Buck Bumble

"Think Jet Force Gemini, minus the fun, plus some bad graphics"

Well, well. An interesting little title, no? You control a bee, but not just any bee, a super killer robotic bee. You must kill all these nuclear evil bugs, I think, it's been so long since I watched the beginning movie. To put it plainly, this game has a strange, yet promising premise; it's original, it's kind of cool, and it sounds like fun. Despite the non-epic story, you get a good feeling blasting away those bugs. Basically you control Buck, a bionically enhanced bee fully equipped with weapons powerful enough to blow up even the largest of beetles. It sounds simple enough, and it is, but this title is still worth a week or two of play.

GAMEPLAY: 6/10

Fun, yes, but a tad boring after a short while. You fly around and kill bugs trying to take over a garden. Along the way you must also trigger switches, find power ups, and avoid whatever the enemies throw at you. The gameplay is greatly simplified by the fact that enemies basically stay in one spot, save the wasps. You can fly in, take a few shots to damage it, then fly off before the stupid thing even knows what hit it. Using these cheap tactics you can win quite easily. Not too hard stuff here.

The game is complicated by a couple of factors, however; first off, Buck is very difficult to control. Making him go, do a 180 degrees turn, and even aim right make up half the challenge of the entire game. Some may try the controls and love them, but personally I can't stand them at all. The second thing that gives the game some challenge is the fact that you are timed in some levels. However, there are only about 2 or 3 of these levels in the whole game, so basically it isn't too hard. Another difficult task worth mentioning is that occasionally you are asked to pick up a bomb and place it on a safe detonation platform. Due to the crappy controls, this adds quite a lot of frustration, given the fact that these bombs are proximity, and a slight jolt sets them off.

GRAPHICS: 5/10

Basically, we have here a game with low polygon everything, textures that can pretty much be done with the PSX, and enough fogginess that seeing ten feet ahead of Buck is almost impossible. The only cool effect is where you kill these crane bugs and they explode. It looks neat. Besides that, you'd better just expect the worst as to avoid disappointment.

Audio: 6/10

Besides the very cool theme music, all you have here is a beat. the music on every stage is missing actual instruments. There is the beat of a drum, and that's just about it. It might make nice dance music, but it's totally inappropriate for the atmosphere of the game. I give it the audio a 6 out of 10 due to the theme song alone. (Seriously, you gotta hear it)

Final: 6/10

Average game, above average idea. Before I had even heard of this game, I had always thought of how cool it would be to have a game where you control a bug in a normal sized world. This game hardly fits the emptiness I though it would fill. Oh well.

Buck Ball is a fun little multi-player game; you and a friend are in a giant soccer field, and you have to use your guns to propel the ball into the opposing goal. Most of the game is spent killing your opponent, however, even though it doesn't get you any points. You can also play the classic multi-player where the object is to kill your opponent. For one reason or the other, this just isn't that fun.

The final package is just a mediocre game that isn't worth any more than 15 dollars. Luckily I got mine for 6 dollars brand new; I feel I got a good deal, but I certainly wouldn't pay any more than that for it. Rent this game if you want a little fun that lasts for a few days, but don't buy the game unless you've tried it.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/07/02, Updated 10/07/02