Buck Bumble

"Buck Bumble is a shooter that needs a whole lot of improvement."

Argonaut did not do a very good job of making Buck Bumble. It's another one of those instances of ''Great idea, bad execution.'' On to the scores...

Graphics: 5/10
Bland, dull, boring. Those words all describe Buck Bumble's graphics. Their just plain old graphics that didn't even come close to matching what the N64 is capable of doing. I didn't really see any special effects used on these graphics.

Sound: 3/10
The opening rap song for Buck Bumble is horribly bad. It sounds so corny. The in-game music, however, is not much better. It's just a very short tune (I don't know if this can even be considered a tune) that repeats over and over again until you get annoyed, and then it continues again.

Ingenuity: 7/10
Wow! Even I must admit I've never heard of a bee armed with a gun killing enemies. That's just a great idea! However, the ''save the world'' plot is getting a little old, isn't it?

Gameplay: 5/10
The big issue here is control. You are a tiny bee in a big world trying to kill other incredibly small bees with a gun. Well, that's nearly impossible with all these enemies being so small. You'll usually miss. Unfortunately, you have kill all the enemies to beat the level. And that's what makes this game horribly frustrating! I forgot to tell you that you can also collect extra guns and points which are microscopic.

Replayability: 2/10
I don't know why you'd be playing the long (18 levels of torture) and frustrating one-player mode over again, but there's a multiplayer. One is obvious, a deathmatch entitled ''Buck Battle.'' It's OK, but it's even harder to catch your friend who is much smarter than the AI in single-player. Plus, when you lose life, you can just drink nectar from a flower to refill it! The other one is interesting, a soccer kind of game called ''Buck Ball.'' You need to shoot and bump the ball into your opponent's goal. But since when you shoot it, it barely moves. The ball never really goes anywhere when your friend is shooting it too!

The Final Word: Stay away from this one! DO NOT BUY IT, PLEASE! If you still don't believe what I've spent all this time saying, go rent it. But I guarantee you won't like it!

Final Score: 4.4

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 08/07/00, Updated 08/07/00