Hands-On Preview Insecticide Developer: Crackpot Entertainment Publisher: Gamecock Media Group Genre: Action/Adventure Release Date: March 2008 Platform: Hands-On Preview by Randy Sluganski February 29, 2008

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We recently had the privilege of previewing Insecticide, and I’m here to tell you – its buggy.  Buggiest game I’ve ever played in fact.  And that’s not a good thing.  No, actually it’s a great thing, especially when your entire cast is comprised of creepy crawlies.

Insecticide is set in a future where insects have evolved as the planet’s dominant race.  What appears to be a simple murder at the Nectarola soft drink company sets-off an investigation by the multi-limbed detectives of the Insecticide Squad that soon matches the complexity of such cinema classics as Nectar Runner, Roach Town and The Maltese Dung Beetle.

The game consists of 19 missions split between adventure missions and action missions.  Don’t worry action missions are all pure action and consist mostly of chasing suspects and adventure missions are story-based detective investigation featuring all of the adventure game staples:  puzzles, dialogue, inventory, etc.  A file folder is used store names of suspects, weapon descriptions (among which include the Pollinator, the Nectar Blaster and the Amberizer), and evidence such as a Dung beetle brownie covered with a steamy pile of fresh, live maggots with a rotten cherry on top (spit bug perp Artie Phegming said this was ‘to die from’).  Both the stylus and the control pad are put to good use in the DS version of the game we previewed (the downloadable pc version will soon follow).

You play as detective Chrys Liszt who, while working on the case, uncovers a symbol that triggers repressed memories of a deep, dark secret from her past.  Joining Chrys in the investigation are Grubbs, a rhino beetle who writes his reports in iambic pentameter, Roachy, a cockroach with a preference for stale donuts and a cast of buggy characters that would make an entomologist drool. 

The dialogue alone is a major hoot:  from Roachy who has just been given a much desired stale donut, “Thanks, I’d have squashed my grandma for one of these,” from the head detective talking about his family, “My nitpicking wife is driving me crazy.  Why doesn’t she just devour me and get it over with already,” and from Chrys, who has just viewed a dead body, “No matter how many bodies I’ve had to scrape off windshields, no matter how many fatal fly swatter accidents I’ve had to investigate, no matter how many moths I’ve taken to the burn unit, I never get any queasier.”

The amount of top-notch game, graphics and cut-scenes crammed into this teeny, tiny Nintendo DS cartridge is simply amazing, as it should be considering the level of talent involved in its development.

Grim Fandango style graphics on the DS?  Sure, why not.  Especially when your Visual Designer is Peter Chan who also worked on Grim Fandango & Psychonauts among others.   Insecticide creators Michael Levine and Larry Ahern between them worked on The Curse of Monkey Island, Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, Jedi Knight and Rebel Assualt.  Josh Mandel – Freddie Pharkas, Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon, Space Quest 6 - is responsible for the detective game design and script and there are still numerous others we just don’t have the time to list.  It’s the greatest assembled collection of Lucas Arts talent to ever work on one game since…well, since Lucas Arts developed adventure games and that’s been quite some time now. 

I could probably rave about this game for a few more pages, but I’ll save some for the review.  In the meantime, check out some of the Insecticide trailers on JA and if you still don’t have a Nintendo DS – and considering the quality of the numerous adventure titles now available for this system it should be a must buy on any adventurer’s list – then do yourself a favor, purchase a DS and join the rest of us playing games under the bed sheets at night.