Come see what the buzz is about...
The first thing I noticed about Buck Bumble when I turned it on was the fact that it was unlike any other game I had ever played. Think Rogue Squadron meets Jet Force Gemini meets an updated version of Centipede, and you'd be on the right track. Although it is obvious from the get-go that the paper-thin plot is merely a contrivance to move the game along, Buck Bumble is one of those games where that's okay, because no one really cares about the plot anyway. Buck Bumble is all about indiscriminately destroying everything in the level with extreme prejudice, using increasingly big guns that cause increasingly big explosions to take down increasingly big enemies. Sound fun? It is.
Another element of Buck Bumble that serves to make it worth playing is its surprisingly long single-player campaign, which is where you'll spend most of your time since the multiplayer is patently uninspired compared to other shooters on the N64. In fact, at several points in the game, I thought I had certainly just beat the final boss, only to be faced with the mission briefing for yet another intense level. Of course, considering today's abundance of five-hour-long shooters, it was nice to play one that lasted more than twenty hours for a change, especially one that cost me under ten dollars used on Amazon.com. Yeah, check it out.
Of course, such a long game squeezed onto a Nintendo 64 cartridge means that cuts had to have been made somewhere. However, despite what many people say about the game, the cuts were not made in graphical detail. Buck and his surrounding environments, while not the best looking polygons the 64 has to offer, are fairly well detailed, with several nice touches, especially when it comes to the weapon effects. None of the various weapons look the same when they fire; from the thin beam of the sniper rifle, to the exaggerated explosions of the tri-rocket launcher, each of the weapons are distinctive, an amazing feat in a game with such variety in weaponry.
Unfortunately, it becomes quickly obvious to the player where the cuts were made to allow the cartridge format to hold this huge game: in the view distance. Many reviews of this game have pointed out its egregious use of the 64's infamous fog effect, and this review will be no different. However, the only real frustrations it caused me personally were the times I was shot down by an enemy I could not see, and those instances were rare. In all reality, the fog is a worthwhile trade-off when you consider the nice length of the game; of all the places the cuts could have been made, Argonaut certainly chose the best one, allowing gamers to finally experience a solid shooter at a decent price that would not be shelved after just one weekend of play. However, if you are the type of player that cannot stand anything less than a ten-mile viewing distance in all directions, be forewarned--this game is not for you.
The only other department in which Buck Bumble comes up lacking is in the audio. Although the weapons and their effects are varied, there is very little difference in how they sound. The small guns all make the same wimpy noise; the repeaters make that noise at a much faster rate; and the big guns all make the same loud boom, with little to no variation. Also, the music could have been better. The menu music becomes grating really quickly, and the in game music is low-key and often unnoticeable over the loud weapon noises (actually a blessing in disguise, since the music is the same from mission to mission, and would get old fast if it were any louder).
All in all, Buck Bumble is a worthy purchase for any gamer who still owns an N64 and craves something unique to play on it. While it is far from perfect, it is still a solid shooter that holds up well against similar offerings like Rogue Squadron. What it lacks in one department, it makes up for in another, resulting in a fine game to round out any Nintendo 64 game collection.