WELCO METOT HENEX TLEVEL - Bug Blasters: The Exterminators

Publisher: Good Deal Games Developer: StarGate Entertainment Released: 2000

Imagine my surprise when Shane Bettenhausen informed me that there were two new Sega CD games coming to market back in 2000. A little company I'd never heard of – Good Deal Games – had picked up the rights to release a couple of complete-but-unreleased games to the general public. So of course, I snapped them both up and did a little article for EGM.

The two games were Bug Blasters and Star Strike. Both are full-motion-video shooters in the vein of Tomcat Alley... just not nearly as good.

Originally planned for release through Sony Imagesoft in 1995, Bug Blasters tells a story of a toxic chemical spill in Los Angeles, which has caused insects everywhere to grow in stature and intellect. They've taken over City Hall, and cocooned any humans who have tried to stop them.

Enter the Ghostbusters...erm, Bug Blasters. This group of exterminators is armed to the teeth with various bug-killing weaponry and loads of horrible one-liners. You are Hugh D. Player, the rookie of the team. And your job is to move through one auto-scrolling level after another, shooting every bug you see.

And that's it. There's really nothing else to the game.

This formula works pretty well in the aforementioned Tomcat Alley, but it really comes off pretty awful in Bug Blasters. T

he full-screen, full-motion-video looks awful even by Sega CD standards, and there is no visual indication of where you're firing. Just a reticule and a crappy sound effect. The acting is even worse than you'd expect, too.

I love the idea behind this release more than the game itself. Good Deal has gone on to release a handful more complete (or close to complete) games on multiple consoles since then. Just the thought of resurrecting old games that otherwise would never have been playable has always interested me – it's just too bad the games being resurrected obviously should never have been released in the first place.