A Bug's Life - NTNDO64.com

Developer: Traveller’s Tales Publisher: Activision

Released: April 30, 1999 Rated: E 5/10

Traveller’s Tales has always had a close relationship with Disney and Pixar, starting out in the mid-’90s with wildly successful adaptations of Toy Story as well as classic Mickey Mouse cartoons with Mickey Mania. While A Bug’s Life can feel like one of Pixar’s lesser-remembered outings nowadays given the studio’s extensive catalog and the numerous box office smashes contained therein, it shouldn’t be understated what a big deal A Bug’s Life was when it originally released as essentially a follow-up to Toy Story, the second feature film from Pixar in an era of much longer production times. In other words, Traveller’s Tales had anything but an easy task with another licensed game in front of them when it came to developing A Bug’s Life, and even more so considering their development was likely split between this and the following year’s Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue, much like the work at Pixar.

Those who have played Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue from late 1999 will feel at home at the very least with the controls and feel of main character Flik, as both games were very clearly developed on the same engine. In fact, a lot about the presentation and layout of these two games is very similar, not that this would be much of a surprise anyway. Kids’ licensed games of the time tend to follow a very straightforward blueprint – 3D action platformer with linear levels, and a boss fight after every three or so. Ultimately something you can roll credits on in about three hours, with the option to replay for all the collectibles in each level but no real incentive to do so. Flik can jump and throw berries for a ranged attack, but whereas Toy Story 2 is more objective focused, with players earning tokens for each task they complete in a level, A Bug’s Life is much more about reaching the end of the level, with some light puzzle elements as the main challenge throughout.

Terrifying shot of Kevin Spacey taunting you upon failure.

The gameplay differences are pretty much built around a central mechanic where Flik uses seeds found around each area by turning them into various types of platforms and tools to overcome platforming obstacles. Some are stuck in place while others can be picked up and carried to their desired location, and each can subsequently be turned into a variety of plants like a mushroom to bounce on, a dandelion to glide on the seeds of, or a multi-leveled leafy plant to get even higher than your bouncing/jumping as long as you upgrade it to full growth. Other powerups affect your berries, making them able to take down stronger enemies in your way and even home in on them automatically, and in some levels you can use Flik’s harvester from the film to mow down enemies like Doom Guy. Ultimately, though, none of these make A Bug’s Life very interesting or challenging for an experienced player, meaning that this is clearly a game almost exclusively for the young ones.

Obviously, that’s not a criticism in and of itself – I wouldn’t fault Tigger’s Honey Hunt or the Elmo games also on the N64 for reserving their appeal for their target audience. It’s just that it’s a tale as old as time in that plenty of games are appropriate and accessible by all players, and this one doesn’t break that glass ceiling. Puzzles barely qualify as such, fighting enemies is largely just button mashing to lob more projectiles at them before they can touch you, and avoiding those same enemies is a bit of a crapshoot nonetheless as many of them just sort of pop into frame when you approach anyway. Levels are either pretty straightforward start to finish or fall into the trap of presenting like a maze, but really just need you to go down path B in order to have the item needed to proceed down path A. The appearance of a puzzle-based platformer where Flik uses his different series of powerups and items as the ambitious inventor to progress on his journey is a great interpretation of the film’s plot on paper, but is dumbed down far too much to deliver on it. And it’s not much to write home about as a collection-focused title, either, with the challenge of collecting all 50 seeds, gold berry tokens, or the letters in Flik’s name in each level being pretty much pointless and only unlocking a short movie clip.

“You look out at this wasteland, looks like chaos. But there’s always somebody behind the wheel.”

Although neither game uses the Expansion Pak, A Bug’s Life also falls short of its companion, Toy Story 2, in all around graphics and presentation, largely due to not having the same level of iconic visual assets or music to work with. Even with Randy Newman also writing music for the film just like he did for Toy Story, there’s not much to draw from in the same way as “You’ve Got a Friend In Me” and, while A Bug’s Life has a stellar cast including Dave Taylor, Madeline Kahn, and Richard Kind, et. al., there’s naturally no real place for their work to come through in the low storage space of an N64 cartridge. If you’re a huge fan of the film, you might get some more out of this game than the average person, but are just as likely to be let down that it’s simply not engaging for the vast majority of its potential audience, and understandably lacks the lasting appeal that many other Disney adaptations of the decade do.

Continuing Legacy

I often wonder if the legacy of the film altogether is diminished intentionally by its enduring message – “Those puny little ants outnumber us a hundred to one, and if they ever figure that out, there goes our way of life!” – but it’s just as likely that future successes from Pixar including Cars, Ratatouille, and Finding Nemo have simply overshadowed it. As for the game, the lack of an enduring franchise for the film naturally translates to little impact for the game adaptation, though it is to be included in an upcoming collection, Disney/Pixar Toy Story: Retro Roundup, and is the only game in the collection to not include Toy Story in its title.