"The only buzz...is the cool silver cart."

When I first laid my eyes on this cart, I figured that I had something that was not a regular game and that there was something to it more than the silver covered cart was saying. Spending the five bucks on it, I grabbed it and headed home, wondering just what it was that I found and if there was something to it other than a cutesy game. However, what I found was a game that was so cute, it nearly made me choke on all of the wholesome goodness that it presented to me. Bee 52 is not your standard game and is rather a game that doesn’t quite have an equal in the NES library.

As one of the more difficult to find pirate carts, this is not a licensed game from Nintendo and is rather a pirate game from Taiwan created by Camerica. Most of the Camerica games are not endorsed by Nintendo, but their existence is still undeniable when you happen to come across one of the strange looking carts. Something that is most notable about a game such as this is the fact that it has a dip-switch on the underside of the cart that allows you to find the right programming to play the game on your NES. If you’re looking to collect games, then this is going to be one of those collectors items that is hard to find and even harder to understand.

Bee 52 is a standard action game that attempts to be a platform game in the process by using an insect creature to harvest honey for a hive. In your attempts to harvest this honey, you will have to avoid all sorts of different obstacles in the forms of spiders, bees and ants as well as the occasional water sprinkler. Once you’ve gotten the gist of the game down and realize that you’re working against the clock, then you might find that this game is just too simple to take seriously. One or two-players can play through this side scrolling adventure though it is definitely geared towards a younger audience.

Bee can do several different things while moving through the various stages and you’ll have to learn what attacks are more effective for the insects you encounter. Most of the time you’ll be left to fend for yourself and move through the obstacles, trying to avoid getting yourself killed. The combat portion of the game revolves around either spitting at your enemies or stinging them to death with the stinger weapon. Once you have the hang of the stinger and the spit as well as the ability to know which of the attacks is more effective than the other on different enemies, then you’ll be in great shape to play.

The stinger weapon is your most effective tool and you’ll know what enemies will be more susceptible to its effects and which of the enemies will be more effected by the spitting. From time to time, you will be able to acquire a different weapon which clears the screen of enemies and is especially helpful if you are cornered and can’t really move too quick. Something else that I found about the game is that the speed of it is unbalanced and tends to either move too slow or too fast depending on the situation. This can be an annoyance when you’ve collected the honey from flowers and are heading back only to run into an enemy you can’t avoid.

Controlling the Bee really isn’t all that difficult and you might find that the simplest way to play this game is to completely forget how to play a platform game. You have no jumping ability and spend ninety percent of the time simply flying through the stage and collecting honey from various flowers. Once you have a good idea as to where to go and what to do, it is a simple execution of flying that will get you safely back to the hive. Remember that you only have three lives to do this in and the hour glass is always moving, regardless of what you might be doing.

Bee 52 is a game that is full of bright colors and outdoor stages with plenty of detail to everything that you run into. The enemies and the obstacles that get in your way are everyday creatures and items that you would find out in your backyard. While I was hoping for something a little more interesting than cute fat spiders and the occasional ant rampaging back and forth, I was greeted with more of the same in each of the stages that I played. Once you’ve seen the first three stages and the animations of each enemy in the game, then you’ve pretty much seen everything that the game has to offer you.

The music selection here furthers my belief that the game is certainly directed towards a younger audience simply because the game has little or no serious tone to it. Each of the stages has the same music that is randomized with a slightly different tone and the sound effects tend to be the same as well. Once you’ve gotten used to the idea that this is a kids game, you might find that there is little hope for something more instrumental. This is not to say that the selection is bad, because it definitely follows the theme of a flying bee looking to collect honey. However, this type of music is not my cup of tea and find it somewhat repulsive to my own ears.

Bee 52 is not a bad game, but it isn’t what I thought that it would be when I picked it up. From a collectors stand point, this is one of the game that you will definitely need for your collection if you’re lucky enough to find it. However, there are portions of this game that really needed some serious tweaks in order to get the respect of older gamers. While the game play can be just slightly fun, the point of moving from stage to stage collecting honey and avoiding large, cute looking bugs just seems to be lost on me. In the long run, the only buzz about Bee 52 is the fact that it comes in a rare cart and is a rare game for the collection.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/28/03