Insecticide: Hands-On Preview

by Emily Balistrieri on November 8, 2007 at 1:56 pm

This game is buggy. That’s the obvious psuedo-pun to make, considering I don’t mean “riddled with coding errors,” but it’s true — there are lots of bugs. Hard boiled ones, at that! Developer Crackpot Entertainment’s Insecticide takes place in a world where insects have evolved beyond humans (who now need to wear oxygen helmets to live), so when death and his friend foul play strike the Nectarola soda co it’s up to partners Roachy Caruthers and Chrys Liszt to crack the case.

We recently checked out the first two levels in the DS version. These are a decent representation of the split gameplay, which goes part third-person shooter, part investigation. The shootery levels are heavy on the platforming, making use of Chrys’s double jump — “You have two sets of legs! Use’em!” — as you chase down a perp. You’ll also have to have good reflexes to win the firefights. Character handling is a little weird right now as you can’t seem to move and turn at the same time, but hopefully that will be tweaked out between now and release.

On the investigation side of things, we were tasked with completing a set of documents on the case. Each member of the office was in charge of a specific part, but it seemed like they were all either lazy or absentminded, so we had to coax them into it by playing a mad-libs mini-game, serving coffee, etc. It played out like a point and click except when you needed to move with the D-pad.

So far it seems like just the opening cinematic is in. Others (and we imagine at least the ending sequence) will be added as space on the DS cart allows, and that’s a good thing because they really add a lot. Probably the best reason to be psyched about this game, though, is the goofy writing. Puns abound from the word “somebuggy” to Roachy’s “It’s only an exoskeleton wound,” quip. We’ll see if the bug joke to actual word ration can be kept this high throughout the whole game, but considering the creators would like to possibly expand into cartoons, they must have quite a bit up their sleeves. Insecticide skitters it’s way onto DS and PC this January.