Bad Mojo (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 4.5 stars Outstanding
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 9.0 (4.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Jeffrey Young
• Reviewed on: 05/01/1996
• Updated on: 05/01/2000
• Released on: 02/29/1996
• Originally published on GameSpot: Bad Mojo (PC) Review

If you think you have it tough, try switching places with entomologist Roger Samms who, as fate would have it, has been temporarily turned into a cockroach. A dead ringer for Jim Carrey, Dr. Samms is an embittered mad scientist who embezzles money from a research grant for roach-killing pesticide, and on the eve of his perfect getaway is faced with an untimely metamorphosis.

Lucky for you, Roger's dingy apartment is just the kind of place where a cockroach could have a field day. Grimy sewer pipes are your private roads to several rooms in the dilapidated building, unveiling screen after glorious screen of the best computer art you've ever seen in a game.

Strikingly original, Bad Mojo (meaning "black magic") is a gritty, action-based exploration that sucks you in with great visuals, and keeps you playing with a poignant story and clever obstacles that bar your progress from room to room. Magic and realism blend together in Mojo, where your exploration of Roger's place in a dark corner of San Francisco's techno-rejuvenated South of Market district presents an animal kingdom of friendly guides who supply clues and moral support during your quest. Still images, magically triggered by a little nudge from your roach, display well-produced video sequences that provide a bittersweet background story, and help to explain your current predicament. From time to time you'll see images of a magical matriarch who supplies witty, rhyming messages that help give you immediate goals.

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