That Steven Spielberg quote is actually real, but it was not said in regards to Bug!. That was Mr Spielberg's reaction after playing Pebble Beach Golf Links.
I can understand why 90s gamers lost their minds over Bug and gave it high review scores, because I saw Bug on an in-store Sega Saturn demo kiosk in 1995, and it turned my world upside down. It looked unbelievable. Long after we left the store, I was still thinking about it.
The "quote" has been removed from Wikipedia. :) STILL WORKING ON SEGA RALLY in case you were wondering. Thanks for watching. This comment was heavily edited, the original was a comment about the then upcoming live premiere of this video.
Really enjoyed your virtua cop vid lasted me a few days you seem to have slowed down with your uploads your not thinking about giving up are you?I hope not as I am running out of your videos to watch really appreciate all the hard work your putting in brings back loads of memories from when I had my Saturn I really enjoyed Saturn bomber man with it's 10 player windscreen mode 😊
I love how your reviews are more so full on documentaries rather than actual reviews. Not that you don't have good critical analysis of games, but that your reviews are so much more than just critical analysis. Going on a 5 minute tangent about Spielberg's false quote is just a single example of how in depth an interesting your reviews are.
I've always been curious if Bug! had any influence on Sonic Xtreme, as a lot of Sonic Xtreme's leaked footage looks like Bug! but with a fish eye lens on the camera.
Well, we know now that Real Time was also working on Sonic X-Treme itself at some point. That one build by Real Time that somehow surfaced to the public decades later reused an already existing level (Jade Gully Act 2, if I recall correctly?), had no fisheye lens and used very simplistic run and jump controls, and that was kind of it. I assume that Sega probably asked Real Time to save X-Treme after Sega Technical Institute started struggling on that game, and then that attempt wasn't good enough for one reason or another, or they gave up entirely on it before Real Time could do anything good with it...? Was the Real Time version after the Project Condor phase of Sonic X-Treme failed? (The Project Condor phase was an entirely new 3D game; the version with Sonic as a 3D model (on the Saturn this time, not the 32X)) I do wanna know what's going on with that Real Time version of Sonic X-Treme though. Where did that take place on the timeline of X-Treme versions? Why did it not go through? Guessing isn't good enough when you could theoretically ask the developers themselves.
I feel seen for perhaps the first time in my life. Incredible work my guy. Bug! had an outside influence in my life as a kid, I could not get past the 3rd world no matter how hard I tried and so I sent a literal letter through the actual mail to Sega explaining how unfair I thought the game was. I still have fond thoughts of the game to this day though, it's got that 90s charm to it
Yo, thank you so much for the contribution - and that is incredible that you actually sent a letter to Sega about Bug’s difficulty. (As you should!) The difficulty on many Sega Away Team games is unreasonable.
Dude, I can't stress this enough, your videos are fucking incredible. You deserve like 3000x the views and subs you get. I always look forward to watching these when they drop. May Segata bless you.
It's amazing that I recognized Bug as revolutionary and uninteresting when I was 13 years old. I went straight from being a Sega diehard to a Playstation owner.
i remember not liking it even at around half that age. my biggest curiosity in following this series is eventually pinpointing the last saturn game i got, i really wanna remember what broke me lol
I've never had a Sega console, and have never played the vast majority of the games you're reviewing so I have absolutely no nostalgia towards them whatsoever. And yet I always find myself glued to the screen for each new review, just because they're so fascinating, and well made. Additionally, as someone who's currently working in the games industry, it's really heartwarming to see someone put so much effort into creating content that talks about the industry's history. Kudos to you, Mr. Panda Man
You say that, but it was kind of a big moment in the Saturn press. There had been a lot of criticism about what the Saturn was really capable of by that time, and I remember Sonic World, as it was, getting a lot of attention about its smooth performance, reasonably tight controls and I specifically remember praise about what passed for a transparent water effect. It's a vague memory but I seem to recall some hyperbole from the UK Official Saturn Magazine making comparisons to it being the Saturn's first true moment to show something that could rival Super Mario 64. Which was indeed a reach, but probably a slightly more relevant remark to the European audience, saying as the N64 and Mario 64 didn't launch here until March 1997, so Sonic Jam was only about 6 months later. Close enough to cling to a hope of relevancy that it would lead to something greater for the system.
I thought it was more to emphasize just how mediocre Bug is compared to other 3D platformers. Super Mario 64 alone practically made everything before it obsolete.
This video is incredible. The editing and research dedicated to “Bug!” for the Sega Saturn. People need to see this. You played and got footage for Normie’s Beach Babe-o-Rama for this video.
The Sega Saturn has always been a curiosity for me. I remember wandering around in Myst and playing Daytona USA on my half-brother's Saturn and then I never saw it again. Learning about the blunders of Sega and the infighting of US and Japan Sega branches that lead to a promising console to lose steam from the beginning is such a delight. Can't wait for the rest!
This will sound familiar by now. I don’t ever comment on YT videos. The games you are reviewing are average at best. The videos are 90min at least. And yet your work is amazing. Thank you for going so deep in your research. It’s so much fun to watch 👏👏👏
Just wanted to say i absolutely love your videos! serious in depth research and review of these Saturn games. My young daughter and i adore playing sega saturn together. we currently are playing nights into dreams. perhaps you will still be making these videos by the time she's fully grown in your quest to review every U.S. Saturn game and we will remines together about the good old days of playing saturn together while watching your reviews and hearing the back stories of these games. BTW she likes bug as well but my god is it infuriating. I think its hard as an adult for a young kid its a temper tantrum inducing nightmare! give me mario 64 for the little one any day of the week! Keep up the work and much love from us saturn fans
Loved reading the story, I hope you and your fam continue to enjoy this console’s wonderful library. Thank you for passing it down to the next generation.
Wow, an hour-long plus review of Bug! that is...really good, has amazing footage and is entertaining the whole way through. Why doesn't this channel have more subs!? Thanks for the heads up about the Japanese version. Had no idea it was so different.
Fun fact: I actually got a Yoshi wind-up toy for Easter this year. It also stopped working soon after I got it, though in this case, it at least lasted a few days. Still, that ending bit about the Bug wind-up toy breaking after two windups reminded me of that thing.
Once again, amazing video. Literally one of the best series on RU-vid. In general, I find the whole video game documentaries/retrospectives to be an annoying trend on RU-vid, as most of them are just unnecessarily long and bloated game reviews that repeat themselves again and again, but yours are different. Your last 5ish videos have done a phenomenal job at showcasing the insane video game landscape of 1995 and the pure incompetence of Sega as a company. Your ability to dig deep into these games to tell us the story of the Saturn is impressive. I didn't realize Bug! had that much relevant history to the Saturn. I also love how you have been including the programmers and designers of these games as first hand sources. These guys finally get their voices heard and it gives a whole other perspective of video game design in the mid 90s. I always learn something about the Saturn in these videos and it just makes me want to start collecting for Saturn and learn more about it. I just have a few comments that I wanted to share. You did mention it, but I think its worth reenforcing when you said that Super Mario 64 was why people don't remember many of these mid 90s platformers like Bug! Super Mario 64 was one of the nuclear bombs in video game history and Bug! was one of its casualties. Just in its demos, it obliterated nearly every single platformer at the time and it changed platformers forever. And the ones that survived, like Crash Bandicoot, had to make significant improvements just to compete(which ended up being a great for Crash because Crash Bandicoot 2 is one of pinnacles of the PlayStation). There is a reason why the N64 survived even though it suffered from the blunder of not having nearly enough games released in it's first year. Why does that problem sound familiar? I also wanted to defend Sega's decision for the 32X. In hindsight, yes it was a foolish decision. But think back to 1994. The Genesis was starting to slow down sales wise, the Jaguar was boasting superior hardware capabilities(lol), and Donkey Kong Country was right on the rear view mirror. They also had internal knowledge that the Saturn was way behind development wise. They had a lot of pressure to do something. I understand the justification to bolstering the Genesis until the Saturn was ready. In theory, it would have given Sega breathing room to do the Saturn correctly and if they did the 32X correctly, Sega wouldn't have felt the need to chaotically rush the Saturn. The 32X also gave amazing ports of Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter, which shows that the 32X was capable of great games. I wonder if Sega didn't lay off 2/3 of their employees, if the extra bandwidth would have prevented the 32X from being a disaster, which may have prevented a lot of the mistakes of the Saturn? Anyways, you have been on a roll. You are doing a great service to the Saturn's history. I am looking forward to more of this series(crossing my figures for a Virtual Hydlide Revisit, because there is 0 info on that game and I find it fascinating). Thanks for your hard work.
In a way, Bug didn't need a video as long, well documented, cleverly written, and creatively edited (not to mention fun to watch) as this one. But after watching it, well the game deserved it. You almost made me want to pop the disc in my Saturn to give it another chance (I don't have the time to do it at the moment, but still). Incredible work, lot of research that pay off. Still, I love the Saturn and its games, and I have some sort of a biais for "obscure" and forgotten games (including bad ones), but I wasn't exactly thrilled to watch an hour documentary about Bug! in the first place. And yet, this is amazing. Just discovered your channel, and I think you rocks. Keep up the good work on this series of reviews, I will be here to watch them. Every single one of them. Cheers from France.
I really love how at some point, you started interviewing the developers. That was a really good idea. It brings a perspective that no other game reviews have.
I was really into insects as a kid. It was like my thing. We got the Saturn and we picked up bug along with a couple other games. I thought for sure that goes into my favorite game of all time. And then I played it I remember wanting to love it so hard, but I just couldn’t find myself enjoying it even back then I wasn’t sure at the time if I was bad at video games But I quickly realized that bug was just not a fun game and it was a hard pill to swallow. Honestly, my favorite part of the game was seeing sonic sprite in the little mini game. That was the first time I saw sonic on the Saturn. And in a weird way honestly, that’s kind my favorite part of bug to this day! Excellent video. I don’t think I ever made it past world 3.
Your videos continue to be an inspiration Panda! Albeit I won't be making saturn content but I will always strive for this quality and style with my analysis-type videos when I get to them. Thanks for your amazing work!
So glad I just found this channel, I just got to the cut to the intro song and holy crap I can tell I’m gonna spend a loooooong time devouring the content here
Fantastic video as always! This level of video game journalism is just not found anywhere else. Never thought this little gem from childhood would carry so much history and intrigue. Thank you for sharing so much great information!
I must have watched the original review of this 3 or 4 times. It's so incredible that there was so much more to say about this bug game. This was such a fascinating era of video game history and I'm glad we have someone so insightful to uncover it for us. Great vid panda!
1:03:38 yep, exactly what I did back in the day to work around the save file deletion : copy it to a backup cartridge after beating a world. It did make the game more enjoyable once I discovered that.
I’ve only recently gotten into the Saturn because of panzer dragoon and sega rally, but your videos have insane production quality, and research, not to mention the interviews. You, action button, and tehsnakerer out here making whole movies Looking forward to you talking about all 5 versions of rally championship on Saturn for 10 hours.
Seriously! What absolutely phenomenal work putting this together! You are a champ to have brought to major interest the history of these games. Love it!
I really appreciate these episodes. You do an excellent job pulling together various media to create a really nice documentary. Keep up the killer work.
Loved watching it .. and loved it even more watching again.. thank you for the quality content … honestly , you single handedly inspired me enough to get a Fenrir
Damn, this is quite the review, the added sections really explain a looooot about bug. I have it and I kinda knew something was off about the level design, this video really explains it. edit : Also the intro and that boomerang bumper reference? *chefs kiss*
As a new Saturn owner, this stuff has been absolutely fascinating. I found bug to be a good looking and kinda fun time, but it didn’t hold my attention because there are so many other kinds of games I can play. But if I had it at launch (I knew literally one kid with a saturn) I could see putting time into the Bug games
I wasn't allowed to have game consoles until I was 11, when the Gamecube game out. So for a few years in the late nineties, one of the only opportunities I had to play non-PC video games was when I went to my Aunt's house a couple of times a year. She had a Saturn. Her favourite game for the console was Bug!. As a kid who only had a few fleeting hours with the console, it was really easy for me to enjoy Bug!. The cartoony nature of the game and 3D level design drew me in. But I was never able to even surpass the first level 🤪. Still, to be honest, my only experience with 3D platformers up to that point was playing Sonic 3D Blast for PC. So, to some extent, I was enjoying the novelty that Bug offered some years after Bug had already been surpassed by superior platformers. So it was....
I like your theory about the difficulty difference between American and Japanese titles from this period...the first Panzer Dragoon stands out to me as an example. That game also seems to have like 3 or 4 revisions in both regions...and the game "supports" the analog controller in the last revisions.
Another excellent video man, I’m a big fan! In the NBA JAM video you seemed to be the very first person ever to document the improvements with the Japanese PSX version of NBA Jam, and inspired me to swap it out on my ODE. And it’s was true, it actually makes the PSX version better than the saturn version, which is unfortunate. So now I will be swapping out the US version of bug with the Japanese version and maybe I’ll actually enjoy it. This doesn’t seem to be common knowledge either.
@@PandaMoniumReviews yes, I understand. I'm a 41 year old tech guy. I know. I wish you could do this full time, you're great and the best Saturn RU-vidr in existence. I bought the Saturn in 95 and bug! Was one of my first games. So much promise, but Jesus it was difficult
I am really looking forward to when we finally get a Shining Force 3 or Dragonforce video personally. The only Saturn games I actually still own. Also two of the best games on the console.
@@planescaped if you look back on it hindsight...the Saturn was the best of that gen. I also think PlayStation won handedly and probably should have. But Sega should have been #2
Another fantastic video. The story, the game, the whole industry at the time. What great coverage and endlessly entertaining. Your work truly is one-of-a-kind! Keep it up!!! As much as Sonic is a true mascot of Sega in general, I think Craig Stadler has really grown to be a true mascot of the Saturn. I have fond and psychologically scarring memories of Bug! on the Saturn. It was one of the games I got when I first got the Saturn. I gave it a fair shot, but could never beat it. I now hear the Japan version calling.... :)
I don't care about Bug!, but your video on it is, once again, great. Meaning high production values translate into quality videos, despite the subject 😎👍🏻 True Panda rock!
Great video, as always. You know, maybe part of the problem with Bug! aging well had less to do with the 3D platformer format as a whole and more to do with the missed potential with Bug! as a whole that existed within the game itself already. You even seem to admit that the game gets better later on, and it's almost as though maybe they should've gone for more of a puzzle or exploration angle than an action one.
Hats off once again. Been following the channel since September 2020 (Funnily enough just before the SimCity 2000 video, which I think was a bit of a watershed moment towards significantly deeper dives into the development history of the games and system) so its been a genuine pleasure to see the series progress, and this would certainly be a worthwhile revision with how much has been uncovered since the original thanks to all the research by the Shiro folks in general, especially when it comes to challenging long established common narratives around Sega and the Saturn in the mid-90's with well cited sources. And, if nothing else, sharing these videos has led to Craig Stadler being embraced by more communities to the point where Twitch chat will often be dropping the quotes during Sonic runs at speed running events. Wishing you all the best towards the future, especially that daunting Sega Rally video. It'll be difficult, but I'll give you a pass even if you stick with the American pronunciation of Celica. =p
I really appreciate the kind words, this means a lot. The SimCity video is still one of my most favorite projects, that one was a lot of fun to make. Paul Kerchen was a joy to speak with.
It would be so amazing if you could implement the menu music from the "SEGA Saturn Bootleg Sampler II" in one of your vids. I used to absolutely love listening to that music back in the day. :
30:15 yoooo I understood that reference! Tim Rogers is another of my favorite reviewers-turned-exhaustive-researchers-creating-ridiculously-in-depth-video-breakdowns-of-everything-about-and-surrounding-a-game
A neighbor kid on the block got Saturn and Bug. I thought it was alot of fun, especially since i only had Genesis. Bug was fun, the Dung Beetles left an impression. But it was overshadowed by Daytona forsure.
About 10 years ago I picked up some promo material from this game on eBay that I assume was given out at a trade show or something. They had some strange promo stuff for it. It was a pair of Bug boxer underwear. With bug posing on the front.
One other option if you’re interested in playing this: get the PC version. It has slightly better graphics, an updated soundtrack, difficulty options and a far better save system (you can even save at level checkpoints!). It takes a little work to get it running in Windows 10, but if you have the patience to do so, then it’s the version to get.
Woah, good to know! I couldn't get it running on my end, but being able to save at checkpoints is somethings else. I always wondered if a GBA port would have been feasible if they kept the source code.
