Mister Mosquito is a complete paradox. “Doug, whatever do you mean?” you might ask. Well, it’s both simple and complex at the same time. Dull, yet creative and imaginative. “How is that possible?” you ask. I suppose it all really depends on the player.
Upon first hearing about this game, one can’t help but think about how cool of an idea it is. C’mon, flying around, biting unsuspecting prey, watching a young Japanese girl sleep and bathe…erm, yeah. So it’s got a cool concept and all. What’s dragging Mister Mosquito down is the fact that said concept is the lone factor behind the game’s creation and playability. There really is no other reason to play the game other than the fact that you’re a mosquito and you’re biting things. This does enable you to do some cool things that everybody thinks would be so cool to do if you were a bug, like messing with the light switches and TV remote. But before I go into all of those extras, I should probably explain the main idea of the game.
You are Mister Mosquito, apparently some weird type of mosquito machine that sucks blood into little capsules for whatever reason, probably ’cause you’re a mosquito and that’s your entire life. As Mister Mosquito, you wander around the home of the Yamadas, a typical Japanese family, and basically annoy the hell out of them while they’re trying to watch TV or sleep or take a bath.
You’re dumped off somewhere in a room, with your victim going about some type of activity while you navigate the room and search for the sweet spot on the host. It’s a little weird controlling Mister Mosquito—it kind of feels like he’s farther away from approaching objects than he really is. Next thing you know you’re bumping into walls or legs or something. But anyway, once you find this sweet spot on the skin, you’ve got to target it, make your point, and then suck the blood by rotating the analog stick around a bunch of times. Once you suck enough blood, you complete the level.
Finding the sweet spot is always a challenge. One of the coolest parts of the game is flying around the room, looking for something to use to mess with your host. I found myself turning on the radio, ringing doorbells, and turning of the lights in an effort to get the victim to move about to that right spot. If, by chance, you’re spotted, you go into a “Battle Mode” in which your human prey swings their limbs about in a vain attempt to swat you down, while you “relax” the human by ramming into them in certain spots. After the human is relaxed, you can go about your business sucking blood.
I mean, that sounds pretty cool and all, but that’s really all there is to it. I really had a tough time playing through the game, because frankly, the young girl was just a tease and the mom and dad are boring. The graphics are pretty sweet though, and with a good enough imagination I’m sure you could have a good time with this game. Besides, it’s definitely cool that more and more games are being released stateside, even if they do seem a bit weird for American audiences.
