Electronic Arts scored big with Dead Space, a science fiction/horror game set on a spaceship overrun with monsters. Borrowing elements from films like Aliens, Event Horizon and John Carpenter's The Thing, the designers created a terrifying experience backed by beautiful visuals and a gripping story. Now the series comes to Wii with Dead Space Extraction, a prequel that's light on scares, but heavy on creature splattering fun.

Just another hopelessly doomed tough guy. Click to see more images from the game...

Extraction takes place thousands of years in the future, during a time when mankind sets off into space to mine planets for natural resources. In this particular case, a colony on the planet Aegis VII uncovers a strange rock that many believe to be a religious symbol. Fights break out, mass suicides take place and friends turn on each other, unaware that the artifact is both alien and extremely dangerous. Before long, hallucinations take place and folks turn into creatures called Necromorphs, twisted abominations with elongated limbs, claws and other nasty characteristics. They're fast, incredibly strong and quite unpleasant.

The game serves as a prequel to Dead Space, chronicling the events that consumed both the colony and later, the planet cracking ship USG Ishimura. You step into the space boots of different characters and watch as they attempt to escape. We say watch, because unlike the previous free roaming game, Extraction is an on-rails light gun shooter, similar to The House of the Dead and Time Crisis games. Instead of directly controlling your character's movements, you're more along for the ride, blasting Necromorphs with a plethora of different weapons and collecting all sorts of items, including ammo, new guns and data logs.

Although we questioned EA's decision to do this, as well as bring Dead Space to the family centric Wii, everything clicks and the game's surprisingly enjoyable. Instead of conjuring up a cheesy narrative (as seen in other shooters like Ghost Squad), the developers put a lot of effort into the story and its characters. Everyone has a unique personality and voice, and frequent cut scenes help blur the line between game and film. Sure, they have some cornball lines, but you'll care for these people and hope for the best, despite the overwhelming odds.

On top of that, you'll have a blast (literally) playing Extraction. Necromorphs appear from everywhere, and you'll blow them to bits by pointing the Wii remote at the screen and rapidly pressing the B trigger. There's also a wide variety of weapons to kill them with, including the plasma cutter, pulse rifle, flamethrower and contact beam, each of which features upgrades as well as a secondary fire mode if you twist the remote.

We'll stay on Earth, thanks.Click to see more images from the game...

In addition, you receive limited movement throughout the experience, rare moments when you can free look to investigate the surroundings and snag items by pressing the A button, even from a long distance away. That's because you can make use of different abilities. Kinesis allows you to grab objects, while Stasis lets you slow down enemies.

Meanwhile, EA does some cool things with the Wii remote. During play, you'll need to occasionally shake it to activate a glow stick (or as the game calls it, glow worm) or connect points on a screen; you'll also hear radio transmissions through the remote's speaker.

There's also drop-in co-op, allowing a friend to immediately hop into the current game and start killing Necromorphs. This proves useful during the later stages, as one person shoots monsters while the other completes a required task.

The developers combined all of these elements to create the Wii's best shooter, a mature-rated game that's well worth the $49.99 price tag. That said, it comes up short in the scares department. Unlike the previous Dead Space, Extraction doesn't feature as many jump out of your seat moments. We have trouble playing the original, even during the daytime, but Extraction? No problem.

Thankfully, the game's so good that it doesn't matter. Instead, we have a bigger problem with the visuals. Although the game looks impressive in screen shots, it's a bit underwhelming in motion. Everything looks pixilated, and EA bathed most of the environments in darkness, making it difficult to see. At first, we thought that was part of the atmosphere, and it probably is. However, we also suspect that the developers did this because of the Wii's limitations, similar to how companies overused fog on the Nintendo 64. You can't complain about something if you don't see it, but to be fair, Extraction still looks good for a Wii game. Having played the first Dead Space on the much more powerful Xbox 360 and PS3, however, doesn't help the cause. This is especially true with the Dead Space motion comics, unlocked as you complete chapters; they look horrible compared to their high definition counterparts.

At the same time, Dead Space: Extraction is hard to put down. All of the dramatic moments, the satisfying combat and cut scenes make it a journey worth taking and proof that mature games belong on the Wii.