Creatures (platformer)

[exxos]

Somewhere in the far reaches of the universe is a planet called Blot. Much like Eden, this is a wonderful place where everything is perfect and everyone is happy. The inhabitants are lovely little creatures called the Blotians. However, for some peculiar reason, these guys became bored with their paradise and desired it to be cooler. Thus came up with the daft notion of a brand new identity - on a different planet. They're now called Fuzzy Wuzzies...

However, what these sad creatures didn't realise was that evil demons already lived on this new planet and they are a very bad-tempered bunch too! Needless to say, they should have been happy where they were because everyone has been captured and awaits a cruel and bloody fate. You are Clyde Radcliffe, your breath stinks terrible but it is your job to rescue all of your simple-minded friends from these vicious fiends! So good luck - you'll need it.

Creatures for Atari ST.jpg

Clyde is the cutest little thing and the game employs this theme throughout for all of its critters, be they good or bad. He is equipped with a rapid firing weapon, which is handy because many of the baddies can take numerous hits before they die. Power-ups are available, I love the 'wriggler' effect the most and there are much more to choose from. However, your superpower is the funniest weapon of all, press and hold the fire button to breathe bad breath over anything that gets too close. End of level puzzles are particularly cruel (but funny) with a harsh time limit to beat before a fellow Fuzzy Wuzzy meets their bloody death at the hands of a sadistic demon!

I love the lush aesthetics of Creatures with the beautiful colours and stunning artwork - the attention to detail is amazing. However, everything might look good but it's spoiled by rubbish push scrolling! Sure, this method works fine for other games but not here because it desperately needed proper scrolling. Audio is excellent and all sound effects use the DMA hardware [Atari STe] so what a shame they didn't go that extra mile to use the h/w scrolling or Blitter...


Creatures is actually pretty good and the gameplay is well-balanced (with a great sense of humour) but a scrolling platformer needs to SCROLL otherwise it feels cheap and tacky. If I'm honest, I was never a big Thalamus fan but it's obvious this is a lame Amiga port, which is sad. I feel there are better platformers out there for the Atari ST.

If you fancy helping Clyde in his push-scrolling world then grab the floppies or install onto your hard drive .


Article source ataricrypt

[AtariCrypt]

Really needs the STe blitter treatment. <cough cough Peter cough cough>
Fingers crossed.................

[exxos]

Creatures is one of the few games I actually purchased back in the day. Probably never got off level 1 or 2, normally the case. Think it might be one of those games which puts you right back at the start (level 1) when you die lots ? :(

[DrF]

I loved both the Creatures games on the Commodore 64, something I feel was lost on the ST/Amiga they just was not same.

As for it being a Amiga port I think its the other way around, the ST version came first?

[atari030]

That is one pretty looking platformer. Might have to give it a bash... Reminds me of Magic Boy.