Banzai Bug

• Title — Banzai Bug • Developer — Gravity • Publisher — Grolier Interactive • Released — December 2, 1996 • Genre — Action • Platforms — Windows

Banzai Bug is a game in which the player controls Banzai Bug, to escape a house that an exterminator has trapped him in. The story, narrated by an older Banzai "as a grandfather's war story", involves Banzai, while vacationing from the countryside, surfing the wind in front of a moving car until he hits the car's grille, which eventually stops in the exterminator's garage. Banzai needs to fly underneath furniture and travel through air ducts while avoiding people, shooting robot bugs, and looking for food. Other threats are guns named Static Spitters, flying robots named Attack Spitters, machines named Zappers that shoot lightning bolts, and Biggies who are humans that can only be driven away. The house is reminiscent of a mixture between The Jetsons and Pablo Picasso paintings. The game includes the sound of "metallic dings and dizzying twitters" whenever Banzai crashes. Characters that Banzai meets during his quest to escape include a small insect named Poolio who has a Cheech Marin accent and uses one-liners. The video game has 360-degree 3-D views and movement that was made using DirectX. The game has seven levels with the first one taking place in the garage and allowing the player to learn how to properly fly. A joystick with three buttons is an option to control Banzai. There are three flying modes which are the look-around, helicopter for collecting items, and plane as a normal flight system. The player can choose between a plain appearance and one that is more complex. The size of the screen can be changed along with the colors, music, and other details. Banzai has to search for items which will allow him to build an anti-human weapon named a Stinkulator so that he can escape. Each mission includes animated scenes. Banzai Bug was created as "The Flight-Sim with an Attitude". It was published by Grolier for Microsoft Windows 95. The game requires a microprocessor of Pentium 90 or newer on Windows 95 with 8 megabytes of RAM. The music was recorded by New Dog Music. Paul Goodwin of New Dog Music said that they "recorded a full 11-piece big band doing eight original songs."