I admit, I’ve been pretty hyped up about Insecticide for the past few months. How could I not be? Insecticide is a new DS adventure title from Crackpot Entertainment, whose staff is filled with ex-LucasArts alum. It also happens to feature an awesome art style reminiscent of Psychonauts and a heavy film noir influence. The only way that this game could be more tailored to my tastes would be if it had dinosaurs in it. So, while I’m somewhat biased towards the concept, I also built up high expectations for the game. Does the final product live up to my hopes?

The short answer, sort of. The longer answer, yes and no. What, were you expecting a snappy remark? This is a game review, son, not some dime-store detective story. Insecticide, on the other hand, is a detective story. It won’t win any awards, this isn’t high literature. Not that it matters, fans of film noir will be in heaven. Murder, mayhem, and snappy dialogue rule the day. I was afraid that the insect puns would get annoying. To be honest, they really don’t. The script is clever enough to make their strange insect world seem just like our own.

Crackpot’s love of old crime movies is obvious. Insecticide’s characters come straight out of Laura or Murder, My Sweet. We have them all: the grizzled veteran partner, a down-on-his-luck arms dealer, a cop with family issues, the shady CEO. The basic plot is right out of the same book. Our detectives are asked to investigate a series of bombings. Before you can say “histamine,” clues surface relating to a murder at a soda company and Chrys’ mysterious past. Soon, the tangled plot threads become more intertwined than a spider’s web. It’s all grand fun, and if you love noir even half as much as the writers, you’ll be smitten with this game.

The words drip with style, but how about the visuals? No worries there. The graphics are some of the best on the DS. Which is pretty much the same as saying that it looks like an N64 game. Not a bad thing, though. Insecticide applies a couple of nice tricks and great lighting. The end result -– Insecticide looks fantastic. Insecticide has an awesome art style, it really does remind me of an insect-tinted Psychonauts. This style carries over well in-game, although I do wish that we could have had a cell-shaded or 2D game that looks just like the original artwork. The prerendered cutscenes are gorgeous, and the voice acting is phenomenal. Seriously, awesome. I never thought that we’d see really good voice acting on a handheld, but Insecticide and Professor Layton have proven me wrong. The music, however, is forgettable. Not bad, just not amazing, either. I usually just muted the game between cutscenes.

What’s the problem, then? Well, that comes down to Insecticide’s slightly schizophrenic gameplay. Insecticide’s levels are broken down into action and investigation stages. While this is an innovative twist on the standard adventure format, the controls bring the experience down. This isn’t completely Crackpot’s fault. The lack of an analog stick makes accurate maneuvering difficult, and the action levels require finesse. Jumping between tiny platforms and balancing on thin ropes suspended over train tracks are not activities that work well with only a d-pad at your disposal. The controls for these action levels take a while to get used to; even then, they don’t feel quite right. It’s a shame that those levels bring the experience down when the investigation levels are damn near perfect. These investigations are your adventure “bread and butter,” the kind of levels that you expect out of an adventure game. You click on hot spots, examine objects, and solve puzzles. The puzzles are a little on the easy side, but they are still pretty clever.

Insecticide is a clever little adventure title that drips with a wicked style. It doesn’t always succeed, but at least it tries to bring a bit of innovation to the genre. If you are even remotely a fan of crime stories, this game is worth a play for the characters and script alone. Adventure fans looking for a fix will also get some fun out of the game. If Crackpot can tighten up the controls in their next game, they really could revolutionize the adventure genre.

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