Pandora's Pests, on the other hand, is a completely different animal -- so to speak. If I had to categorize this game, I'd say it's an FPS -- First Person Swatter. You play the role of some guy on vacation during one of the worst bug seasons ever. You see the action from your point of view, but there's no actual movement, as you typically find in an FPS (and it's not really in any way like a first person shooter, let's be clear; my love of stupid jokes led me to write that).

Instead, it's a fixed view of the landscape and your two arms, from the elbow down. Your right arm is fixed in place, while your left is mobile, and controlled by the mouse. A mouse click brings your hand down in a swatting motion, and that's the game. You swat the various flying and crawling insects as they invade your space.

And there are a metric ton of them to swat, too: it starts small, with ants, flies, and mosquitoes bothering you, then moves up to wasps, spiders, scorpions, and stag beetles, to name just a few. All of them bite or sting to a greater or lesser degree, and the object of the game is just to destroy them all before your health runs out.

If you have any sort of phobia centered around insects, this is most definitely not the game for you. Even if there's some mild fear or disgust at work inside you, steer clear. Not only are the sounds of all the insects guaranteed to get under your skin, but the sheer swarming multitudes of the later levels will cause you to run in one direction for at least ten minutes. This is also not to mention that every time a bug gets hit, it smears across the screen in a green blob, so, hey, something for everyone.

Things are not entirely against you, however. Squashing bugs gives you items to use in your fight. As you get bitten or stung, your health decreases, but you can replenish your health with little first aid icons that bugs drop randomly. However, as with all items, you must use your arm to intercept it before it falls off-screen.

Other helpful items include better weapons. You start with just your left hand and a bug net, both of which have unlimited uses. The hand has a small area of effect, so you need to swat with some accuracy; the net is virtually useless. Better weapons include a rolled-up newspaper, which has a slightly larger area of effect, but limited uses (as do all the better weapons); a fly swatter; a sheet of flypaper; and a magnifying class, among others.

You also get money from squashed bugs, but the demo didn't make it clear what those are used for. There's also a counter for squashing butterflies, for some reason.

So, it's possible that Pandora's Pests gets pretty good once purchased, but it's really difficult to tell from the demo. You can grab it right here on Big Download for Mac and PC.