Myviewing

User Score
7.0

Presentation - 5.5
Gameplay - 7.0
Value - 7.5

The Resident Evil series may not be the first survival horror series ever created, but it did popularize the genre with its story, concept of one man/woman facing an army of zombies, and acting ranging from abysmal to decent. When the first Resident Evil on the Playstation made the genre popular, developers followed suit in attempts to create their own series based on the success. Some of them turning out good (Silent Hill), some turning out terrible (The Ring: Terror's Realm) and others that didn't catch on in popularity and only gained cult followings (Blue Stinger). This process followed in the era of the PS1 and the N64, and throughout the last gaming generation with similar results. One may think that with the number of review sites and publishers that developers may have given up on trying to rip off the RE formula and instead focus on making their own games. However, this sure doesn't seem to be the case with development team Secret Stash and their creation of “Escape From Bug Island” for the Nintendo Wii. The game has the guts to boast itself as the “creepiest survival/horror game for the Wii” (Obviously factoring out Resident Evil 4, but more on that later). So is this game creepy? Fun and playable? Or both? Let's find out.

Survival horror game stories tend to lean towards one of two extremes in terms of story quality. They can either be so well done that they rival Hollywood horror movies, or so badly done they don't even qualify for being shown in movie format on the Sci-Fi channel. Escape From Bug Island falls on the later. The story follows that of three college students, Ray, Michelle, and Mike in their trip to the island of Beelzebub (Oooooh… Get it?). Ray is the character you control and seems to pass off as a total wimp, but oddly enough suddenly develops enough courage to face the mutants on the island he traveled with, Mike is Ray's friend who has meat for a brain and points his shotgun wherever he feels like, and Michelle is the scientist in training who has a fetish for bugs and learning about as much as possible from their life patterns (just like most scientists). The story begins to unfold with the scene at the campsite, where Mike proposes to Michelle to be his girlfriend when your character Ray was planning to do so, but instead is forced to watch (it's actually a blank out) Michelle walk off to wonder about whether or not to be Mike's girlfriend. Ray and Mike get into an argument of sorts and Mike goes off to find Michelle. Ray then dozes off and wakes up to find that Mike and Michelle have yet to return to their campsite and goes off to find them, only to find giant bugs and other mutants in his way. The opening story seems like something done from a really bad soap opera and has to be seen to be believed. As the rest of the story progresses, things don't get much better, but you do get to learn how the insect life got to be what it is. If you want to find out the rest of the story beyond that, either read it from someone else or play the game yourself.

In terms of graphics, they are very inferior by today's standards, even on the Wii. The Wii may not be the graphic powerhouse of this gaming generation, but with games like Super Mario Galaxy and Sonic and the Secret Rings showing the Wii is more than capable of pulling off fantastic graphics, Escape From Bug Island falls short of doing justice to the system. The environments and character models all look like something done on the Nintendo 64 or the Playstation. The fog doesn't help with much either, seeing that it's nothing when you have your flashlight on, but it's unrealistically blurry when you turn it off. So the graphics definitely don't pass off as anything to marvel at.

The graphics certainly weren't an accomplishment the developers had in mind for this game, though the sound department is slightly better. There is some nice music to be heard in the game such as the intro cut scene, the menu screen, the “being attacked by giant bugs” music, but most of the other tunes leaves much to be desired. The sound effects are decent though, they vary in how mutants die, react, and attack, but some are reused to the point of where they may irritate some players. Speaking of leaving much to be desired, the voice acting makes sure that you still feel that way. The voice acting is simply terrible, even worse than Sonic Adventure's English dub, but still not as bad as Mega Man X 4's. There are situations where characters have to face incredible danger, but they hardly show any sign of fear or pain. Seeing that bad voice acting seems to be a trademark in many survival horror games, it may gain the sympathy of some gamers, but for gamers looking for quality presentation won't find it here.

So the graphics and the sound aren't up to par with anything that has come out this generation, but how does the game play hold up? Amazingly enough… It's actually not all that bad. The game requires gamers to utilize the Wiimote and nun chuck to perform various actions in the game. Examples include holding the B button and wagging the Wiimote down to attack with whatever weapon you are carrying, holding the A button shifts you into the first person so you can either poke something with the B button (which doesn't really seem to be all that helpful) or holding the B button to throw a projectile. Throwing projectiles isn't as easy as it sounds, since the first person camera is controlled by the Wiimote, and the aiming cursor is fairly imprecise since you often have to throw a projectile above your target to get a hit. Wagging the Wiimote or the nun chuck without holding any button makes Ray roll to the respective side you're holding them (the game functions whether you're left or right handed).

There's a wide variety of enemies for players to kill, like crickets, moths, flies, giant praying mantis's, carnivorous plants that catch your foot on the ground, giant frogs, flying fish, disembodied King Kongs, and (are you ready for this?) Amazonian Lizard Women. Killing these enemies is quite satisfying and doesn't seem to get old, considering you're attacking with the Wiimote. To add to the functions the Wiimote offers, there are times when Ray must cross a narrow bridge and maintain his balance or fall off. Walking across narrow bridges is done by walking as normal and moving the Wiimote back and forth, moving a needle on a scale that appears, that you have to keep within the blue area or risk losing balance. When the scale begins to flash red, Ray begins to lose his balance and you must maintain the needle within the blue area to regain balance and move forward.

There is also a lot of extra content and depth in Escape From Bug Island for being a cheap Resident Evil clone. You can find items that move you along in your search for Michelle and Mike, such as honey for attracting exploding ants to a tree for you to kill with ant spray you find latter on. It's possible to find secret items to add to the variety of weapons you can find as well, such as finding barbwire for a baseball bat you find and allows you to make a baseball bat wrapped in barbwire.

Escape From Bug Island is probably a game that could have been done on the Playstation and Nintendo 64, got decent reviews then, and become something for gamers to laugh at today, stating it hasn't aged well. This game probably wouldn't have garnered too much sales back then anyway, so it may bring some to question why this game exists. Is this game worth checking out though? If you're looking for another survival horror game that matches the presentation levels of classic Resident Evil clones, already beat Resident Evil 4, or just have cash to burn, this game may actually be worth your time and money if you're willing to give it an honest chance. This game is pretty hard to find for new though, but this game can be found at a Gamestop for $17.99 used. Overall, this game may not be worth the $49.99 it most likely launched at, but if you can find it cheap and just want something different to play from the mainstream releases, Escape From Bug Island may be worth it.