I'm really ticked right now, and do you know why I'm ticked? Of course you don't, what a stupid question of me to ask. Well my dad comes home and boots me off the computer and then takes my mouse away for no reason. So I got ticked and when I get ticked I can usually think more clearly, so I grab me a notepad and pen off my dresser and start writing about the newest addition to my PS2 library.
Ka, the Japanese translation to the American Mr. Mosquito, was originally going to be one of those Japanese only games and would never have a chance of coming over to the states, as announced by Electronic Gaming Monthly.
Then a new publisher branching off from Eidos Interactive called Fresh Games was born. Fresh Games was formed in order to bring over games from Japan that would usually be a Japan exclusive. The first two games brought over are a Parappa The Rappa and Gitaroo Man like music game called Mad Maestro, and a Mosquito simulation game called Mr. Mosquito(or Ka in Japan).
GAME PLAY: "Welcome to Mostquitopia"
This game was an entirely new experience for me, although it's been brought to my knowledge from a fellow gamer that the Dreamcast had a game like this called Roomania083. I think it was an import, and anyone who imports games would probably remember seeing Roomania083... but I don't have the extra money to Mod my consoles and import games, so i was completely clueless about the game.
Ah anyway, you take control of the blood sucking little critter, the Mosquito. It's summer, and you're in a house with a family of three and your goal is to survive by sucking blood from the family and surviving until the next Spring. There are different stages(levels, whichever you prefer) and each room in the house serves as a different stage and you've got to complete your objectives to pass the stage and move on to the next(such as the living room is a single stage, bath room, bed rooms, etc.). Each room will have at least one member of the family for you to "bug".
Once you're in a level, you have free-roam around that room. Considering you're a small wittle mosquito, everything will be a LOT bigger in size. Anyway you've got a cross-hair in front of you that serves as a lock-on target type of thing. Like if there's a light switch or a button somewhere, most likely you will see a red targeting square surrounding the button or switch, and you can press a button to speed to the point and hit the button or switch. If it's a light switch, you'll turn the lights on or off, if it's a remote control it might turn the TV off or something. Doing this distracts the family member(s) in that room and so they get up to turn the lights back on, etc.
As far as blood-sucking goes, you can't just hop onto any part of the body and start sucking away. There is one point somewhere on the body that you can attach to and suck. How do I know where that spot is? Hit or miss, guess and check? Naw, you can locate the spot by finding the red targeting square.
Once you've found the spot and have attached, now all you gotta do is pierce skin, suck, and leave; without getting caught or swatted/smacked/smashed/smooshed/ant food... once you're attached, there will be two bars on the left side, and a super close-up of you sucking blood in a little window in the top right corner of the screen. About the bars on the left, one is how much blood you've sucked or are sucking. If you suck to long, to fast, or too slow... you've got the chance of getting smashed by the person as you're sucking. My suggestion is to suck one barrel at a time, get off, then do it again. You have a set amount of blood tanks that you need to fill in order to complete the level, and you can fill EXTanks in order to get some "surprises" at the end of the game.
Ok so all you do is fly around, suck blood, and complete a level? Well that's basically all there is to it, but you've also got to watch out for household items like Air Conditioners and stuff like that, and the deadliest weapon against insects, Insecticide.
Of course, just sucking blood and leaving before you get smashed is WAY too easy and therefore making the game beatable in under an hour. So you've got battle mode. What's battle mode? Battle mode commences when you are seen by the person, and now they'll try to smash you, jump on you, spray you with hot water, etc. To end the battle sequence, there are between 1 and 5 relax spots that you need to target and hit. When you've hit all the relax spots, the human will settle down and go back to what he/she's doing.
And again, you don't just fly around and not get hurt, you've got three hearts that serve as your life bar. And as you progress in the game, you can add on extra hears to your life-bar, therefore allowing you to have a longer period to win(although it's not that hard to keep yourself from getting injured).
GRAPHICS:
I'm sure at first glance, you'd notice that the game isn't too pretty. The most annoying thing about the graphics were the characters and their movements. First of all, the people aren't smooth at all and they look like a game you'd see on N64 with the blocky skin textures and faces that look like they're copied and pasted on to a character model.
Aside from characters looking blocky, they MOVE blocky also...or should I say they move like Robots. When the characters walk, they look as if they're on a set track(I'm surprised the feet even move).
Each room of the house is it's own level if you haven't figured it out, and although they're not "eye-candy", they look like they're suppose to. In the bedrooms you've go beds, lamps, dressers, books; the bathroom's got the toilet, bathtub, sink mirror...and I think you get the picture.
The visuals of the game are definitely not of high quality stature, but I'm sure a lot of people can look past the graphics because the game play is pretty fun for a while. But once you've beaten the games once, I'm sure pretty graphics aren't going to keep you coming back to the game.
CONTROL:
If there's anything mildly good in the game, I'd say it be the control. Controlling Mr. Mosquito is easy once you get the hang of it and soon you'll be busting out moves like nobody's business. The left analog stick is used for your basic maneuverability like up, down, side, side...although the "R-1" button is used for acceleration and "L-1" is used for the bug brakes. The right analog stick is used for precise movements or in other words, faster movement.
The camera can be adjusted to three different angles; one close, medium, and farther away. The farther away angle makes your mosquito hard to see and so I'd suggest staying away from this one. The close angle is too close and you can't really see what's around you. Then the middle adjustment is just right because you can see what's around you, yet he's not to small. Come on, look at the type of game this is, you go around sucking blood as a mosquito to survive, the control doesn't get any better than this.
SOUND:
The sounds ok, it's not to exciting, but it's not too dead. There aren't very many sound effects, but the sound when you make a 180* turn sounds like a plane and is actually quite entertaining.
The thing I don't like is the cheesy as hell voice acting(seriously, it sounds like an old 70s or 80s video). Then there's the fact that in each level, the characters can only say one or two lines. ONE or TWO lines!! It gets really annoying and once again the mute button is a life-saver. Nothing like listenin' to Papa Roach or Alien Ant Farm while suckin' blood.
Rocky's Corner:
Mr. Mosquito can be beaten within one sitting, which depending on how well you play it could be anywhere from one to two hours. Mr. Mosquito was a new experience for me, and for anyone else who hasn't played Roomania083, I recommend it for a rental( I found it for a measly 10 bucks).
