Mr. Mosquito

PS2

Fresh Games - Eidos - 2002

So you think you've seen it all, do you. Racing, Action, Adventure, RPG, First and Third Person shooters, sports, extreme sports, puzzle, and what not. All on your PS2. All owned by you. Well you are mistaken. For now Fresh games has introduced some of the most outrageous games EVER onto your favorite system. Introducing a new category for video games, ie the "Blood-sucking Mosquito" genre, Mr. Mosquito brings the long-needed Originality to the now stale as a three-month old potato(e) chip to the genres.

Let's start by studing the case of the game. While it appears to be a normal DVD case, the back includes some information you wouldn't expect. Instead of describing whats in the game, it tells you this, and I quote: "You are Mirster Mosquito, an univited guest in the Yamada's family home. You will need to drink as much of their blood as possible to survive the winter. They know you are in the house, and they plan to take you out." Then it shows a picture of a teen in a bathtub, with half her breasts covered in water, the other half in the screenshot. Just thinking real quick about it, I'd say that's the best way to sell any game. Stick a half naked woman in a screen shot, and give the craziest plot possible, ever. That plot summary right there is why I bought this game. And playing the game, I have to say, I've never seen ANYONE get so irritated by ONE MOSQUITO in my life. This family is insane when they get bitten. And it's great to watch. Following the piture of the naked woman, there are some more words. I believe they also form sentences that are intelligible. So let's try reading them. Ok, here goes: "Watch the family's relationship disintegrate as they take their irritation out on each other." And it is soo true. It's the best sit-com I've ever seen, and that's the truth.

Ok, let's describe the family now, for that is the best part. Sure flying around as a Mosquito is fun and all, but the family was soo well done, you have to beat a stage to see what happens next. In the family there is the japanese mother and father, who have moved to America, and the daughter who has been raised in America. The parents' voices were well casted, and both are hard to understand at points due to their accents. The daughter has a bit of a valley girl accent, which is prevelent in girls her age, and so is quite amusing to listen to. Every day many times a day, the family meets in a huddle, where the camera, looking up, sees the to part of all three of their faces. They talk in the huddle, rolling their eyes at each other. Their actions are shown ever so well, since we can't ever see their mouths. It's quite amazing, but I would say that this is the best acting I have ever seen in a videogame. Better than MGS2 or even FFX. For it is easy to show action, but to show a family in all it's problems is rather hard to do well, and they pull it off great. Sure some of it feels overly proportioned, but it's supposed to be, with the awkword pauses and all. If you do nothing else, rent this game and watch the first few family "talks."

Lastly, since I promised my friends I would do this, I'm now gonna quote part of the great instruction manual. Here goes:

"How to Suck Blood:

1. Look for red points on the body of your prospective host. There may not be visible at first, and may only appear after the passage of time and according to the host's movements.

2. Lock onto and attack a bloodsucking point to land on it. Once you land, pierce the skin and start sucking.

3. Watch the Bloodsucking dial. Adjust your sucking rate to keep the white ball in the blue parameters. Sucking too fast or too slow stresses your host.

4. Take off quickly when you've sucked enough, or if you think you may be spotted."

Wow, if I didn't know this was a Mosquito game, I'd be worried I just bought a porno game. And according to Free Ohio, that's what it feels like sometimes. Especially on the bathtub stage, which every adolescent boy needs to play, I believe.

What liked: If you know me, you know that I dig innovative games. That said, this is one of those quirky Japanese games that are NOT supposed to be released in the US. Though for some reason, it was. The whole innovative, "Your a Mosquito, go suck some blood," thing is really cool. The controls are also attempting to be innovative. Also, the plot is the funniest thing I have ever heard since that "I can't believe it's not butter" Fabio guy got hit by a seagull in the face.

What disliked: The learning curve on the game is a bit hard. It starts out easy enough, but there is no "middle" ground. It goes from easy in the first 5 levels to extremely hard in the last 5. No sort of hard area. Also, sometimes the targeting system is a bit wack. When you try to target one of the "blood sucking points," either sometimes it doesn't straight away target, or he misses the target and hits another part of the body near it. Whenever he hits something, he gets dizzy and spins for a second, which is cool, but as a Mosquito, flying around near shelving or on the ground is what you are supposed to do, especially to collect items. But everytime you hit the ground, which it is pretty hard to tell how close you are to it, you spin out, it gets a-nnoy-ing.

What to expect: Don't expect anything, and you are going in with the right attitude. It's like going in to "Undercover Brother" expecting a decent plot. It's not gonna happen. But the fun factor is off the scale, at least for the first few levels. Play those again and again, they are that much fun. Oh, also expect a very very very stereotyped asian-american family. Very.

What not to expect: The best "quirky" game the american PS2's have to offer. Chu chu rocket has nothing on this game. Or Bangai-o for that matter. If made a few years ago, it would have been on the Dreamcast to go with ALL the other quirky games there.

What's so different from this and other games of it's genre: Is there a genre for this game? I didn't think so. You could stick it under dating sims as "Games that are not supposed to be released in the good ol' USA."

Ratings on:

Control: 7 - Acceptible at times, driving you insane cause you can't get on the "blood sucking point" fast enough other times.

Graphics: 8 - Surely not all that the PS2 is capable of, but I enjoyed it. Especially the third stage (ie: the bathtub stage.) It's really good at making really really big people move correctly.

Sound: 4 - Very annoying at times. One one stage there was this constant beeping I couldn't figure out for the life of me.

Style: 10+ - Yeah, like you've seen another game like this before in your life.

1st hour: 8 - The plot is the funniest part of the game. By now you should be on stage 2.

5th hour: 5 - Got to the harder stages. Not enjoying it as much. I suggest stopping playing the harder stages, and play the first few a bunch more.

1st week: 6 - If you've finished the game. Which I hope you have. It's quite hi-lar-ious.

5th week: 0 - Why are you still playing this game. Pull it out once every other week to suck some blood, then put it away to show your friends when they come over.

#1 reason why I hate this game: It makes me itch all over just watching it.

by Hawke