Episode 108: Bad Mojo

Power fantasies are the norm for video games. We play them to blow off steam, to escape into another world where we can let our worries drop away. But Pulse Entertainment wanted to do things a little differently when they developed Bad Mojo in 1996. They wanted to put the player in the little brown shell of a cockroach.

You play as Roger Samms, who, on the verge of embezzling a million dollars, gets transformed into a roach. You crawl around the disgusting tenancy where you live, feebly pushing small objects in an attempt to get back to your real self. Your options are limited, and the world is a very scary place with spiders, cats and deadly poison everywhere you go.

Does Bad Mojo, with its undeniably gross aesthetic and limited perspective bring it all together into a cohesive video game? Or is this just a buggy mess?

On this episode, we discuss:

Aesthetics.

Bad Mojo has a very unique look and feel, thanks in large part to its 3D scanning of dead animals. Has its visual design held up to this day?

Story.

This game comes from the glory days of the FMV sequence, long before professional actors had become commonplace in the gaming world. Does the amateurish acting here hurt the immersiveness of Bad Mojo, or does it just give it a different feel?

Controls.

Bad Mojo has an extremely simple control scheme, with you only controlling the roach with the directional arrow keys. Does this limit the possible depth of puzzle design, or is this a case of simpler being better?

We answer all these questions and many more on the 108th episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

Bad Mojo OST: Xorcist

Have you played any other games where you’re absolutely tiny in a regular world? Are there any other games out there which share something similar to Bad Mojo’s aesthetic? Is this the worst voice acting you’ve ever heard? Let us know what you think on our community discord server!

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