mister mosquito, known simply as 蚊 (“ka,” or “mosquito“) in japan, is an oddball playstation 2 game first released by zoom in 2001. it’s also, as of today, one of the latest additions to the playstation plus classics catalog.

the game’s logline is simple: you are the eponymous mister mosquito, a flying insect whose instinctual blood-sucking slowly drives the yamada family crazy over the course of a balmy, japanese summer. every level focuses on buzzing around a relatively gigantic human being and finding spots on their bodies from which to extract plasma. if you’re spotted, they go absolutely batshit, and the only way to calm them down is to hit relaxation points with your proboscis. later stages, which see the yamadas desperately fill their home with insecticide, bug zappers, and mosquito coils to rid themselves of your presence, allow you to knock the humans out entirely using similar tactics.

mister mosquito is also… not great. as much as i appreciate its inherent silliness, rough edges keep it from being all that fun during sustained play sessions. i never felt totally comfortable with the flying mechanics, even in the calm, early levels, and this issue only became more frustrating as the humans’ enmity toward me increased. i also had a love/hate relationship with the intro narration; mister mosquito makes you sit through an unskippable, two-minute long monologue describing its setting every time you start the game. by the third or fourth time, i couldn’t help but laugh at what was obviously an artistic decision to waste the player’s time with extensive, emotionless voice over.

my first experience with mister mosquito was reading about it in the may 2002 edition of tips and tricks, a now-defunct magazine focused on, well, video game tips and tricks. as a kid who didn’t own any of the fancy new consoles at the time and wasn’t accustomed to getting new games outside of birthdays and christmas, magazines like tips and tricks were my gateway to not only learning about video games but experiencing them vicariously through detailed walkthroughs.

i try not to get nostalgic, but looking back at that issue of tips and tricks, it’s hard not to miss the gaming industry of just a couple decades ago. seeing mister mosquito featured alongside virtua fighter 4 and sega soccer slam guides, previews of super mario sunshine and urban yeti, and ads for fatal frame and onimusha: warlords really drives home the creative bankruptcy of modern, mainstream gaming. overriding incentives to appease investors leaves little room for artistic expression, at least in the triple-a space. experimentation is almost entirely the domain of indie developers, the majority of which can’t support themselves through lengthy dev cycles without winning the lottery that is releasing a surprise, breakout hit.

video games are no longer allowed to be messy. they’re no longer allowed to try and fail. art requires experimentation to not only survive but thrive, yet talented developers are largely forced to toil away for years on unoriginal garbage that will never make back its exorbitant budget. and when that doesn’t work out, the executives who made these decisions in the first place continue to pull in massive, unearned bonuses while rank-and-file workers are punished with layoffs and uncertain futures.

although mister mosquito developer zoom was never a major player in the industry, sony itself saw fit to publish the itchy game and its sequel, ka 2: let’s go hawaii, in japan. in-house fan favorite japan studio (rest in peace) even provided developmental support on both. mister mosquito was given the space to be weird and gross and annoying and kinda bad, not to mention the backing of one of the biggest companies in the industry, and video games were better for its originality. i hope we can find a way back to that before the only projects given financial consideration are doomed hero shooters and call of duty season passes.