Nightmare Creatures (PS1, N64, PC)

Nightmare Creatures (PS1, N64, PC) :

Adam Crowley is a bit of a git! He's only gone and released a nightmarish Transmortification virus on old 19th Century London town, and it's turning all the cockneys into hideous, deformed creatures of the night! Unlike Eastenders though, it's going to take more than a cup of tea to sort out this load of slobbering, gibbering, undead moaners....

Step forward our two brave heroes, Father Ignatius Blackward , a priest with more than a little knowledge of the occult and magic...and Nadia Franciscus , a vengeful daughter out to put a stop to Crowley's plans and make him pay for her immunologist father's death!

Third-person, hacky-slashy, action-adventuring is the way forward...through 18 levels of London fog, creepy cemeteries, stinky sewers and the like. Switches must be flicked to open gates, holes in floors jumped over and all manner of creatures hacked limb from limb using the various items lying around and some funky fighting moves made possible by using different button combos...

You also have to make sure and keep killing the various fiends and keep your adrenaline meter high, or you'll end up succumbing to Crowley's virus yourself! This adds a bit of urgency to the game, and also makes it a bit more difficult...

Roaming about in the London fog and creeping through rat-infested sewers makes for an atmospheric adventure, and the John Carpenter-esque soundtrack and random spooky sounds also help make you feel favourably freaked out!

There are sometimes a few camera issues, and the controls cans occasionally be a bit unwieldy..and like other PS1 games it's beginning to show it's age a little..but it still stands up as a decent and fun example of the genre! And you could always try the slightly better looking N64 or PC versions!

Luigi's Mansion (Nintendo Gamecube)

Luigi's Mansion (Gamecube) :

Mario's brother finally got free from his sibling's shadow, and got his own chance to shine with this launch title for the Gamecube! After Mario wins a mansion in a competition and goes missing when he decides to check it out, Luigi takes up the task of searching for the mis-placed plumber...

Upon arrival, he meets the mysterious Professor E.Gadd , who explains that the competition was just a ruse by the Boos to kidnap Mario! He lends him the powerful Poltergust 3000, a vacuum cleaner with the power to suck up spooks, and the Gameboy Horror , which allows Luigi to see where he is in relation to the mansion's map....

It's basically a rip-off of Ghostbusters , with Luigi traipsing the halls and rooms of the mansion, setting loose the Boos by knocking on furniture, and then battling it out with them to pop them in the hoover. It's excellent fun though, and every now and then you'll come up against a Boss ghost who won't expose their ghostly heart to you until you work out a way to trick them.

Y'see to suck up the ghosts, you need to show their heart up with the beam of your torch before locking on to them to suck them up, but as this doesn't work with the bosses, you'll need to find another way to get them to comply...

Being a Nintendo game, the presentation in this is marvellous...Luigi shivers and shakes, and you can hear his voice tremble as the scaredy-cat shouts for his brother. Animation on everything is superb throughout, and contol is effortless, even with the Gamecube's rather unwieldy Fisher-Price style controller...You can tell that the game was pretty much designed around it!

Anyhoo, it's well worth helping Luigi out, as although some people don't see this as being in the same league as the Super Mario games, it's still an excellent Nintendo classic, and comes with everything you'd expect such a title to have!


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