Games you should be playing: The Creeps
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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? 🙂
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!
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!
Child’s Play. I never got any dolls again.
Alien (the first one). When that thing burst through the guy’s chest, I haven’t seen anything as scary before or since.
Dumbo. The elephants dancing around the screen still freak me out. 🙁
pokemon movie so scary it drove me to brink of insanity
Quatermass and the Pit.
On “Saturday Night Beaver” has got to be the scariest flick I’ve ever seen (when I first saw John Holme’s tool…)
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.
Star Wars. I was a little too young when I first saw it, and I had nightmares for weeks.