The gang at Gamecock are gaga over the Nintendo DS, if you go by their booth at PAX. Two-thirds of the games on display are for DS; one of them is called... Insecticide.
Here's how it was pitched to me: some of the refugees from LucasArts' creativity department formed a developer called Crackpot Entertainment, and are making a hybrid point-and-click adventure slash over-the-shoulder platform shooter starring a detective who is also a bug. That was all I needed to know, and I stole a chair from anothe game demo area and hauled it up to the Insecticide demo to check it out.
The game begins with a video sequence that introduces the bug-detective characters, then launches right into the shooting. It's pretty much a buttons-and-pad controlled third-person shooter -- you move forward and turn with the D-pad, and there's always a reticule in the middle of the screen. So you bop along in 3D levels, shooting down enemies with the L button. You can free-aim or lock on by holding A. This seemed to work a little TOO well, especially combined with the unlimited ammo -- you could pretty much just lock on to any enemy, even things that are far away. But it feels fun, which is the important part. The platforming works a lot better than it has any right to -- the camera is pulled in a bit too close in some places, but even if you miss a jump and fall it doesn't knock you back too far in the level.
After you've shot some bugs and jumped some platforms, the final portion of the first level is a big shootout in a wide arena with a bunch of different enemies, which lets you try out some more FPS-type moves like your side step jump and strafing. Again, while the demo was unpolished -- it doesn't ship until 2008 -- there's a lot of potential.
After the action sequence, you're smack in the middle of a point-and-click adventure -- you're trying to complete your case file, but the parts are scattered all over the office and you have to get the rest of the bugs in the precinct to help you out. So you need to pick up a cup of coffee and find some creamer to put inside it for one of the cops, then use the coffee on another cop to get him to have a caffeine rush, and jump out of his seat, so you can get the report page that he was sitting on.
So yes: they know what they're doing. Insecticide is one to watch, a very Psychonauts-styled hybrid that could be a cult success on DS if all the pieces end up fitting together.
