A description of Eco-Creature's controls could easily read like a manual on how not to design an RTS. Instead of commanding all the action from some godlike, combat-immune point of view, you control a dumpy yellow monster who must lead his troops into battle. What makes this a bad design is the fact that you're terrible at combat and tend to die in two or three hits.
Your troops, on the other hand, consist of attention deficient squirrels that may be able to hold their own in battle, but begin to wander off-screen when they have nothing to do. Given this game's insipid Fern Gully story and boring mission structure, the best way to win with Eco-Creatures is to not play.
From the Article, "The current trend is to try and go Green to help conserve natural resources and protect the Earth. It should come as no surprise that video games have been going Green for years. Quite a few titles convey Earth friendly messages to players in both subtle and not-so-subtle ways.
Their methods may occasionally be unconventional, but at least they're putting a positive message out there. In order to celebrate Earth Day (which happens to be today, April 22, 2008), Gamertell is going to salute Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Final Fantasy VII, Chibi Robo!: Park Patrol and Eco Creatures: Save the Forest, just a few of the Earth-friendly games which have appeared over the years.
Each game will also be thoroughly analyzed to see just how effective its methods and execution are. After that, the games will be ranked in shades of green, based on the crayon colors shown at Crayola's website."
Eco-Creatures: Save the Forest is quite basic for an RTS game, but the simplicity works well for it. The animals battle, grow trees for the purpose of spawning more of their kind, and shift personalities and fighting styles according to games they play with Dorian in between missions. If not for the wretched controls, it would be a perfect first-time RTS game for the younger crowd. As it stands though, it's too frustrating for both veterans and beginners.
Interesting concept and much different place and characters than normal rts games. To bad the controls seem to the the fault in this game
Eco-Creatures: Save the Forest is a brand new real time strategy (RTS) game from Lightweight Co. and publisher Majesco Entertainment for the Nintendo DS. Masakazu Tagawa is the project director at Lightweight and was responsible for the direction of Eco-Creatures: Save the Forest.
