If You Like Throwing Tomatoes, You Might Enjoy this Game (A Bug's Life (PS))

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Product:	A Bug's Life (PS)
Date:	07/02/01 (16 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: challenging puzzles, follows the movie's plot (with a few exceptions, the "grow-a-seed" concept, actual cutscenes from the movie, compatible with the analog controller

Disadvantages: camera can sometimes make you barf, level objectives could have more variety

Gee, lookie here. Here's another one of those movie-based games, that tempt little kiddies to shove their money out of their pockets, and into the developers' pockets. Usually, movie-based games tend to be total flops (like Space Jam the playstation game). They have to be released soon after the movie, the time when the movie is a fad. A Bug's Life, proved me wrong though. Instead of being a total flop, A Bug's Life turned out to be a pretty decent game.

The Story
A Bug's Life follows the movie's actual plot, with few exceptions to make it a video game. JUST in case you didn't watch the movie, here's an introduction:

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Every ant's job is to serve the grasshoppers, led by the notorious grasshopper called Hopper. The grasshoppers go flying around somewhere in the world; An ant however, gathers a huge (well, huge for THEM) piece of grain, lines up, throws the piece of grain unto the Grain pile, then goes back to gather some more. After a few months, the grasshoppers come flying back to gather their grain, while the ants hide in their anthill.

One time though, when the grasshoppers arrive, an inventive ant named Flik (the hero) dropped his *shaking*, motor-driven invention (the harvester) on the grain pile, which every single piece of grain land on a puddle...BAM! No more grain. AFter that, the grasshoppers give them a second chance. The fellow ants get furious, and send Flik away to the City to look for extra bugs to help them (which other ants tried to do but failed to return).
~~~~~~~~~~

The exceptions I was talking about, included fighting bosses that Flik never fought in the movie. They did that to make the game more exciting, with more levels.

Gameplay & Levels
There are 15 levels in A Bug's Life. In each level, you can only play one character: Flik. Most of the levels make you find stuff...like the first level, where you have to find the entrance to the a
nthill. Or the level where you have to find the parts of the mechanical bird. I think the levels could have had more variety, with different things to accomplish.

In each mission, you'll meet your enemy insects. You don't run away from them like cowards. Which brings me to my title...you throw berries (of different colors) at them! You can throw different kinds of berries: the weakest berry is the green one, the strongest one is the golden berry. You look for power-ups (a floating berry in the air), or grow a berry plant and claim your berries from there (more on that later), to throw different kinds of berries. Berries are unlimited and you don't have to spend time looking for berries!

Another thing I ADORE is the "grow-a-seed" concept of the game. In each level, you will big brown seeds. No, you don't carry these seeds and throw it at your enemies. Instead, you grow plants from them. These plants do different things. The mushroom plant acts like a trampoline. There is also a berry plant, that will grow a berry of a certain color (like a plant that grows only violet berries). You have to change a plant's color (like choosing a plant's seed), and then jumping on the seed to make the plant grow.

There is also one level where you can fly using a dandelion flower. The wind blows the dandelion flower, that Flik is holding. (kinda reminds me of Gone with the Wind :), hehe)

The game is a 3D platformer. That means, you can explore the place. It's kind of like Spyro the dragon, and definitely not Crash Bandicoot. The puzzles are incredibly easy in the first level, and get harder as you go further in the game.

There are also secrets in the game. You can collect an F, then an L, then an I, and then a K to spell Flik. If you spell Flik, (I'm not sure) you get a free cutscene that you can view anytime.

Controls
The controls are easy, and support the analog controller. It also vi
brates.

Here are the controls:
X = jump
square = throw berry/ carry seed
triangle = change plant's color
X two times = jump-smash

Graphics, Animation & the Camera
The graphics are good stuff. ONLY good. They are nicely textured and detailed. The problem is, the edges can get a little stiff and pretty sharp...take Flik's antenna. Instead of being a curve, his antenna looks like two straight lines. However, I noticed this with most Playstation games. EVEN Medal of Honor, one of the best games with the best graphics for the PSX, suffers this problem (like the German Shepherd dog which is a bit stiff). A Bug's Life's graphics are pretty neat Playstation graphics, and I would give it an 4/5.

Animation can sometimes slow down, especially when you make Flik run. Most of the time it moves fast, but since the environment is so detailed, it can SOMETIMES slow down.

Another nice thing about this movie-based game is that it takes actual scenes from the movie (and the scenes in the movie ARE impressive).

The camera, on the other hand makes me barf (another thing most 3D platform games suffer from). You play from a third-person view, so you see Flik's back. When you turn around, sometimes it takes three seconds before the camera can show you Flik's back again. On the other hand, if you just move Flik a little, the camera moves too much, and too fast...so you get dizzy.

Sound
The music is taken from the movie. I like the music a lot. It's fully orchestrated and crystal clear. The voice acting is also great. In the middle of the level, Flik tends to say things with feelings. Sometimes he could say in a nervous, whining tone..."Are we there yet?" Or he could say in a heroic voice, "To the Riverbed and beyond!"

Oh well, that's it
Overall, the gameplay and sound is what A Bug's Life excels in. I enjoyed this game very much. I would Highl
y Recommend it to the people who love "family games" and puzzle games.

For the people who are into thrilling, bloodcurdling, scary games like Resident Evil or hardcore action gamers who like Metal Gear Solid -- sadly, this won't be the game for you. It might be boring for you, because A Bug's life is just full of no-gore puzzles and is meant to be a game for the whole family.

Summary: