A Review: Buck Bumble, N64 1998
Buck Bumble is an action-adventure game developed for the Nintendo 64 by Argonaut Software and published by Ubisoft. In this game, the player assumes the role of Buck Bumble, a cybernetically enhanced volunteer bumblebee, as he goes up against a group of super mutant insects known as the 'Herd', who are trying to take over the world. This game was originally released with its own special rumble pack in the U.K. that had colours matching those of Buck. There were high hopes for this title, as it was worked on by the same company that worked on the NES Starfox game.
Hrmmmmm, I'm not sure about this game, to be honest; it wasn't something that I would have normally played, and I felt that it lacked a strong direction. However, I still did enjoy playing through this one for the most part, and at times I did find myself having much more fun than I would have expected at the start. The plot was pretty good; I will freely admit that, and I liked the simple mission layouts and scripts. I'm just not sure if this game wanted to be a shooter with flying elements or if it wanted to be a traditional platformer. This is something that I found to be an issue as the game progressed, as it seemed to lose itself somewhat towards the end. Still, I can't say that I hated this game, just that I really wasn't sure about it. The overall gameplay was fairly consistent and stable, and I never had any major issues with lag, frame rate drops, etc. I liked the simple and easy-to-work-with controls, but I did find that they were far too sensitive for the more precise sections of the game. The all-or-nothing between inputs frustrated me, and I fell off of platforms and landing points a little too often to ignore. The lack of player controls for the camera was very annoying, and it made navigating some areas of the world so much harder than it really should have been. Not being able to move the camera so that you could better align a jump or flight path just hurts this game, in my opinion. There was a serious issue with clipping too, and so many times I saw an enemy fly straight through an object or wall. This wasn't something limited to the computer either, as I fell through the world more than once during my playthrough, only to die and have to restart. There was a serious lack of player aids in the aiming department too. Trying to actually hit an opponent was a problem for me, and it took much more effort than I thought was really needed. I did very much like the music and thought that it was well timed and that it added to the play rather than take away. The other sounds and audio were crisp and clean, and I liked that you could make out the lyrics to the various songs rather than hearing a muffled mess.
The visuals for Buck Bumble were something of a letdown in my mind. They were very cartoony and were constant tiles of the same textures over and over again. There was very little variety, and this made the worlds and environments look bland and dull. The fog in-game was also a little heavy-handed, in my opinion, and blocked the player from seeing much of anything from a distance. This made having to fly around searching for things far too common, which in turn hurt the pacing and gameplay. I thought that Buck's model was also rather boring, and it seemed to be squared off in places that shouldn't have been squared. Enemies also had this issue, and some of them were just plain ugly overall. I didn't rate the colour choices that highly either and thought that the bright and overly contrasting colours hurt the eyes after a while. The user interface was very basic and looked like something I would have expected from a home developer, not an actual professional company. The weapon usage, general movements, and AI animations were okay, but nothing that fantastic, to be fair.
Overall, this was a game that left me somewhat conflicted, as I liked the concept and gameplay but felt that it lacked a lot of polish and balancing. Still, if you want a simple game to burn a few hours away, you could do much worse than Buck Bumble.
P.S. I loved the music for this game.
6/10 – Good Fun!
Signed Off – Leonardo – PSJ
Hrmmmmm, I'm not sure about this game, to be honest; it wasn't something that I would have normally played, and I felt that it lacked a strong direction. However, I still did enjoy playing through this one for the most part, and at times I did find myself having much more fun than I would have expected at the start. The plot was pretty good; I will freely admit that, and I liked the simple mission layouts and scripts. I'm just not sure if this game wanted to be a shooter with flying elements or if it wanted to be a traditional platformer. This is something that I found to be an issue as the game progressed, as it seemed to lose itself somewhat towards the end. Still, I can't say that I hated this game, just that I really wasn't sure about it. The overall gameplay was fairly consistent and stable, and I never had any major issues with lag, frame rate drops, etc. I liked the simple and easy-to-work-with controls, but I did find that they were far too sensitive for the more precise sections of the game. The all-or-nothing between inputs frustrated me, and I fell off of platforms and landing points a little too often to ignore. The lack of player controls for the camera was very annoying, and it made navigating some areas of the world so much harder than it really should have been. Not being able to move the camera so that you could better align a jump or flight path just hurts this game, in my opinion. There was a serious issue with clipping too, and so many times I saw an enemy fly straight through an object or wall. This wasn't something limited to the computer either, as I fell through the world more than once during my playthrough, only to die and have to restart. There was a serious lack of player aids in the aiming department too. Trying to actually hit an opponent was a problem for me, and it took much more effort than I thought was really needed. I did very much like the music and thought that it was well timed and that it added to the play rather than take away. The other sounds and audio were crisp and clean, and I liked that you could make out the lyrics to the various songs rather than hearing a muffled mess.
The visuals for Buck Bumble were something of a letdown in my mind. They were very cartoony and were constant tiles of the same textures over and over again. There was very little variety, and this made the worlds and environments look bland and dull. The fog in-game was also a little heavy-handed, in my opinion, and blocked the player from seeing much of anything from a distance. This made having to fly around searching for things far too common, which in turn hurt the pacing and gameplay. I thought that Buck's model was also rather boring, and it seemed to be squared off in places that shouldn't have been squared. Enemies also had this issue, and some of them were just plain ugly overall. I didn't rate the colour choices that highly either and thought that the bright and overly contrasting colours hurt the eyes after a while. The user interface was very basic and looked like something I would have expected from a home developer, not an actual professional company. The weapon usage, general movements, and AI animations were okay, but nothing that fantastic, to be fair.
Overall, this was a game that left me somewhat conflicted, as I liked the concept and gameplay but felt that it lacked a lot of polish and balancing. Still, if you want a simple game to burn a few hours away, you could do much worse than Buck Bumble.
P.S. I loved the music for this game.
6/10 – Good Fun!
Signed Off – Leonardo – PSJ
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