Some people might say that any game featuring a half-grub, half-dog character named "Maggot Dog" and a funky fly named "Superfly" can't be all bad. And though these colorful little guys provide a bright spot in the otherwise dull Bug Too!, even they can't save the day - or the game.
The original Bug! was one of the first 32-bit platform games, adding a third dimension a very 2-D genre. Like its predecessor, Bug Too! suffers from a poor incorporation of a 3-D element, which causes a lot of undue frustration when the player tries to jump off a platform in one direction only to run into an invisible wall. This then forces the player to try jumping off in all directions until he finds the one actually leading somewhere. This "forced path" gameplay grows tiresome extremely quickly.
Bug Too!'s levels are each based on a different movie, with levels based on Evil Dead 2 (Weevil Dead 2), Independence Day (Antennae Day), Lawrence of Arabia (Lawrence of Arachnia), and others. Not a horrible idea, but some of the levels are a real stretch. Don't expect a dead-on parody - these levels bear little or no resemblance to the movies they're based on. The choice of films is far hipper than Spot Goes To Hollywood, but the game doesn't play much better.
The sound in Bug Too! is tolerable. The music gets a little annoying, but the sound effects are nice, particularly the moaning of ghosts in the Weevil Dead 2 level. Maggot Dog and Superfly make some interesting comments, ranging from "That's fly!" to "Bow wow wow yippie yo yippie yay." They're hip and irreverent characters, but their banter isn't enough to save this title.
Bug Too! is a game for the few people out there that enjoyed the first Bug! (all six of you should drop what you're doing and buy this game - you're bound to love it). The rest of us will be over here playing Sonic 3D Blast, which is a much better platform game, makes much better use of 3-D, and is infinitely more enjoyable.
