The concept of mascot characters for a platform game was a trope throughout the 90's to the point that it became funny. Sonic and Mario dumbed everything down to having a colorful animal character carry a game through success during the 16-bit era. Many weren't even bad games like Aero the Acrobat, just lost in the shuffle. Can't imagine kids goading their parents to Kay*Bee Toys in order to purchase Super Alfred Chicken in 1993. And seriously, Sega, how could you not make Kid Chameleon more of a thing? 

Then there's poor BUG!, a solid platformer that had the unfortunate fate of not being Sonic the Hedgehog. I've mentioned it before here on Retro Reboot, but the Saturn wasn't a console many could identify with, because the face of the Sega didn't have a game. The engine BUG! was built on was going to be a litmus test for how a Sonic the Hedgehog title would run on the Saturn's hardware. I find it morbidly ironic that BUG!s' theme he's a big shot Hollywood star filming a hit, but in the real world this, and its sequel were virtually ignored as fans awaited the franchise character to show up.

BUG!'s play is a pretty straightforward puzzle platformer, BUG! can bounce on enemies' heads to defeat them. BUG! also can acquire power-ups like a Spit (a relatively long-ranged projectile) and Zap (a mildly shorter ranged, but stronger electrical attack) and there are jewels scattered about to collect. Gather 100 of them and you earn an extra life. There's also coins that can be collected that transport you to bonus stages, where you can race Sanic the Hedgehorg.

The Sonic cameo really got people's hopes up, but some of the similarities were there with BUG!. You move in X and Y axises, he only navigates in a grid. 2D platformers from this period haven't aged as well as their 16-bit predecessors, so BUG! isn't a particularly fluid game. Simplistic, but effective. 

Visually is where there's a lot of BUG!'s charm is poignant. Along with Realtime Associates, Silicone Graphics produced the visuals, rendering the models to resemble sprites, very similar to Donkey Kong Country and Clayfighter. This is a look that I miss dearly from this era, almost as much as full motion video. For 20 years, the gamerverse has been comfortable and familiarized with fully rendered 3D environments and character models, so it's tricky to explain how fascinating and unique this visual style was for its time period. I'm not trying to sound like "you had to be there" guy, it was just very cool to take in. 

BUG! felt like a pitch for a cartoon series that never manifested. It boasted an attitude that wasn't as extreme or in-your-face as Earthworm Jim, though it's a little in the same spirit. BUG! certainly looks par for the course of many cartoons around the time, like EEK! The Cat (how often will I get a chance to reference that?) and Rocko's Modern Life. Characters with large eyes and very expressive faces along with an abundance of visual comedy, this would have fit in perfectly on a Saturday morning cartoon block.

If anything was odd is the tv show/movie theme of the game. It had always been speculated amongst parts of the community that Super Mario Bros was a stage play. BUG! literally shows you the set pieces in between worlds, which is creative, but maybe it's just a touch too wall breaking. It's a bizarre kind of in-joke that I'm still trying to figure out to this day. Perhaps i'm putting more thought into that than I should, I've always wondered why. Like, when does my game incentive begin? I'm not really fixated on game stories the way I used to be, so it's totally bizarre that of all the games that have left me with this quandary about video game meta, it's the silly Sega Saturn platformer. I'm going to chalk this up to me having odd priorities.

BUG! was popular enough to get a sequel, BUG TOO!, but this deserved so much better and BUG! should've been a stable representative for Sega. Even Steven Spielberg put him over, stating "...This is the character that is going to do it for the Saturn!" at a CES event in 1995. Sadly, BUG! has not been seen or referenced since, as he was viewed as merely another annoying creature mascot attempt. When I look at the road Gex took (Dana Gould? Ick...), Croc being a non-factor, and Bubsy merely existing, BUG! is the better of the lot. With large levels to explore, decent controls, and vibrant visuals, this is an overlooked Sega Saturn platformer.

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