Impossible Creatures is a mad scientist themed RTS released in 2003 that simply had it all: Gorrilaphants, Whalebears, Rhinomantises, Tigermeleons, you name it.

But as time went on Relic switched to other projects and Impossible Creatures was slowly forgotten and rarely mentioned until it just appeared on Steam yesterday.

This is one of those games that just defy normal explanation, but I'll give it a shot anyway.

Impossible Creatures is a base building RTS where you are essentially a mad scientist, combining body parts from different animals in order to create a super powerful abomination. So as you might imagine the customization options available to you are staggering, to say the least.

The goal is to combine your creatures in such a way that they will counter your opponents minions while they try to do the same. What ends up happening is an arms race where ratowls fight against tigersharks only to be countered by giraffadillos and so on.

But perhaps the biggest draw the game has is that all of your changes are represented visually on your creatures. So if you gave a bull a scorpion's tail and eagle wings you would indeed see it in all of its fat winged beauty.

Managing your production, resources, strategy and fighting at the same time is both overwhelming and hectic but most importantly its damn good fun. Just watching the trailer brings back so many memories of me playing the game late in to the night while my homework lies neglected near by. I can't believe I've managed to completely forget about it despite loving it so much back in the day.

Luckily Nordic Games (who bought the IP during THQ's bankruptcy) has decided to bring it to the light of day once again, this time in a version that works fine on modern systems.

If you don't mind the aged graphics and feel like an RTS where you quite literally build your own units might be a thing you're interested in, give Impossible Creatures a try, its fairly cheap on Steam right now and I only have good memories from it.