When making a game based on the film, it’s important to not undermine the message of the film. A Bug’s Life is a lovely Pixar film ends when one ant inspires the rest to stand up for themselves as a team. In the N64 game (a shoddy port of the PS1 version), Flik is a one-man army, a mass murdering machine that could have easily wiped out the grasshoppers on his own.

A Bug’s Life is a platformer with one interesting mechanic: you collect and upgrade plants, and can use these transform seeds into different types. For the most part, these are used to get to higher areas. Another type can spit out powerups or become a berry-shooting turret, with the last allowing you to upgrade your berries (your main weapon). The mechanic isn’t used as much as it should, and I would have gone for upgrading items for Flik to use (after all, he was an inventor).

The game consists of platforming across a bunch of extremely dull levels. The colours are incredibly muted and it doesn’t resemble the Pixar film in any way. The browns and greys make it looks more like Antz.

Levels are also littered with enemies. Every kind of bug will attack Flik, and Flik will destroy them with berries that autotarget enemies. Enemies will also constantly respawn unless you have the highest level of berry, which kills them for good. Wiping out all bugs in the level is one of the bonus goals of each level (alongside collecting all the grain and finding the letters F, L, I and K).

A Bug’s Life is a very poor platformer that seems like it was made by people who got a few screenshots of the film to base the game off. If you replaced Flik and the one notable level (Flik riding on a dandelion seed, which is annoying in the game), then people probably wouldn’t be able to tell that it was originally based on A Bug’s Life.

Note: I initially played this out of order, as multiple websites listed the European release as the 1st Jan 1999. However, N64 Magazine reviewed the NTSC version in August 1999 and the PAL version in March 2000, so I don’t think this date is correct.

Poor

A waste of money, plastic and cardboard, unprecedented sine Clayfighter crawled onto shelves. Avoid at all costs.

Jes Bickham, N64 Magazine #39. Review Score: 31%

Remake or remaster?

This game doesn’t deserve special treatment.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play A Bug’s Life.