Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Mister Mosquito

Written by John Scalzo on February 12, 2002

First Impressions: I want to suck your blood.

I believe it's safe to say that Japanese gamers are an entirely different breed from North American gamers. A perfect example is Ka, or as it will be known in the States: Mister Mosquito. Mister Mosquito places you in the role of a mosquito and as such, your goal in life is to suck the blood of as many people as you can (which leads me to wonder, why hasn't there ever been a vampire simulator?). You've got to hand it to Eidos Interactive and their new Fresh Games label for making a game like Mister Mosquito available to us on the other side of the pond.

You are Mister Mosquito; you've just traveled into the house of the Yamada family. And as mosquitoes are prone to do, you have to suck some blood. Each of the game's levels will be a different room of the house that will match you up with your target for that level (including a bathroom level featuring a very naked teenage daughter). Well if that teen daughter level didn't scare you off, you'll be interested to know the game takes place more or less like a regular flight simulator. Think Ace Combat on a whole lot of acid. You fly through the room, but instead of dodging buildings and power lines, you're dodging tables and stereo equipment. And you can land anywhere until the heats off (or in this case Bug Spray 'O Death).

The game actually looks quite simple in it's execution. You fly near that juicy blood vessel, which is marked by a red square, on the person's body. The closer you get, you have to stay unnoticed. Once you land, you have to stick your needle into your target with the Circle button and then work a little analog stick magic. Move the stick to slow and you won't be able to hang on any longer. Go too fast and you'll let your target know you're there and you'll go splat. It's supposed to work much like the final battle in Conker's Bad Fur Day works. Spin the alien too slow, you'll drop him. Spin him too fast; your throw will lose accuracy. But if you go at just the right speed you'll be able to suck all that wonderful blood. Then onto the next level and more sexual innuendo from the announcer.

Sometimes however you'll be caught by your human blood bank and have to go into a "Battle Mode." Battle Mode consists of you mano a Raid can with the person. You have to calm them down and make them think you went away by hitting various "relaxation zones." I swear I am not making any of this up. Relaxation zones work just like when you try to suck someone's blood. See the red target, move in, hit Circle and watch the look on their face as they get relaxed.