YMMV / Bug! (1995)

• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • The Knight at the end of Weevil Dead 2 Scene 3 is extremely tiny and goes splat when the player character literally walks on him. He's sandwiched between Act 2's Knight and the world's boss, both of whom are rather formidable.
  • The two mummies in Lawrence of Arachnia, although the thin mummy can be considered a Goddamned Boss. Balanced by the fact that it's the longest level around bar none.
• Awesome Music: The boss theme.
• Breather Boss: The giant horned lizard in Reptilia can be beaten without taking damage as long as Bug stands all the way to the right side atop of the right catapult during its attack phases. The previous boss is a Wake-Up Call Boss giant snail while the swamp worm boss after that is That One Boss.
• Contested Sequel: While many people consider Bug Too! inferior to the original, there's also a good number that feel it was better. Either way, most people feel that both games have aged very poorly despite being fairly good as 3D games for their day.
• Demonic Spiders: While most of the enemies are generally harmless or annoying, there are a few that stand out as actually being dangerous.
  • Insectia Scene 3 has the praying mantises. As soon as they see Bug get near, they start clawing about in a frenzy, making it near-impossible for Bug to jump on them without taking damage. If you try to approach them from the back, they turn around. And they can last five hits before going down. Thankfully, that's the first and last time you'll be seeing them.
  • Splot has the snails from Insectia... except that they're now Made of Iron (they take the most hits of any normal Mook), and come equipped with a machine gun!
  • Lightning bugs from Splot. They were Airborne Mooks, making it difficult to hit them without spitting at the height of your jump, fired a lightning attack diagonally downwards as they moved making it even trickier to hit, and even with spitting they took 3 hits to die. While it was possible to bypass them without killing them, doing so was very risky thanks to the range of the lightning as well as the area it sweeps to cover.
• Goddamned Bats:
  • Insectia had bees. Aaaargh, Not The Bees! They tend to come in swarms and you have to time your jump exactly when they tried to rush into Bug. Some of them even appear out of nowhere on an otherwise deserted platform! Hope you had the Zap Cap equipped if you took the wrong route in Act 2...
  • Reptilia had Army Ants that fired out bouncy grenades from their tails. Plain annoying when placed at the top of an incline, as Bug would have to avoid the grenades while moving up.
  • Splot had mosquitoes, frogs, and swamp moths. Mosquitoes could take quite a bit of damage, and came in even larger swarms than the bees in Insectia. Frogs would jump around randomly then try to swat Bug with their tongue. Moths would fly in the air towards Bug while spitting a mothball that rolled across the ground, and Bug had to do jump over the mothball while not going too high to bump into the moth.
  • Quaria had starfish. Especially those that came in a neverending stream, bouncing down the inclines.
  • The Burr-ubs had snow fleas. These ANNOYING little buggers would 1. jump out of the snow and throw some ice at Bug before going back in 2. throw aimed snowballs from a distance (and some were placed in the far end of a puzzle area that hadto be completed if you wanted to get to them) 3. roll snowballs continuously until Bug got near, in which case they ran away.
  • Arachnia had spider enemies, the most irritating of which shot bowling balls at Bug. Also, the Mook that kept splitting into two smaller copies each time it was hit could be considered one.
  • While the Bowling Ball Larvae in Weevil Dead 2 were The Goomba of the game, they could only be harmed if they weren't rolling. Otherwise, they were The Spiny — and it so happened that several of them around the three scenes are constantly rolling back and forth a path, turning them into invincible stage hazards that had to be jumped over.
  • Actual Bats (well, mosquitoes acting as vampire bats) in Weevil Dead 2. These guys flew around an area, making it unsafe for Bug to jump in those areas. Worse still, they were completely invincible.
  • Scarab Beetles in Lawrence of Arachnia Scene 1. They swoop at the player character in the most inopportune moments, making them extremely hard to hit or avoid.
  • Amazons in Lawrence of Arachnia. They chuck spears at the player character from afar, and if they're nearby they charge at him while stabbing a few times with their spear. When they're doing this attack animation, trying to Goomba Stomp them will get the player character hurt instead. Thankfully, they only take one hit to die.
• Goddamned Boss: The thin mummy in Lawrence of Arachnia wasn't exactly very tough, but he had a limited Boss Vulnerability time. Firstly, he tended to run away from the player, and when the player character caught up to him when he wasn't moving, he'd retaliate with a kick that would hurt the player instead if they tried to Goomba Stomp him during the animation, forcing the player to bait him before attacking. When the player did damage him he'd then run off and do a jumping kick attack or do a spin kick upwards (both would hurt the player) making it hard to land consecutive stomps.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Reptilia (the western desert stage) has green chameleons (for some reason) as well as cowboy rattlesnakes. 16 years later, we have Rango and Rattlesnake Jake.
  • As noted in Contested Sequel above, some people believe that the second game is not as well received as the first. What makes this hilarious is that the games are supposed to be movies in-universe, and sequels very rarely measure up to the original film.
• It's Hard, So It Sucks!: One of the reasons why those on the "hate it" side give as their reason for not liking the game. In particular, several people were unable to get past the bubble jumping section of Splot Scene 1.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Played a part in Bug Too being less well received when it came out. Bug was a fairly impressive game in 1995 as it was one of the earliest 3D platformers, but by the time Bug Too was released, there were 3D platformers that were far more impressive. Bug Too didn't do enough to keep up, and the flaws became more glaring over time, despite some minor refinements such as a run button and the ability to hover giving you better control.
• Most Wonderful Sound: BUUUUUUG JUUUUUUUICE!!! Note that Bug doesn't say this, it's the announcer who does.
• Narm: The Abominable Snowbug in the PC version had its roar changed into something that sounded like a man having sex.
• Once Original, Now Common: When Bug! first came out in 1995, it was considered very impressive and opened to several glowing reviews thanks to being one of the first 3D-esque platformers and the first 3D platformer on the Sega Saturn. Neither Bug! nor its sequel have aged well at all thanks to several far more impressive 3D games being developed (such as Crash Bandicoot and especially Super Mario 64) that far surpassed them both on a technical and game design level. This contributes to the game being seen as inferior rather than ground-breaking, as without the innovativeness being factored in, its various flaws are far more apparent.
• Polished Port: The PC version of Bug!, released in 1996, was a slight improvement over the Saturn original. It had better graphics, a much more forgiving save system, and an upgraded (ie. less MIDI-like) soundtrack. Unfortunately, the game is also prone to crashing in random spots when played on more modern hardware, even on later versions of Windows 95.
• That One Boss:
  • The swamp worm from Splot. Bug was on a floating platform for almost the entire battle, and getting hit even once would cause him to be knocked backwards, very likely off the platform and subsequently into the water for a watery death. Halfway through, you'll have to board an even smaller platform than the initial one, making death certain if Bug took damage meaning that there was almost no room for error after this. The boss' Super Spit attack had to be dodged perfectly, and the player had to Goomba Stomp it correctly without letting momentum throw them off course from the platform or else it's one life lost and having to do over half of the boss fight again.
  • In Bug Too, the boss of Swatterworld continuously spawns in a huge amount of mooks resulting in you becoming overwhelmed incredibly quickly if you don't finish him off fast. And if you defeat the boss? You can still get killed by the mooks and lose the fight if they kill you before the boss's death animation is finished.
• That One Level: Again, Splot. It's filled with several durable Goddamned Bats and Demonic Spiders, the swamp water was an instant kill even with Mercy Invincibility, and there were several tough platforming sections that spelled certain doom if you mistimed your step/jump. In particular the first act has a section where Bug has to jump from bubbles moving up and down over a Bottomless Pit. You have to time your jump exactly, otherwise you will fall to your death. There are eight jumps in all, and good luck making that last one. Finally, the world ends with the most frustrating boss in the game that will eat through several lives.

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