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Should you still be intrigued by Insecticide at this point, there is one very large caveat I must mention. If you are the proud owner of an original DS, do not expect to play this game in the outdoors, well-lit rooms, or any of the places where one might reasonably choose to engage in gaming (such as a public transit bus during the daytime).

The previously mentioned bland environments (featuring a multitude of exciting “next-gen” shades of brown), fade away to near-invisibility, making it impossible to play. The only way I can make sense of the brightly-lit, colourful screenshots on the back of the box is to assume they were taken from a DS Lite set to maximum brightness while playing in a dark room. Consider yourself warned.

Pixelicious green and brown. Yummy.

In the interest of fairness (and to appease those trying to justify to themselves an unwise purchase or unlucky present), there are some good things to be said. The voice acting and full-motion-video sequences are pretty good (especially by DS standards), some of the puzzles are enjoyably clever, and there's plenty of truly wretched puns for those who enjoy that sort of thing. If you simply must play Insecticide, my suggestion is to find a small child with unreasonably dexterous fingers and force them to complete the action levels for you, and enjoy the adventure/puzzle levels yourself.

The upcoming episodic PC version, also developed by Crackpot Entertainment, may very well prove to be an enjoyable and entertaining experience. On its own merits, however, the DS version really can't be recommended.