Pap the
Disney Gamer's Highlights: A
Bug's Life
Developed by: Traveller's Tales
Systems:
PlayStation, Nintendo 64
On my first
visit to Walt Disney World in
July, the very first park I
visited was Disney's Animal
Kingdom. In there I made my own
personal Disney history by
making It's Tough to be a Bug
the very first Disney
attraction I ever experienced.
In honor of that great first
timer memory, I will be
highlighting A Bug's Life: The
Video Game for the PlayStation
and Nintendo 64.

A Bug's Life,
the film, was released in 1998
and was the second film Pixar
made after the groundbreaking
success of Toy Story in 1995.
Luckily for the animation
studio, the film not only
received a big push from Disney,
it was widely accepted by film
critics and audiences alike. In
the wake of its release, A
Bug's Life has received
countless pieces of merchandise
and representation across the
Disney universe, such as whole
themed land at Disney's
California Adventure, the
aforementioned attraction at
Animal Kingdom, and the subject
of this article, the video game.

A Bug's Life was
first released on the
PlayStation around the same time
as the movie. In terms of
gameplay, A Bug's Life is a
standard 3D platformer. Playing
as Flik, you complete missions
within various levels, all based
on key segments from the movie,
such as collecting food for the
grasshoppers, finding the
warrior bugs, and many more. In
order to defend yourself from
enemies, you can collect
different berries. You will also
be collecting letters that spell
the word 'FLIK' and seed grains,
presenting a proud tradition of
classic platformers of the 80s
and 90s. Finally, you would
encounter bosses based on some
of the biggest confrontations in
the movie, including the
infamous bird and Hopper
himself.

The Nintendo 64
version was released a year
later, around the same time as
the VHS and DVD release of the
film. The two games were
identical gameplay wise, but the
PlayStation version of the game
featured film clips that told
the story in between levels and
had higher quality sound. The
Nintendo 64 version, in spite of
FMV clips of the movie and CD
quality sound, had better
graphics and more polished
gameplay.
Speaking of its
technical capabilities, A Bug's
Life looks pretty decent. Of
course, it doesn't rival or
surpass the beauty of the
original film due to the systems
and their technical prowess. But
the familiar elements of the
film, such as Ant Island and the
characters themselves, are
recognizable. The PlayStation
version had a lower polygon
count but was crisper and moved
faster, whereas the Nintendo 64
version had better graphics, but
moved slower.

Setting aside
how the two compare
technologically, how were they
received? Very poorly,
unfortunately. The PlayStation
version received the worst
reviews of the two versions,
whlie the Nintendo 64 version
received slightly better
reviews. Yet, even with all of
that, I enjoyed playing the game
on my Nintendo 64 back in the
day. Maybe it was the charm of
the film making it more
appealing, but I look at this
game and it brings me back to
the late 90s.
If you are
feeling like me and want to play
this game to relive both the
movie and the game, it can be
easily downloaded through Sony's
PlayStation Store. You can buy
the game for both the
PlayStation Portable and
PlayStation 3. Based on the
footage I have seen it is a
perfect emulation of the game,
with all the film footage and
other extras intact.
If I were to sum
up the game as a whole, I would
use this quote from It's
Tough to be a Bug...

Well, it still has a few bugs in
it, but that's our show
Yeah, A Bug's
Life: The Game may be far from
perfect, but it is worth trying
out at least once. Disney
Interactive Studios would
release far superior Pixar based
games later on (such as the
recent Toy Story 3), so things
did get better from there.