Bad Mojo Redux

Developer: Pulse Entertainment | Publisher: Nightdive Studios, Atari | Release Date: 1996 | Genre: Adventure / Puzzle / FMV | Website: N/A | Purchase: Steam

Some games age gracefully, while others age like something found behind a fridge in a condemned apartment. Bad Mojo Redux somehow manages to do both. Originally released in 1996, it is a deeply strange adventure game where players take control of a man transformed into a cockroach. It is old, clunky, ugly in places, and packed with questionable FMV acting, but it is also one of the most memorable games we have played in a long time.

Bad Mojo follows Roger Samms, an entomologist living above a dilapidated bar in San Francisco. After stealing money and preparing to flee, Roger is transformed into a cockroach by a mysterious locket connected to his past. The Kafka influence is obvious, with the story drawing inspiration from The Metamorphosis, but Bad Mojo takes the idea in a much grimier and more grotesque direction.

As a cockroach, Roger must navigate the disgusting world of Eddie’s Bar from an entirely new perspective. The game is split across only a handful of areas, including the basement, bathroom, kitchen, bar, and bedroom, with a sewer pipe hub used to move between them. This small scope works in the game’s favor, as each area feels distinct and suitably revolting.

The gameplay is unlike most adventure games. There is no inventory, no dialogue tree, and no conventional item combining. Instead, players use only the keyboard and four movement keys to guide the roach around fixed screens. The tank-style controls take some getting used to, especially because Roger can crawl across floors, walls, objects, and other surfaces in ways that can make orientation slightly confusing.

Puzzles are mostly environmental. Sticky substances act as barriers, predators and hazards must be avoided, and small objects can sometimes be nudged into place. There are moments where the solutions are clever, but there are also stretches where progress depends on understanding exactly which tiny part of the scenery can be interacted with. This can be frustrating, especially when a missed trigger makes it look like there is no way forward.

Death is also a constant threat. Roger has a limited number of lives and can be killed in all kinds of sudden or unpredictable ways. Rats, traps, water, chemicals, and other hazards can all bring the adventure to an abrupt end. Thankfully, players can save at any time, which makes the game far more manageable. We did encounter one odd issue where saving and resuming placed the roach on a random part of the screen, but reloading the save fixed it.

The final section of the game determines which ending players receive, and there are multiple endings depending on the actions taken. There’s no need to replay the entire game to see everything though as saving just before the end and then fulfilling the criteria for the different endings are easy enough.

Visually, Bad Mojo Redux is disgusting by design. The pre-rendered backgrounds are filled with dead rodents, rotting food, gutted fish, grime, filth, and all kinds of unpleasant details. It is frequently gross and occasionally disturbing, but that is clearly the point. The game does a remarkable job of making ordinary spaces feel alien and dangerous when viewed from cockroach height.

The FMV scenes are another matter. The acting is bad in that very specific 90s CD-ROM way, where everyone seems either too stiff or too theatrical. However, this also gives the game a lot of its strange charm. Bad Mojo would probably feel less memorable if it were more polished.

The audio is surprisingly effective. The soundtrack has an industrial, unsettling edge that suits the grimy atmosphere, while the sound effects make the environments feel unpleasantly alive. The scuttling, dripping, buzzing, and squelching all contribute to the sense that Roger is trapped in a world that is far larger and nastier than he is.

The Redux version includes a generous selection of extras, such as commentary, concept art, storyboards, making-of videos, hint videos, avatars, wallpaper, and the soundtrack. These additions are welcome, especially for such a bizarre cult title, and help make the package feel more complete.

Overall, Bad Mojo Redux is not an easy game to recommend to everyone. It is old, awkward, occasionally frustrating, and sometimes unclear. However, it is also creative, atmospheric, grotesque, and unlike almost anything else. Players who can tolerate its age and eccentricities will find a genuinely unique adventure game hiding beneath all the grime.