Mister Mosquito

"For those of us who like to suck..."

Let's just get all the nasty stuff out of the way first:

The game has slow down in some of the last, combat intensive levels. It's pretty severe, seeming to have almost frozen sometimes, but fortunately, it never actually does.
You can get swatted through walls, into black space on the other side, or into body parts. Fortunately, you can always fly back into where you're supposed to be, and this doesn't happen too often.
Each stage has to load, and they all have a intro FMV that you have to watch for every retry. Somewhat annoying for when you get stuck on a stage.
Now, let me just add that despite all the technical problems, the game is great. I swear that these are just nit picky things to mention, and they really do not detract from the game.

The game has an excellent balance between pick-up-and-playability and an infinite, optional learning curve. The flying controls are spot on, and the core gameplay is simple and easy to understand. The left stalk can steer and dive and pull up when flying, while the right stalk can slowly strafe left and right, or up and down. This works very well, as you can use them in conjunction with each other, pulling in the same direction for tight turns and nose dives, or opposite for when you want to circle your prey, while keeping them in your sights. Throw in a little brake at the right times, and you've got yourself a highly maneuverable mosquito.

Every aspect of the game follows suit with this balance in that you can easily get by with little effort, or you can hone your skills to get some slick results. For sucking, if you do a REALLY good job sucking(performed by twirling the analogue stick) at the right speed(you have to keep pace with a changing indicator on screen), you can get the requisite number of tanks of blood for a stage done in ONE attack. It's really not complicated, but what I'm saying is that everything in the game, from item collection, battling, stealth, and bloodsucking, is both easy to get through, and offers plenty of room for improvement.

Moving on, the items you can collect are very small and well hidden in the gigantic stages(which are each one room). And the sound for the items and the sound effects in general are very fun and appropriate for this game.

The voice overs are PERFECT! Very asian, and in a very believable realistic way. Quite hilarious. I thought it was a nice choice that they gave Rena, the daughter, a slightly more americanized accent as opposed to her parents.

About replay value, there is a fun mini game hidden in one of the stages, there's an extended version of the game to be unlocked, there's a completely wacky and simple fun pong-like 2 player game that can be unlocked, and there's incentive given when you beat it to improve your record times. I've put in about 30 hours into this game, and I hope to go back to it to get one thing done I never quite managed to do. So SURPRISE! Though the core game could be beaten in five hours or less I imagine, there's plenty of extras, and the basic experience is so humorous and fun you'll probably want to play more.

So what it comes down to is really if you think the idea is good, and if you'll enjoy the simple main task of the game(sucking, via twirling the stick). I can tell you this: the package that it comes in, the extras provided, the room for improvement possible all help to make it worthwhile to you. It's a pretty good little game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/18/02, Updated 04/18/02