Creatures

Fantastically imagined platformer that cleverly belies it's cutesy appearance with the infamous torture chambers. It's a difficult slog over many islands but with effort and clever use of the excellent weapons system it becomes a compulsive challenge. I prefer this over the sequel.

One of the 64's finest moments. A platform game with some incredibly cute graphics, bouncy music, well designed levels, humorous touches, and a solid challenge to boot. Apart from some hard (but not impossible) sections, there's not much to fault this game on at all! It's a lot of fun and an essential C64 game to have.

I'd moved on to the Amiga by the time this came out so I never saw it until now and wow... I'm really impressed by what the Rowlands brothers managed to squeeze out of the old 64! Very nice graphics and sounds coupled with decent platform gameplay that's got some interesting variety to it as well. The helpless fuzzies waiting to be sliced and diced if you don't move fast enough are hilarious.

Absolutely love it - the journey is full of cool touches, and the torture screens are legendary.

Chalky1975, you probably had a C64 that was incapable of running VSP games reliably. There were many of these C64's with "VSP bug" made.

I liked the slow gameplay the reviewer thought was a minus. It demanded thought about how to tackle some areas rather than fast reflexes. The weapon shop system added an extra layer to this as well.

Graphics were a leap forward with many tricks being employed to get the most out of the C64. Choice of having music+SFX in game on a 3 channel SID was a marvel.

A great technical and level design achievement, perhaps too difficult and thus rather inaccessible though.

9/10

Definitely one of the best games on the C64, although it did have a horrible habit of crashing, or at least my copy did. As a platform shooter, it's progressive to play, beautiful and sounds great. It's also full of neat little touches such as the loading screens. I always thought the difficulty was spot on and I found myself getting further every game (until the flaming birds in the graveyard. Christ that was hard). Possibly the best, all round, game on the C64...

Moves like a disabled rat who cannot crouch!
mario & sonic are laughing!!!

What a fantastic game. The torture screens were amazing...

New zealand story is more fun! Music is better too!

A solid platformer. I played this for the first time a few years back - bought a disk copy from Pystronik. I remember it getting a lot of hype from Commodore Format but never played it when it came out originally.

A simple platformer with some very nicely drawn sprites and great level designs.

If you've not yet played it - give it a bash! Pretty addictive and very hard too!

THE C64 game for me. Man I spent so many hours with this.

I love this excellent game. This and Creatures II.

What to say... One of the best logic arcades on the C64. Excellent work from the Rowland brothers !

Fantastic game. Music is phenomenal!! Gameplay also.

Wonderful stuff. It truly did seem that the Rowlands were on a whole other level compared to the competition when presentation was concerned, their graphic and sonic work is damn near peerless, especially as a complete package. A great little game too, challenging and fun.

Play it already! If you already have, then play it some more!

I don't really understand all the hype on these creatures games.
Average gameplay, nothing special. And quite blocky graphics (especially the sprites as the bigger ones have their size old-fashioned blown-up). Around this time you would've thought C64 games had at least all sprites in hires..

Superb game with splendid gameplay and graphics ... Tho with the sheer size of the game and the limited lives I doubt its possible to beat this game (w/out a cheat of some kind)

Spent many happy hours playing this!!

Steve and John became first A class players on the 64 after this release... The game tbh is a little slow but look at it! Listen to it! And damn u all love those torture screens

This game too way too much of my childhood away from me!

AWESOME!

Long load times for a superb game... 10/10!

Jesus this as the game that got me into music after the Zzap demo eons ago. What the Rowlands bros did on the C64 was nothing short of a miracle in every scale, cheers John and Steve for making my childhood amazing.

This game is the best thing on the Commodore 64 and is so good that everyone who hates this game is an idiot. Hard game also, but yet again, don't let the difficulty discourage you.

At the time, a game I thought to be funny, however the playability was very hard and restrictive. I played it just to get to the torture stages.
The Amiga version was better!

Too good to be true.
I must have dreamed I've play this game, it's too perfect to really exist.
Mario Bross and his sister Gianna can go to hell, they don't match

This is an excellent platform game even though I was terrible at it. Loved the bit at the end of the first stage first level where you could throw yourself at the edge of the screen and somehow the next stage kicked in even if you died on the way. Loved the cutesy graphics, funky sound, the torture, the playability, the free fuzzie-wuzzie in the box...

This my all time favourite and THE greatest C64 game ever, everything about the game is great the colourful graphics, the pumping soundtrack, (especially when you reach the end of level boss) cool sound effects the just one more go and i'll do it this time difficulty, and the now lengendary torture screens that were both sick and funny all at the same time.
Thank god for emulation I can finally play it without fear of the game crashing (my C64 just couldn't handle it) Play it Now!

I will say one thing about this game, Awesome

Creatures have fantastic graphics, good music and sounds, balanced difficulty, one of the best games, probably the best game for Commodore C64

Bought this game at a computer show in Alexandra Palace using all my pocket money. This has got to one of the C64's greatest moments.

I remember spending hours on this game. Solid game to beat tho. Still shit hot.

A very fun & addicting game, but it can be very hard some times.

Superb stuff! Cracking cute graphics, nice presentation and bouncy music! Playabilty was great too and you could spend a good time on each of the levels. Torture screens were funny as well as challenge. Classic!

Right, this game was in Zzap 64! I've played it a lot back then. The graphics are great and the creatures funny. Add good gameplay and yóu've got a classic!

This was one of my favourite C64 games. Superb graphics, great gameplay and hard as hell to boot!
Apex made so many great games but this one, along with Retrograde, is the one I remember the most.

Graphics as you can see, were good. And there was always something different. Fun to play. One game you should try.

I don't get it. In my country this was without question the best game for C64 ever!!!

Clyde is the mark for C64

I loved this game and can remember following the development of it in Zzap 64! Loads better than the sequel as well

Very nice graphics, but like Mayhem this is made unplayable by the fact you never know when it's going to crash next. A might-have-been.

This was too hard for little old me but you could see the quality of the programming. The torture scenes was very original.

Hilarious torture screens, fun & frolics and erm - hilarious over all. This game actually helped me cure my fear of Circular saws -

A superb game, superb use of the C64's colour palet to bring a rich looking game to the 8bit screens.

Creatures was better than anything on the nes. And the C64 looked far better than the ugly NES too!

Simply sublime. Greaqt characterisation and unbelievably sweet animation given the hardware. One of my all time faves.

Rubbish! Gosh Apex made a lot of blocky graphics unoriginal crap! 3/10!

This is the best game ever made full stop

I think that, Creatuers is the best game on C64, in whicz I had ever played. I have good graphic, nice music and is very playable!

This game had a lot to live up to, with Thamulus having a reputation of producing wonderful games (like Snare and Hawkeye) with excellent graphics and sound. But they started the 90's with yet another classic- and one of the best games of the C64. Pure fun at it's best.

Looks great, sounds great, plays like a brick... Could never understand what all the fuss was about.

This is a great game, a perfect example of what the C=64 really can do !!

Total quality. Nothing less.

This is is without question the best game ever written for any platform. Sid Meir could learn a thing or too about fun of the Rowland Brothers... Where are they now?

Why has this game got such a low score?!? One of the top 10 games in C64 history... 9. /10

Holy crap! I remeber getting this game brand new! I payed out like £20 for it... Ah how games have changed, but this will always remain a classic...

Yes!!! As the cute little turtle thingy is hacked to death buy a mad chainsaw armed monster. Lots of cuteness with a touch of blood ridden horror!!! This is one of the best ever games written for the 64. A masterpiece!!!

Creatures arrived on the C64 at a time when the regular gaming press (ie: not Zzap, etc) were dismissing the 8-bit computer era as a thing of the past. What a shock this game must have been when it appeared! Not only were the graphics far superior anything on the NES or SNES but looked as if they belonged in a 16-bit game.

Fortunately, Creatures is not just a pretty face. The cutesy platform action is cut with a black sense of humour and an ingenous weapon system adds plenty of variety to proceedings.

A stunning example of what can be achieved with C64 hardware and a little perseverence.

Best adventure game of 1990. Smart graphics, comedy and music. I didn't want to go to school when I started to play it

Creating a recognisable platform hero as late as 1990 was more than just an achievement and this was a fantastic game. Great comedy and great action!

The Rowlands Brothers are great, this game is a mile stone, Fantastic!!! I love it!
vote: 10

Zzap 64 teased me with the diary of this game during its creation. I was so hyped by the time it come out I already knew I was going to love it, and love it I did. Creatures gave me and my friends ages of fun. I still boot up an emulator now and play creatures as I am running out of room to keep setting up the ole 64. Its a much better experience on the real thing though (tape loading etc.. ) sadly Creatures was the beggining of the end for the C64 though as the Amiga took over. Shame as Apex got the 64 to dance for this game.

I remember being incredibly amazed when this game came out, the coding, GFX and gameplay were so far ahead of anything we had seen up to then that it became an instant classic. Also the subsequent games that were created by the Rowlands were of incredible quality. Highly recommended (and it's funny too

Forget my previous comment: after heavy play I must admit I was wrong: this game is excellently produced and the torture screens are definitely fantastic, but the platform game in itself is a bit lacking action and in the end quite ordinary. Creatures 2 is far better (it is my current all-time favourite) whilst the best platformer on the C64 is probably Rainbow Islands, much more fun to play than this one. Creatures still is a very good game, though, with excellent presentation and tons of genial touches (think at the heartbreaking high-score table!).

This is one of the best C64 games, period. Wonderful graphics, excellent soundtrack and playability. I laugh everytime I think about the Torture screens, there're so well done. For me this game is the best you can do with the C64 technically speaking, (maybe including Turrican).
Bye and Clyde rockon

This game is among the very best (not just on the C64, in my opinion). It has incredible graphics and a great soundtrack. The gameplay is great: negotiate your cute bundle of fluff through a rich fantasy world and save your fellow fuzzy wuzzies in the torture puzzles. It's frustratingly tough at times, but you just want to see the next level.
If you want a gorgeous, challenging and a fun to play game, I've got one word for you: Clyde Radcliffe Exterminates All The Unfriendly Repulsive Earth ridden Slime!

One of my alltime favourites. This game is pure fun! Amazing grafics, a funny soundtrack and sick torture screens with lots of blood! Check it out!!

The best platform game on the C64. Better than Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands, Nobby, Mayhem and Nebulus. And that’s saying something! (PS I don't like Giana Sisters)

Surely one of the greatest games to grace this old machine. Colourful and varied graphics, pumping music and first class playability. The torture screens were hilarious too.

How has this got such a low score? Viva Rowlands Brothers!

Amazing! When I first got this I was totally amazed! It was a bitch to make it load on my aging tapedeck, but my god was it worth it! A revolution in C64 gaming and the proof if any was ever needed that Apex were the kings of the C64!

I've never seen a game like it. I had it on tape but the second time I wanted to load after I just had it the tape got eaten alive . Coinsidence???

What can I say ? After it's release everything changed in C64 gaming. Torture screens and fuzzies became second nature for C64 gamers. A brilliant reinvention of the platform genre. Gulp...