Banzai Bug

Banzai Bug is a game in which the player controls Banzai Bug, to escape the house of an exterminator.[3] The story, narrated by an older Banzai "as a grandfather's war story", involves Banzai, while vacationing from the countryside, surfing the wind in front of a moving car until he hits the car's grille, which eventually stops in the exterminator's garage.[4][5] Banzai needs to fly underneath furniture and travel through air ducts while avoiding people, shooting robot bugs, and looking for food.[2] Other threats are guns named Static Spitters, flying robots named Attack Spitters, machines named Zappers that shoot lightning bolts, and Biggies who are humans that can only be driven away.[6] The house is reminiscent of a mixture between The Jetsons and Pablo Picasso paintings. The game includes the sound of "metallic dings and dizzying twitters" whenever Banzai crashes.[2]

Characters that Banzai meets during his quest to escape include a small insect named Poolio who has a Cheech Marin accent and uses one-liners. The video game has 360-degree 3-D views and movement that was made using DirectX.[2] The game has seven levels with the first one taking place in the garage and allowing the player to learn how to properly fly.[7][8] A joystick with three buttons is an option to control Banzai.[8] There are three flying modes which are the look-around, helicopter for collecting items, and plane as a normal flight system.[9] The player can choose between a plain appearance and one that is more complex. The size of the screen can be changed along with the colors, music, and other details.[8] Banzai has to search for items which will allow him to build an anti-human weapon named a Stinkulator so that he can escape.[10][7] Each mission includes animated scenes.[10]

Banzai Bug was created as "The Flight-Sim with an Attitude".[2] It was published by Grolier for Microsoft Windows 95. The game requires a microprocessor of Pentium 90 or newer on Windows 95 with 8 megabytes of RAM.[2] The music was recorded by New Dog Music. Paul Goodwin of New Dog Music said that they "recorded a full 11-piece big band doing eight original songs."[1]

Next Generation reviewed the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Banzai Bug is a cute game that is deceptively deep. While it has clearly been aimed and marketed toward a younger audience, many missions are very reminiscent of X-Wing."[3] PCMag wrote that the game has "very cool 3-D graphics" that "adds a solid visual punch to a very enjoyable game."[14] Billboard stated that the game is "an innovative and fun title."[10] Scott A. May of Computer Gaming World said, "Despite the funky controls and slightly repetitive gameplay, Banzai Bug has enough originality and offbeat style to be declared a winner."[7]

Andy Grieser of Fort Worth Star-Telegram said, "This ultra-cartoon setting is fine for younger players, but older pilots will long for the smooth polygon textures of other games."[9] Brian Pipa, writing for The Adrenaline Vault, concluded his review with "All things considered, the game falls short. The whole wise-cracking bug theme, harassing the Biggies, and making a Stinkulator is just too "cutesy" for the average gamer and seems to be geared more toward the younger gamer, but the difficulty of the missions is too much for a younger player."[6] Craig Majaski of World Village said, "Banzai Bug proves that just because a game is semi-original (basically this game is your basic shooter disguised as a kids title) doesn't mean it's any fun."[18] Charlie Brooker said in a PC Zone review that the game "can't fool the kids, who'll merely raise an eyebrow and then return to the gib-heavy action of Quake and company."[13]

• Banzai Bug at MobyGames