Bad Mojo: Redux

The Good
You know, after you play games for a while, you get to a point where the same old FPS's with rocket launchers, and rpgs tend to get boring. The reason we play games is to be able to do things we wouldn't be able to do in real life, to get enjoyment out of it. And somehow that's escaped gaming today. But in Bad Mojo, recently resurrected in this re-release, Redux, you can tell this is a game of another calibre. Let's take a look at what it's all about.

Bad Mojo: The Roach Game, is essentially what is in the title. It's a game, where you are a cockroach. The sheer simplicity is the best part. As a cockroach, all you can do is move. Forward, backwards, whatever. That's it. The storyline leading up to this, while odd, is equally brilliant and well-played with real actors. But it's the gameplay that outshines everything. After a while, you become aware of everything you ignore as a person, but is so important to cockroaches. The mop that you place beside your stove, who knew in the world of small creatures, it's a bridge that allows them to reach heights usually unattainable. The coke you spilt earlier? It's like a great wall of protection against the roach. After a while, you become so engrossed that return to real life and wonder how you didn't take this seriously. Bad Mojo isn't a game, it's an experience.

The sound is moody and fitting. Ambiance fills the background, full of creaky noises and dark sounds. Roaches flutter in and out of your viewsight, and it's only when seeing them you discover how disgusting you yourself are too. The FMV used to progress the storyline is acted decently if not a little over the top.

The Bad
The only downside to the rerelease, is that for a game so old, I would expect a little more in the way of reworking. Sure, the images look a bit better, and the video is more crisp, but the overall visual representation of the actual game is more or less the same.

The Bottom Line
Bad Mojo is not an average game. Where most of today's games is just mindless violence and shooting, Bad Mojo shows us reality in the gritty way it is, not just explosions of blood passed off as "realism". It's definitely not for kids, but it's an excellent game. Bad Mojo : Redux successfully taunts all the new games on the market, saying "remember when games used to be like this?"

My rating for Bad Mojo, is a solid 5 out of 5.