Wow. This has to be one of the most disgusting games I've yet had the chance to play. If cockroaches, rats, and decomposing fish aren't your bag, then you'll want to pass on Bad Mojo. On the plus side, it's great if you're on a diet. (If you're really curious what this game looks like, check out my Bad Mojo Travel Guide, but be warned--don't do it if you're planning to eat anytime soon). So, beyond the gross out-graphics and sordid gameplay, is there anything here to attract academic interest? Definitely. This Joe Campbell/Kafka-inspired game is so deep and full of pathos that it's worth the occasional stomach rotation.

At first the game sounds like a glorified gimmick: You get turned into a cockroach (no ambiguity about dung beetles here) and must try to figure out why this occurred (and how to get transformed back into your Jim Carrey-esque self). Along the way you learn about the history of your avatar--as well as the history of your filthy, beer-bellied landlord. One clever thing here is how this story is slowly revealed. Though there are FMV segments (which are very cleverly and subtly implemented), the bulk of the backstory is filled in by items you encounter along the way--scraps of newspapers, FAXes, photographs, objects that spark a flashback, and so on. Eventually you learn that your avatar is a professor studying ways to kill roaches. Your character's life has been pretty rough so far, what with being raised by abusive nuns and never having a break until now. Your avatar's only knowledge of his parents is that his mother died giving birth to him, and his father saw fit to give him a bizarre scarab-necklace that was his mother's--and a silly windup toy.

Gameplay might look arcade-like, but this game is decidedly more focused on puzzles and mapping. There are enough clues sprinkled through the game to make a hintbook unnecessary--except for one (suffice it to say, write down all the numbers you encounter in the game). As a roach, you obviously can't carry items around with you, but you can nudge certain things with your head. This limitation might seem to severely limit the gameplay possibilities, but the developers have done a LOT with a little.

What makes this game standout, though, is the pathos of the characters and the intriguing, Kafka-esque story. The acting in the FMV segments is powerful and compelling. As you learn the biographies of these characters, you soon learn how they are the victims of unfortunate circumstances--prisoners of their own greed and selfishness. Now, thanks to a mysterious scarab and a dead woman, you've been granted a possible reprieve.

I assume that most of you are familiar with Joe Campbell's concept of the hero's journey. The developers credit Campbell during the end of the game for good reason--this game is based quite consciously on the archetypal journey. However, here the "netherworld" the hero must navigate and where he must be transformed is no futuristic sci-fi world nor a swords and sorcery realm. It's the mysterious and sincerely frightening world of the insect. As bizarre as it sounds, I am far more scared of a cockroach than a dragon. This game really gets at that primordial dread, and the pain and suffering are worth it. I emerged from Bad Mojo with that cathartic experience I felt after completing Doom 3 and Quake 4, both of which make similar demands on one's gastronomic as well as psychological system.

It's been said often enough by literary critics that the mark of a good story is one that can be effectively told in different media. I can easily imagine Bad Mojo as a movie or short story. Yet the developers have managed to really capitalize on all the features of their chosen media. Even though the game isn't portrayed from a first-person perspective, I still felt I was scuttling across those floors and underneath those tables (carefully skirting around the wads of chewed gum) just as a cockroach would. The experience gave me a new perspective on my own apartment, and I couldn't help but wonder what my desk and furniture would look like from an insect's perspective.

In short, this is a marvelous little game, and for the mere $10 I paid for it--it's an incredible bargain. If you enjoy movies like Naked Lunch and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, or stories like Kafka's famous "Metamorphisis," this game's for you.

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