I had a very vague perception of this game being a meme of sorts before I started playing it. After an attempt to look into that more directly, I really have no idea where that perception came from. Upon playing it, it may have had something to do with the amount of Bee Movie-style bug puns to be found in the game, which did occur in a post-Bee Movie world.

This game does have the dubious honor of being a game I can now name as a 3D platformer with tank controls, along with Croc. Honestly though, the 3D platformer/TPS segments are definitely the weak point; they feel rushed and unbalanced, and giving the player unlimited retries in them was definitely the right move. There's usually not a whole lot of motivation to use all the different guns you can get, most of the psychic powers you get to replace them in the last few levels are pretty useless, and some of both of these have very limited range which makes them really not worthwhile. The "final boss" level feels like a messy, cryptic chore. Ironically, the Home for the Hominids level was probably the most engaging platforming one for me because it's one where all your weapons are gone, so you just have to find the best route to keep moving forward. The best way I can probably think of to describe the platforming itself though is "Psychonauts if every level was the Meat Circus".

That's probably a good enough lead-in to the aspect of this game that shines a bit more. About half of the game's levels are not what I've just described, but instead LucasArts-style adventure game puzzles, which is no accident; the game was the brainchild of Larry Ahern and Mike Levine, two people who had previously held various roles in said company, and they also brought in Josh Mandel of Sierra On-Line (who some people will know best as the voice of King Graham of Daventry) to help with writing and design. Learning about this game's development may honestly be more interesting than the game's actual plot though; it follows detectives Chrys Liszt and Roachy Carruthers as they investigate a murder incident and uncover a vast conspiracy in a hard-boiled noir cartoon bug world, which also has very bizarre technology and apprently takes place in a distant future where sentient humanoid bugs coexist with now-marginalized descendants of humanity. Chrys (the player character) also has a mysterious past she's trying to uncover. It's expectedly full of clichés, though the writing for the dialogue and quips lends it some character and charm, albeit not really enough to make it remarkable.

The whole experience can feel rather underwhelming, especially when considering the industry chops of some of the key people involved in creating it. It did leave me curious to eventually try out the Part 1 enhanced PC port of the game to see if it improves upon some of the things I've just mentioned, though as the name implies it seems that it doesn't cover all the content from the DS original. As far as said original though, it's only really worthwhile if you're very curious and are prepared to deal with a metric ton of jank.