Insecticide never seemed like a title destined to set the sales charts on fire, so we're not surprised to see retailers already marking down the noir title. Less than two months after Insecticide's release, Amazon, GameStop, and other shops have chopped the half-adventure, half-platforming game down to $19.99, a two-thirds its original price.

And if that's still too much for you, you could buy Nirvana's Incesticide for only $7.97, less than half of Insecticide's price. What's the difference between the two, you ask? Well, it just so happens that we've put together a lovely comparison guide that should help you with that question.

[VIa CAG]

As you may or may not know, I'm a big fan of adventure games. That's one of the reasons I jumped at the chance to play Insecticide -- it looked like it would be one of the best in the genre this year. And the action parts? Those would just be gravy.

Crackpot, the development team behind the game, is mostly made up of people who used to work for LucasArts, and it shows. Insecticide contains the same kind of humor and adventure goodness of games like Monkey Island and Grim Fandango. Yet, this title is not only an adventure game but also an action platformer, and when mixing genres, you have to be careful to do it right -- in a way that makes sense, and in a way that works. Unfortunately, though, Insecticide fails in those aspects.

The Gamecock guys sure know how to go all out in crazy fashion to promote a game. With Insecticide already out on store shelves, however, we're saved that blitz of feathers and capes. Instead, we're presented with a smaller, more intimate behind-the-scenes look at two of the individuals who helped Insecticide become a game. We're talking about Larry Ahern and Mike Levine of Crackpot Entertainment.

Of course, being Gamecock, they had to include some wackiness, though. Hit up the "Read" link below and check out the video.

With three high-profile titles releasing in North America this week, we're having a hard time deciding what game (or games) to pick up for this weekend's promised downtime. Should we go with the tried-and-true formula of shooting everything in sight and get Nanostray 2? Or, should we see about putting on our gumshoes and solving a case or two in Insecticide? Perhaps the more epic quest is in order and we should go with Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates? Maybe we should just go with them all?

While we try to decide, tell us what you've got going on in your gaming world this weekend. What will you be playing?

I met with Crackpot Entertainment's Larry Ahern, creative director of Insecticide, at this year's EIEIO event after he had finished demonstrating his game over and over again for successive groups of journalists and other attendees. Even after all of that time spent staring at Insecticide and introducing it to the few people in each group who weren't familiar with it, he seemed enthusiastic about his game.

He was also happy to reminisce -- fondly or otherwise -- about his time at LucasArts, during which he served as art director for Day of the Tentacle, lead animator for Full Throttle, and co-project lead on The Curse of Monkey Island, just to name a few classics.

Hit the break to find out about Insecticide's alternate history as a TV show, to read the most about BioShock you'll ever see on DS Fanboy, and more!

This week's release list is pretty darn nice, with a variety of genres being represented in the ranks of new titles available for the DS. RPG junkies get their fix with Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, shoot-em-uppers get something new in Nanostray 2 and the niche crime-solving insect genre gets an entry in Insecticide. How's that for a week of releases?

Are you picking up a new game? Going to hammer away at something older? What are you playing?

Having trouble telling the difference between Nirvana's Incesticide album and DS platformer/shooter Insecticide? Afraid that you'll accidentally bring home a 15-year-old CD instead of the hard-boiled detective game? Worry no more!

We've put together a handy guide to help you tell these two "alternative" titles apart. Forget about wandering the streets in a daze, unsure which product features rock-out tracks like "Sliver" and "Son of a Gun!" No more embarrassing yourself in front of friends after mentioning an afternoon spent hunting criminal bugs with Kurt Cobain! We promise you'll never again confuse the game with the album or vice versa -- or your money back! Hit the image above for our life-changing chart!


See also: Nirvana: Plugged back in and electronicized

We've been fascinated by the potential of Insecticide since it first buzzed to our attention last May. Crackpot's noirish, bug-based title combines an adventure game with platforming, action, and detective elements. As it turns out, this willingness to fuse different genres and play styles seems to have backfired, with reviewers criticizing the action sequences in particular. We're pretty sure that there's a great detective-thriller game starring bugs just waiting to be made, but this doesn't seem to be it.

IGN -- 70%: IGN's Daemon Hatfield awarded the title its highest mark to date (apart from the two users who each gave it, er, a perfect ten on Metacritic), but still couldn't ignore the flawed action segments: "This one is a real heartbreaker. I really wanted to score it higher, but the action sequences get in the way of what could have been an extremely enjoyable adventure game. Crackpot has created an engrossing world with Insecticide, so maybe a sequel will focus more on pointing and clicking than frustrating and agitating."

Nintendo Power -- 65%: Likewise, Nintendo Power seems to insinuate that the game is a Jack of all trades, and a master of none: "Insecticide tries to be a lot of things at once -- platformer, shooter, and investigative adventure -- which is a trick that seldom works well." [Mar 2008, p.89 -- excerpt found at Metacritic]

Game Informer -- 58%: And there's just too much platforming for Game Informer's superbly named Joe Juba: "... Insecticide could have been an excellent adventure game. Instead, it's a platformer, and a bad one at that. The game squanders its stylish setting, writing, and entertaining puzzle solving by minimizing the fun investigation segments, focusing squarely on broken combat and platforming. The fact that you can run through most encounters without firing a shot makes the action element feel even more tiresome and pointless."

What a week for DS releases! Of course, in the shadow of a certain release on the Wii side of the Nintendo fence, a big week was probably necessary, but that doesn't make it any less exciting. Though there are only three DS titles scheduled for release, each one has something going for it. How often does that happen?

• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates
• Insecticide
• Nanostray 2

In fact, there's a lot to look forward to all around the world. Europe's scoring Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker and Bomberman Land Touch! 2, among other titles, and Japan boasts our beloved Contra 4 (there, Dual Spirits), and the hilarious Duel Love. Surely you can find some time to tear yourself away from beatdowns for one of these.

Crackpot's Larry Ahern appears in this video offering commentary on the latest entry in the "evolved bug detective in a post-apocalyptic insect-run world" adventure game genre (jeez, another one?), Insecticide. He reveals a few influences on the world and storyline of the game. The most notable, in terms of making us look at the game in a new way?

Luc Besson's The Professional, which, if you haven't seen it, is about a 12-year-old who forms a close, parental-but-also-inappropriately-romantic attachment with a hitman. And that's the relationship that influenced the dynamic between the game's two main characters, Chrys Liszt and Roachy Caruthers. We don't know what to say now. We're going to watch these two cartoon insects' interactions a lot more closely during the game, at least.

We're big fans of Insecticide, and not just because it gives us an opportunity to wheel out our lamest insect puns (happily, it's no longer alone in that respect). Okay, that's a part of it, but from what we've seen and played of Crackpot's game, Insecticide looks like another top-drawer addition to a genre that's already overflowing with goodness: DS adventure games.

This latest trailer of the title might be light on gameplay footage (read: there's none whatsoever), but it still does a fantastic job of communicating the game's noirish feel. There's the gravelly-voiced narrator, rookie upstart cops, cigar-smoking veteran detectives, and lashings of moody silhouetting. In short: DO WANT.

[Update: Video now embedded after the break]

See also: 2008's Biggest Blips -- Insecticide

Gamecock sent over a near-final preview copy of Insecticide, and I've been playing through it for the last few days. I haven't encountered any bugs yet -- except the ones that are supposed to be there, amirite? I previously played the game during the Penny Arcade Expo, but this time I had the benefit of playing a more complete copy, for more than ten minutes, while sitting down in a room with fewer than ten thousand people in it. I don't want to evaluate too much in a preview, but in the small portion of the game I've played, it's clear to me that this is exactly what people hope it is: the return of the funny 3D adventure game.

While the adventure genre (by which I mean the third-person, 3D-movement, point-and-click adventure game, as opposed to graphical text adventures like Phoenix Wright) hasn't quite died, it has been populated in recent years by games like Indigo Prophecy and Syberia: dour, dark, gritty, Serious Business. Insecticide is not that. It evokes something like a Grim Fandango or a Space Quest: interesting characters who have a lot of funny things to say, in a game that requires you to adapt to a unique world's somewhat joke-based logic.

Bad news for bug-detective adventure-platform action game fans: Insecticide isn't ready to emerge from its cocoon just yet. Amazon sent a notice out to an Insecticide preorderer that the game would ship out on March 11, instead of the previous February 12 date. The product listing has also been changed accordingly, and GameStop has updated their listing as well.

Our Gamecock contact confirmed the delay, which is the second so far. He wasn't sure of the exact issue, but suggested it had to do with needing more time to manufacture a sufficient number of copies. So we don't get our own copies as soon, but there's a higher possibility that we will all be able to find one at all.


[Via GoNintendo]

Developer: Crackpot Entertainment
Publisher: Gamecock
Release date: February 12

Thomas Trowel's jaw was long and bony, his head a jutting v around the more flexible v of his mouth. His mandibles curved around to make another, smaller, v. His yellow-green eyes were mostly vertical. The v motif was picked up again by thickish antenna rising outward from twin creases above a hooked nose, and his pale brown hair grew down -- from high flat temples -- to a point on his forehead. He looked rather pleasantly like a praying mantis -- because that's what he was.

He said to Chrys Liszt, "Yes, sweetheart?"

Detective Chrys Liszt sighed. She could handle stereotypical guys. After all, her partner Roachy Caruthers was as hard-boiled as they came, a veteran cop who'd had more holes shot through him over the years than an old piece of cheese. But guys like this Trowel character really got under her exoskeleton. They had no idea how to treat a woman who wasn't just some dame. "Look, can you just give us a quick rundown on this Tangerine Sparrow deal? For the files."

"Well, darling," Trowel said, "it all started when I met Brigid O'Spiderssy, a real knockout. She came in with a story about her sister, and was all sweet innocence, but I've been around long enough to know trouble when I see it, and that dame was trouble. Next thing I know, this fellow who's supposed to have run off with her sister is dead, my partner is dead, and I've got the law--" he looked up, face twisted in a smile that held little joy, "calling me a suspect. Before I can make sense of all that, I've got this grub coming around talking about some tangerine sparrow and a young scorpion following me everywhere I went."

"Sparrows," spat Roachy suddenly. "Nasty things. Had one swoop down on a cousin and bam!" He brought two thin, gnarled hands down on Trowel's desk. "Just like that."

"This one was old. Treasure, I'm told. A gift from royalty, missing for years. Didn't seem to be anything but bad luck, if you ask me. Everyone I talked to about the sparrow is either dead or in jail, and not one of them managed to put a hand on it for more than a few days." Trowel looked down at the watch on his wrist.

Chrys looked at Roachy, but he had his arms crossed and was studying the ceiling, clearly bored. "You turned it over to the department, right? The statuette."

"Along with the dame."

"Thanks, Trowel," Chrys said, getting to her feet. "If this connects to the Nectarola case, we'll be in touch."

"Swell," Trowel said, reaching for his hat, the small v of his mouth curving. His eyes glittered. "Happy to help."

Reprinted from Super Hardboiled Noir Detective Fiction Magazine, 1949

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FFTA2	Back	At world's end

You may have noticed that we're big fans of the look and setting of the upcoming buggy noir adventure Insecticide. Why? We like the slick look, the setting, and the humor ... all of which seem pretty adult to us. So color us a little surprised at this new trailer, which is all about children playing Insecticide and loving it. It makes sense, sure. We hear kids sometimes like bugs, and the game is rated ten and up. It's just not what we expected, but we can get on board with it. There's nothing quite like the delighted giggles of children watching bug-on-bug violence.


[Via press release]