Deer Drive - Grab Yourself a Beer, You’re Gonna Need it!

Finally, a video game that any good old, truck-driving, gun-toting redneck can appreciate! Deer Drive is from the Developer/Publisher Mastiff and is the Wii adaptation of the popular arcade hunting game by the same name. Unlike other hunting games where the animals usually stay put until you fire your gun, these are constantly on the move...and if you were to drink enough alcohol, as one would in a bar, then this game might actually be fun to play.

Deer Drive from SCS Software is an arcade-style deer hunting game. Take aim from your cover, and pick off the best trophies as they run headlong past you. After that next Pabst Blue Ribbon, do you go for the Prize Whitetail Buck, or play it safe and take out the marauding moose before he takes you out?

Believe me; you’ll need to get through a few to adjust yourself to the idiotic Wiimote implementation here. The game can be played with the Wii remote and nunchuck just as they come out-of-the-box, and if you’re one of the gamers who has a gun attachment, it’s probably a good idea to use it when playing Deer Drive. Unfortunately, you have to stand 10-12 feet away! So yes, I drank and played up against the wall.

Deer aren’t the only things worth huntin’, though. Every now and again you’ll see a duck, squirrel, or rabbit. Shoot one of them to score a nice sum of points. Just don’t dilly-dally waiting for them to appear - each level is timed. It’s too bad the graphics in Deer Drive are so low-resolution that you have to fire-off ten shots to bag on of the little critters. And again, I believe the alcohol consumption may have had an effect on my aim.

Oh and by the way, don’t worry; you can shoot Grizzly bears as well.

Deer Drive also allows for multiplayer, just in case America’s forests need wiping out even quicker, and there are tricks as well - want to shoot a moose whilst doing a keg stand? YOU CAN DO IT IN DEER DRIVE! Shooting animals with rifles on your head has to be one of the conditions for getting into Hell. I can’t think of evil more accurately represented. Hell will enough Wiimotes, you can have four people do it a once!

The one, truly satisfying thing about this game are the gun sounds. The guns themselves vary from level to level, and one can acquire better rifles and such through hitting targets with power-up icons above their heads. Oh how Original! But all-in-all the sound of bringing down an animal on the endangered species list, with a high-power rifle is priceless.

Sadly, Deer Drive is one of the worst examples of a hunting game I have ever seen, plain and simple, drunk or sober. It’s a bad combination of everything, from with the low-resolution graphics to the caddywhompus control scheme. My suggestion, grab a drinking buddy, go out to your local watering hole, and stuff $30 into the arcade version – you’re more apt to get your money’s worth.

Final Verdict: 1 out of 5

- Ian Simmons

Posted by stefan on 03/26 at 11:43 AM
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