Mr. Mosquito

Originally developed in Japan under the name Ka (蚊, lit. "Mosquito") by ZOOM Inc. for the PlayStation 2, Mister Mosquito was later published in the US and PAL regions by Eidos Interactive. At this point in time, there was an itch for quirky games from Japan. The usual shooting, racing, and platforming just wasn’t cutting it for players as they started to search for something they hadn’t played before. This is when games such from Japan such as Seaman were starting to appear in trade shows, catching the eyes of those in the industry.

Let’s Keep This Simple, I Need Your Blood

This game is quite simple. You’re a mosquito that is hunting the blood of a particular family: the Yamatas. You’ll control Mister Mosquito as he flies around the stage, looking for ways to distract or attack the family members. The ultimate goal is to penetrate their weak points to fill your blood meter up.

When this occurs, you’ll be put into a mini-game where you’ll rotate the right stick at the speed in which the blue meter is moving on your screen. If you don’t keep your little red circle in the blue meter, you’ll raise your prey’s anxiety/stress level, which can lead to Attack mode. When this starts, watch out! You’ll need to avoid the swipes and various other attacks from the Yamata’s as they do their best to get rid of you. Luckily, you can end this mode by attacking their “relax” points. If enough relax points are hit, you can get back to sucking that sweet, sweet blood.

Origins of the Mosquito

The game is simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s as shallow as you may think. You’ll need to cause distractions around the room to have the Yamatas re-position, which may then open up a weak point on them you can attack. These can be as simple as turning on a light or knocking a phone of its dial. As the game moves on, you’ll need to cause a longer string of distractions to get the Yamatas to go where you need them. There are also pick-ups within the game that you can collect, such as heart rings or blood tanks. Collection all of the blood tanks will allow you to start a New Game+ after the game is completed, which is a pretty neat feature as it gives the game a bit of replay-ability, which is sorely needed in such as short game.

One area that you may run into issues with is the flight. At its core, Mister Mosquito is a flight-sim game. You’ll be flying for most of the game, so having smooth controls should be paramount. However, the camera can lead you to flying into walls as you can quite see where you’re going when turning. This gets extra difficult as you fill with blood, thus making your turning slower. while I do believe this is a neat mechanic, I wish you could rotate the camera a bit more for an ideal flying experience.

It Can Get Weird

You will quickly find out soon into the game that it’s a bit… Different. If playing as a mosquito wasn’t weird enough, you’re going to find yourself in some pretty risqué situations. You see, each stage is focused on a Yamata family member.

As the stages move forward, you also move throughout the house. As you might imagine, these family members are just trying to live their life. This means you might be preying on them while they are cooking, cleaning, or watching TV.

However, this means you will also be spying on them during more intimate times as well. The perfect example of this is when you’re in a bathroom, hunting the daughter of the family. You’ll avoid bubbles as you get closer and closer, in which you’ll then find out the attack point is right above her breast. All the while, kinky elevator music is playing in the background. It was a very weird stage, and definitely remember-able (for all the wrong reasons).

Pros

• Simple controls that are easy to learn and master
• Unique experience that has you controlling a mosquito and harassing a family
• Varying levels with different distractions to help with your goals
• Ability to start a New Game+ if you collect all the tanks in the first playthrough

Cons

• This might be a bit too weird for some as it has underlying sexual tones
• Camera can lead to mistakes when flying, which is most of the game
• Music and sound effects fit the vibe, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good

Remember when we said "there's no chance in hell of Sony flying Mr. Mosquito over to America" back in our preview of the Japanese version? Well, we were half-right (some might say halfwrong): It's not Sony, but rather Eidos' new Fresh Games label who has the stones to bring this quirky...uh, make that bizarre mosquito life-simulator to the US of A in March. Swoop around the (relatively) gigantic rooms of a typical Japanese household as one of the teeny buggers, searching for power-ups and waiting for an opportunity to feed. Once you find an opening, suck your victims dry by twirling the analog stick. But suck too long (heehee) or too hard (baahahaha) and you risk getting swatted, or entering Battle mode against a very itchy and very annoyed family member about 10,000 times your size. Fa-ree-kay.