2002 | Sony Entertainment | Playstation 2
The Playstation 2 was home to some fantastic budget experimental titles, that carry the backend of its library like the unsung heroes of old. Some of these come from obvious sources that are dedicated to this specific niche, like the Simple Series from D3. They are games that are made with a cheaper release in mind, that you could find on the shelves at a supermarket with modest price tags of a mere 1,000 yen (or 7 Euro as of writing this). Not everything on these shelves was playable though. Often these releases featured student projects that made it into the hands of publishers, who then published the unpolished to the unsuspecting masses. Exceptions that come to mind are the now salvaged Onechanbara series (the first one really wasn’t that good) and the ever hilarious Earth Defense Force (THE EDF DEPLOYS). These are just a few examples of the wondrous world of the Playstation 2’s not-so-bottom-of-the-bin. And that’s not to say that these titles weren’t great parts of the PS2 library to explore. On the contrary, it provided an outlet for ideas that would otherwise never have seen the light of day.
So you can imagine my surprise that a game about a mosquito pestering a poor family during their summer holiday was made by none other than Sony Entertainment themselves. Making this the most bug riddled (pun intended) first party title in the entirety of the Playstation 2 catalogue.
In Mister Mosquito, or Mr. Moskeeto in PAL territories, you play as, well…. a mosquito…. called Mister Mosquito. A delightfully cartoonish little buzzer that looks like it was assembled using toy parts on a quest to drink enough blood to last him through winter. Over the course of the 12 stages you get to fly around the various rooms in the Yamada residence, as you face increasingly difficult challenges to hit spots on the family members for optimal blood absorption. All the while, the Yamada family becomes increasingly desperate to find you and exterminate your existence. This whole package of delightful madness is accompanied by an incredibly fresh and jazzy soundtrack to really hit home those cozy arcade vibes.
It has to be said though, that Mister Mosquito is very much a product of the time it released in, which is reflected the most in the various, somewhat unorthodox feeling control schemes that a lot of games featuring flying had at the time. Where nowadays you’d be able to control the characters movement with the left analog stick and the camera with the right, this game opts for a more traditional control scheme of using R1 to go forward, up and down on the right analog to go up and down respectively (in correspondence to the whims of the camera that is) and R2 to do a mid air drift straight out of the Initial D anime. Despite this, the whole game is designed in a way that allows you to slowly learn more of the mechanics as you progress through the game. It gives you ever more challenging stages with new mechanics, such as a bug zapper, bug spray or one of the incense circles stuck to Kenichi’s wonderfully comedic combover. Each stage also nicely varies the amount of objects that you can interact with to distract the members of the family, or to reveal weak spots. And the more you stock up for the winter, the more rotund your existence as a mosquito becomes. It makes you less maneuverable during your daring escapes. On top of all this you have to manage the stress of your targets to maintain optimal suckage.
I deeply appreciate that the story, while simple, goes all in on its premise. You’re not just a mosquito ready to be swatted, you’re an enemy of the state that is the Yamada residence. Your mere existence should not be allowed to continue. As such the family goes to ever increasing lengths to exterminate the vile bloodsucker that has invaded their home. It starts relatively innocent, with you buzzing around the daughter’s room looking for some blood, but things quickly devolve as the family becomes increasingly aware of your presence. It begins relatively small with setting up small incense burners and carrying a fly swatter, but devolving into hadouken spewing battles to the death between you and the juggernaut that is Kenichi. The game fully embraces the silly premise and takes a sprint up the mountain of ridiculousness providing the player with a good amount of laughs and challenge to enjoy the experience.
Mister Mosquito is ridiculous, and it knows that it is. From the animation saving family gathering that looks like a bunch of football players huddling up before a game, to the house being gassed with the excess of pesticide that the family has unleashed upon their dwelling. The Yamada family seems willing to die for the cause of exterminating the home invader as they nearly gas themselves to death, only to be rescued by Rena’s friend. Managing the stress meter whilst trying to remain unnoticed is a fun challenge, especially given that the controls aren’t super lenient towards snappy mobility. Finding different things to interact with during the twelve stages to see how the family members react is a fun way to give players a reason to explore the small, but detailed rooms. It also gives a bit of insight into the lives of the family itself, from Kenichi just wanting to take a break from the salary man life, to Kaneyo reminiscing about the good old days when Rena was still a kid, and Rena experiencing ALL the second hand embarrassment her teenage angst can handle. It’s oddly charming and wholesome how in the end a war against a mosquito brings the family closer together, and the picture at the end makes it feel like, despite tormenting them throughout the game, you actually helped them rekindle their family spirit.
The game is backed up by a surprisingly snazzy and groovy soundtrack that swings the two to three hours of runtime to life, with every level getting a neat little tune to buzz around to. All in all, Mister Mosquito, for me, represents an era of exploration, when odd ideas made it onto the shelves of stores waiting to be picked up by the curious. It’s one of those games that makes a bored Friday night into an experience of laughter and bewilderment. It has the perfect runtime of about three hours to completion, with a lot of replayability coming from getting better times, collecting all the EX tanks for a “True Ending” and just to see what goofy antics you can come up with to pester the Yamada family. The game is wonderfully bizarre and endlessly quirky. It is a wild addition to the Playstation 2 library that was apparently enough for Sony to warrant a Japan exclusive sequel.
Buzzkill/10
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