity to win this game.

  21. Ben Tattersley on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 2:27 pm

    22. High School Musical, man that thing scared the crap outta me. I hid behind the sofa during that. I’m now scarred for life.

  22. greg on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 2:29 pm

    23. Sex and the city

    Damn, Jessica Parker’s make up is spooky as hell, I always cried a little when seeing her on the screen…

  23. Julien on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 2:39 pm

    24. Scariest movie is The Ring

  24. autoy on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 2:56 pm

    25. Probably it was “The Ring” (japanese version, of course: “Ringu”). At the time there were no terror stories told that way, I remember most of my friends having a hard time to sleep for several days. The film was so crude exploring the deepest fears, pushing the boundaries of terror to a whole new level.

  25. Shervin on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 2:57 pm

    26. “MUM AND DAD”

  26. paul hendricks on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 3:10 pm

    27. The Exorcist terrified me…

  27. Jack on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 3:12 pm

    28. W.

    That was a scary piece of cinema.

  28. macMajor on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 3:27 pm

    29. Monsters Inc. - truely scary

  29. Carrie on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 3:30 pm

    30. Not a big fan of the scary, but The Relic freaked the crap out of me. Sat in a big theater with great sound, and the “thing” seemed right behind me.

  30. Gilberto on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 3:30 pm

    31. For me it’ll always be THE EXORCIST … !!!

  31. Don Price on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 3:34 pm

    32. Alien - the first time I saw it in the theater, it was a Saturday afternoon . . . when I left the theater, I can remember being thankful that it was a bright, sunny day after 90 minutes of sheer terror in a dark and claustrophobic place!

  32. Brandon on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 3:49 pm

    33. Event Horizon. There were a lot of obviously scary moments in the film, but there were so many subtle elements in it that just creeped me out. It wasn’t the things that you saw that made it scary - it was the thoughts of what had to have happened to cause the things you could see … like the blood caked on the windows on the bridge.

  33. Jason G on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 4:29 pm

    34. Mrs. Doubtfire.

    I’m still having nightmares.

  34. odin on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 5:42 pm

    35. Show Girls

  35. John on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 7:29 pm

    36. Children of the Corn. I saw it when it first came out on video and I was but a child…scared me to death.

  36. Syaman on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 8:29 pm

    37. Ringu (i.e. Japanese and original version of “The Ring”).

    I was so terrified that I had to move my television AND my computer monitor out of my bedroom before I could sleep. And they stayed out for at least a week!

  37. Matt on Wed, 31st Dec 2008 11:24 pm

    38. Poltergeist!

  38. Adrian on Thu, 1st Jan 2009 5:08 am

    39. Saw 1

  39. Brian J. N. on Thu, 1st Jan 2009 6:19 am

    40. When I was little.. I saw Aliens on television.. MAN, that was scary for me.. In some scenes, I had to turn off the sound.. :-)

    So.. Aliens!!

  40. Jack on Thu, 1st Jan 2009 6:28 am

    41. Event Horizon - can’t watch any horror movie anymore after that.

  41. Aldo on Thu, 1st Jan 2009 7:37 am

    42. For mine: The Haunting (the original, black and white version.)

  42. Uncle Miltie on Thu, 1st Jan 2009 8:32 am

    43. Without question, the movie that still disturbs me the most is “7″

  43. Chris on Thu, 1st Jan 2009 8:53 am

    44. Muppets Christmas Carol

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Muppet-Christmas-Carol-Michael-Caine/dp/B000B7VZJM

    They look sweet and innocent, but turn your back on them and they’ll have the cheese wire round your neck! hehe

    Happy new year Macenstein!

  44. dammitjanet on Thu, 1st Jan 2009 9:38 am

    45. Event Horizon for me too, just plain freaked me out, I’ve not watched it since, ever. I like to sleep at nights.

  45. Phil on Thu, 1st Jan 2009 10:09 am

    46. Black Christmas (original version) gets my vote.

  46. Matias on Thu, 1st Jan 2009 10:24 am

    47. it’s been said before - “The Ring”

  47. Funkytooth on Thu, 1st Jan 2009 10:27 am

    48. The Truman Show freaked me out, for some reason.

  48. pawel_z_wrocka on Thu, 1st Jan 2009 11:56 am

    49. Alien. The original one, Director’s Cut, as seen at a cinema, some 20 years after the original release.

  49. mpeterke on Thu, 1st Jan 2009 2:56 pm

    50. Hitchcock’s “Birds”

  50. Michael Koren on Thu, 1st Jan 2009 7:29 pm

    51. H-Man! I was little and atomic power was real and we were having red threat warnings and I lived in New York City and even though it took place in Tokyo spreading the the US, the whole thing was so creepy and sneaky that everywhere i went i looked for the slimy gelatinous man-eater and awoke at night turning on the lights to see if it was oozing on my ceiling! Yikes!

  51. alex on Thu, 1st Jan 2009 8:57 pm

    52. Child’s Play. I never got any dolls again.

  52. Bob D on Thu, 1st Jan 2009 11:55 pm

    53. Alien (the first one). When that thing burst through the guy’s chest, I haven’t seen anything as scary before or since.

  53. Juball on Fri, 2nd Jan 2009 1:40 am

    54. Dumbo. The elephants dancing around the screen still freak me out. :-(

  54. roy on Fri, 2nd Jan 2009 6:03 am

    55. pokemon movie so scary it drove me to brink of insanity

  55. John V. Keogh on Fri, 2nd Jan 2009 10:14 am

    56. Quatermass and the Pit.

  56. ratGT on Fri, 2nd Jan 2009 8:59 pm

    57. On “Saturday Night Beaver” has got to be the scariest flick I’ve ever seen (when I first saw John Holme’s tool…)

  57. Joe on Mon, 5th Jan 2009 1:41 pm

    58. The Shinning, I was 9 years old when my dad took me to see it in the theater - what he was thinking I’ll never know. Couldn’t sleep for a week.

  58. Tom on Mon, 5th Jan 2009 5:14 pm

    59. Star Wars. I was a little too young when I first saw it, and I had nightmares for weeks.

Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!





Contest

Advertisement

Macenstein Must-Haves

iPhone Feature Request

  • Categories:

    • Advertisement