Review: Insecticide

What is it?

Insecticide is the first game from developer Crackpot, published by Gamecock. Crackpot is made up of veterans of the PC adventure game genre, in my mind most notably from the fantastic Lucasarts title, Grim Fandango. In fact, Insecticide is coming to the PC in an episodic form, but more on that later, because this review is for the Nintendo DS version.

What isolates Insecticide from other adventure games is the action-shooter-platform portions of the game, which generally have you rushing through areas and fighting enemies, in a format very similar to Ratchet and Clank games. These sections of the game stand in contrast to the adventure portions, which follow a more standard format: wander through a small area collecting items and figuring out how to use those on each other and your environment to pass that area.

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Insecticide ships for DS as some of the buggiest software you’ll see! In a good way.

That exciting new title from studio of veterans Crackpot, Insecticide, has shipped for DS, so you can play it this week. I’m looking forward to getting some time with the game myself, as the list of games that the people at Crackpot have worked on reads pretty much like a list of the best friggin’ games I’ve ever played. You can imagine there’s a lot of anxiety involved. If you could see me right now, I’ve got a paper bag in my hands, and that’s so I can put it over my mouth and inflate and deflate it with my breath, because that seems to calm people down in the movies. Not sure how that works.

Read on for the press release, or check out the website. Or do both, I’m too busy drawing faces on my paper bag right now. Look, a puppet!

Source: Gamecock

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Insecticide continues its backward slide, now staged for March 11th.

Game delays are OK with me. Right now some of you are going, well, they’d better be if you plan to continue covering Nintendo games, haw haw haw! Fair enough.

Crackpot’s Insecticide game, which is due for PC and DS, has now dropped back a month (which has happened before) to March 11th. Let me take this opportunity to say, that’s fine. If the game isn’t done, don’t ship it. Finish it. It’s like they say, a delayed game is late once. A crappy game is crappy forever. Well, maybe they don’t use the word crappy. Who is this They, anyway?

Is it just me, or is March going to be a busy month for gaming?

Source: Gamecock

More Insecticide stuff to look at, and some preorder bonus news.

More fresh trailers and imagery for Insecticide, now marked for a February 26th release. Preorder the game and get an art book, pictured above. See? See how preorders are supposed to work? Give us something extra for it, and we’ll be happy to preorder. Don’t, and we’ll watch the bargain bin.

Along with this is the news that the PC version will be downloadable in two episodes. Interesting. Roll on past the great divide, if you would like to see some more.

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All new: Insecticide video, screens, and release date.

Today we have the release date for Insecticide, which is coming to PC and DS next year. It’s been dated for February 12th 2008 on the DS (that’s a delay from the earlier announced January 8th, folks) and the PC version will come after in two episodes, which will be available for download.

Roll on in for the screenshots and such.

Source: Gamecock

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Look, a trailer for Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball.

At last, some video of Dodgeball in motion.

I rather enjoy the way it proudly declares its features: Pirates! Ninjas! Pirates! Ninjas! What about the zombies that were announced not too long ago? Ah, well. Looks pretty frantic from what little we see here.

This makes me wish Nintendo had put a dodgeball game into Wii Sports. Maybe it’s not a sport in the same way tennis or baseball are, but it could have been pretty good. Hm. On second thought, with the way the games were pared down in Wii Sports, it would have been basically identical to Tennis.

More Insecticide screens. Wiggle those feelers.

Gamecock strutted over with some more screens for January’s adventure game Insecticide and here they are. Make with the clicking, because any image you click on will grow before your very eyes, and perhaps eat Chicago. Psych! These are full resolution images. They don’t get any bigger.

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Another new Insecticide trailer. Look how buggy this game is!

Get it? Buggy? Sorry.

Check out this new trailer for Insecticide, due on Nintendo DS in January, and on PC… some other time. Yeeeees, it’s the same trailer I had up last time, but it looks a lot better here than it did there. Bearing the unmistakable properties of an adventure game, there’s obviously some quantity of shooting going on in the game as well. I’m reminded of Grim Fandango, in that it’s a somewhat traditional story made more fascinating by substituting something unusual and somewhat creepy for the players.

Click through to see the trailer full-size, and a few screenshots.

See also:

Insecticide at E3 2007.

Interview with the Lead Developers of Insecticide

New adventure coming from makers of Grim Fandango.

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Interview: Jools Watsham, Renegade Kid.

With their recent release Dementium: The Ward on the Nintendo DS, Renegade Kid showed that even a new, relatively small team of developers can produce a good game that pushes the boundaries of its platform. Jools Watsham is credited as the game’s director and producer, and had his hand in many aspects of the creation of the game, including the sound effects and level design.

Jools was good enough to share some time in answering a handful of questions I had after working my way through Renegade Kid’s first game. We talked about the flashlight, the Screamers, and the electric buzzsaw, and we even touched on their console plans on Nintendo Wii. Thanks to Jools for his time and answers, I appreciated the opportunity to get some more insight into this game’s development.

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Review: Dementium: The Ward, Part 2.

Those who read the first half of my Dementium: The Ward review might be eager to know whether the game finished as strongly as it started, and so I’m pleased to provide the conclusion to my in-depth review of Renegade Kid’s M-rated horror FPS. The game spans 16 chapters, and this portion of the review covers chapters eight through 16, as well as providing a final score for the game and an overall summary of how successful the title is.

If you’re not keen on the specifics, I’ll tell you right now that if you own a Nintendo DS and the game’s concept interests you, you need to give this game a try.

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