Review by Erica J. Marceau

 
4 Stars - 1 Star Poor, 5 Stars Excellent

                Title: Bumbler Bee-Luxe
                 Version: 1.0.0
                 Developer: Dadgum Games
Price: $24.95
Contact Info: http://www.dadgum.com/
Genre: Arcade Game
System Requirements: Power Macintosh

Overview

From the read-me of Bumber Bee-Luxe comes this description. "Another busy day collecting pollen and making honey when — ATTACK! Marauding insects swarm into your hive, and it's up to you to defend it from crazed bees, hornets, spiders, armored beetles, and hordes of other crawling and flying invaders.  The survival of the hive is in your hands!"

You play as a honeybee with your stinger and speed boost as your only weapons to stop the attackers. You play through unlimited levels as wave after wave of insects come to steal the precious honey. Do you have what it takes to stop them and ensure the safety of your hive?

Gameplay

Your honeybee can only be controlled in four ways; turning left, turning right, shooting stingers and speedy bee (speed boost). The keys that control these actions are completely customizable. There is no control for flying forwards or backwards, because you are always flying forward. This makes the game more challenging because you have to constantly find an open area where you can fly to. If you touch any of the enemies, you die and lose a life. This makes Bumbler Bee-Luxe more challenging and fun.

There are fourteen different enemies, including hornets, ladybugs, centipedes and mysterious orbs. Some enemies simply wander randomly across the screen while others follow you wherever you move. This makes Bumbler Bee-Luxe harder because you don't know where the enemies are going to go next and you have to constantly pay attention to their position.

You do get help from two sources: special honey and flowers. Special honey helps you out by turning you invisible, releasing mini-bees that fly around attacking, and much more. Just when you think you are about to die, special honey will appear and save the day. Flowers give you points that help you get lives. With every 5000 points, you get another life. Flowers appear when you least expect them, and can be vital to your survival.

Graphics

As can be seen in the example below, the graphics are bright and vivid. DOCMaker renders this picture somewhat poorly. The graphics are, in fact, much nicer than below.
 
What I found most striking was how
detailed and realistic Bumbler Bee-Luxe
is. If you look closely at the picture to the
right, you'll notice how many details
were added. Many more are included in
the course of the game and show a
dedication to quality that touches every
aspect of Bumber Bee-Luxe.

Sound Effects / Music 

The only music takes place at the title screen, and it sounds like a bee humming a melody. It adds a nice touch to the game.

There are sound effects for almost everything. You hear your stingers go thunk against spiders, insects make a splat sound when they die, hornets buzz, and much more. If you have stereo speakers or headphones, you can have stereo sound. The sound effects really helped immerse me into the game and I'm sure it will do the same for you.

Performance

This game was tested on a wide variety of machines, including:
PowerMac 7500/100 with 16 MB RAM
PowerMac 6500/250 with 32 MB RAM
PowerMac 7300/200 with 32 MB RAM
Performa 6320/120 with 32 MB RAM
There were no slowdowns and the performance was silky-smooth.

Overall

I found Bumbler Bee-Luxe to be a fun and addicting game. It's the kind of game that you can play for a long time at a stretch just trying to reach that next level or score the next 1,000 points.  Bumber Bee-Luxe is a good action game that tests your reflexes. It's a worthwhile game to buy and a nice change of pace from many games currently on the market.

             Erica J. Marceau
              erica@applewizards.net
              http://members.aol.com/MacSierra/

   

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