Insecticide has been a beleaguered property indeed. The brainchild of Mike and Larry (with help from fellow warhorses like Dave Grossman and Justin Chin in fleshing out the universe), the game's bifercated PC release was, thanks to an untimely publisher buyout, aborted halfway. This left the Nintendo DS version - with its heavily scaled down visuals, text-only mission dialog, and condensed and missing cutcenes - as the only way players could experience the complete story. There was some talk about Crackpot hoping to put the cutscenes in Part 2 on Youtube so that PC gamers could at least get the whole narrative (however imperfectly), but they have yet to materialize.
Although met with mixed to negative reviews from the mainstream press, even the harshest critics of Insecticide as a game praised its rich world and memorable characters, with the suggestion that it would make a good animated series being registered more than once. Mike and Larry were clearly thinking along similar lines, as even when the game was still in the headlines, there was talk of adapting their creation to other mediums; it is known that a series bible was put together and shopped to various networks. It's nice to know that they're still not yet content to leave Chris Liszt and Roachy Caruthers to the exterminator - I'm told that another interactive Insecticide venture is also being considered, with the idea of making a "pure" graphic adventure series not being ruled out. Facebook is among the landscapes being looked at.
Mike Levine was unable to give further details about this effort's prospects, unfortunately. But I share this news in the hope of generating some positive energy to surround the project with, and on the off-chance that Mojo's readership includes an influential publisher or studio executive who is anxious to add a high caliber entry to their line-up. Also, we haven't seen that Crackpot logo on the front page in awhile.
Check out the game's trailer below if you're in the market for a low-investment refresher on Insecticide, and keep the hope alive:
Also, an animated series would be great.
Well, the first half as I only played the PC version.