RETRO REBOOT | BUG! (Sega Saturn)

• Developer: Realtime Associates

• Published by: Sega

• Release Date: July 1995 (NA) September 1995 (EU) December 1995 (JP)

I may be a broken record and might've mentioned it before, the Sega Saturn is probably my favorite video game system of all time. Its run in the United States was seemingly doomed right from the get-go. That story is incredibly complex and far too deep to get into on this little editorial. But if there was anything the console lacked that may have curbed some of the bleeding was a game from a certain blue speedy Erinaceinae that had put Sega on the map.

While I don't think a Sonic game would have saved the Saturn from cratering in the United States, I can understand why the popular character's absence was missed. With Sonic X-treme muddled in development purgatory, it was up to other ideas from Sega to throw their hats into the ring, like the generally...okay...Clockwork Knight. And the subject of this week's review, BUG!, a curious piece of work that has some spunk to it, but is held back by some key fundamentals.

BUG! may have been the first time I ever heard the term "2.5D", and I guess I kinda got the concept of utilizing 3D visuals with 2D movement. BUG!, along with the aforementioned Clockwork Knight, followed in the footsteps of Donkey Kong Country's pre-rendered graphics, which I think still looks dynamic. When it comes to the graphics, BUG! boasts a lot of color and vibrance, I find it one of the more eye-catching games on the Saturn. It can be a little blocky and grainy, but the 2D animation with the 3D environments gave the blueprint for what a Sonic game could have looked like with this production direction. The eponymous BUG! is quite expressive. With his gigantic eyes, bright shows, and over exaggerated animations, he embodied a lot of what the 90's commercial video game mascot template aimed for.

Even though there are instances of pop-in through the horizon, there's a respectably decent amount of draw distance and a sense of depth in the level design. There's no control over the wire camera, it zooms in and out to accommodate the character's position. It can be a little disorienting when it corrects the position every time BUG! jumps or turns around. Not too intrusive, very little in the way of slow-down, and a little artsy. BUG! is very ambitious and certainly has an appeal. The load times can be annoying.

BUG!'s gameplay is alright, even if it does little to bring anything new to the platformer genre. March forth, hop on enemies, reach the end of the level, and proceed. There's extra power-up abilities to add some variety to the action, like projectile spit and a close range zap attack to dispatch opposing barriers.

The biggest weakness is the game's length; each stage is pretty huge, and there's a ton of back-tracking in later levels. It has six worlds total, with three stages for each location but there isn't a save feature or a password system. Playing completely through BUG! in one sitting is quite the endurance test,as the play can get rather monotonous. Boss fights aren't too bad, and there's a plethora of bonus stages to earn extra lives. It just gets taxing after an hour or so.

BUG!'s OST may either drive you crazy, or you get a kick out of it. The music invokes very whimsical 90's energy. It does give it some spirit, but GOD. DAMN. IT. It sounds like the exact same tempo for every stage!! It drones on, making the stages feel even longer. On top of that, BUG!'s quipping can get old. I don't mind it, for the most part. The game just doesn't give a good read on what BUG!'s character is supposed to be. He's an actor, that much is easy to deduce. But it doesn't seem to give me a reason to...care. The creators dipped into the "animal with attitude" aura with him, with all the one-liners he spouts when taking damage, collecting items, or defeating enemies. It's not memorable. But hey, it could be worse. He's nowhere near as annoying as Gex.

BUG! is something that can be enjoyed well enough. It sits right in the middle of the Sega Saturn library; not good enough to be heralded as a must-play, but also not really terrible. An enjoyable enough platform game is one thing, but perhaps a lot of undue pressure was placed on this game. The cameo from Sonic is cute. Buuut it likely just reminded people of another character's game they'd rather play...NiGHTS.