Video Game / Bug! (1995)

aka: Bug

He may be small, but he's a big pain for his enemies!

"He shoots, He scores!"

— Bug, when killing an enemy

Bug! is a video game developed by Realtime Associates for the Sega Saturn. Released by Sega in 1995 in North America, Japan and Europe, it was one of the earliest 3D platform games and the first 3D Sega Saturn game. It was later released for Windows 3.x and Windows 95 on August 31, 1996 by Beam Software, on one CD that contains both versions of the game.

Bug, an actor in Hollywood hopes to make his "big break", and has signed a deal for the lead role in an action film (named "BUG!") in which his girlfriend and family are kidnapped by a black widow and must rescue them while facing off against cartoony bugs and other nasties.

Bug! is played like a traditional side-scrolling adventure title, including the way to defeat enemies by jumping on them. What sets Bug! apart is the game's 3D levels, which take the side-view and tweak it- it allowed players to move in all directions, but it did not allow movement along more than one axis at once — the player could move left to right, or forward and backward, but not diagonally left and backward at the same time.

Players can pick up two powerups to give Bug new forms of attack — the Zap Cap and the Spit Wad. You also collect blue crystalline sugar cubes which help you qualify for a "Dragon Ring Chase" bonus round.

The game did well enough to get a sequel, which was called Bug Too! In it, Bug gets two new co-stars to work with, Superfly and Maggot Dog, and their agent signs them up to work on a six-flick deal consisting of the movies Weevil Dead 2, Lawrence of Arachnia, Antennae Day, Flea-Wee's Big Adventure, Swatterworld, and Cicada Night Fever. The catch: all of the shots have to be completed in one day.

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These games provide examples of:

Bug!

• Adipose Rex: Queen Cadavra, a fat black widow queen (which does make her a Giant Spider).
• A Dog Named "Dog": The titular character is a Cartoon Creature bug named... Bug.
• Advancing Wall of Doom: Quaria has a few sections like this. Not to mention that in one of the sections, said wall is a One-Hit Kill to Bug (who otherwise has five hit points).
• Airborne Mook: Several. Each stage usually has one.
  • Insectia has the bees.
  • Reptilia has kamikaze cicadas.
  • Splot has swamp flies and lightning bugs.
  • The Burr-ubs has acid-spitting flies, as well as ice flies.
  • Arachnia has those acid-spitting flies again.
• All Deserts Have Cacti: Reptilia has saguaro cacti as part of the landscape. Then again, Reptilia IS set in an Arizona-like desert, not a Sahara-like desert, so this trope is averted.
• And Call Him "George": The yeti enemies in Burrubs try to do this to Bug, by grabbing him and squeezing him like a toy.
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: Bug's entire family is captured by Queen Cadavra, who has presumably captured other citizens of Bug island. Plus, Bug's dog is captured too.
• Ant Assault:
  • Reptilia, the second level of the game, features army ants as common enemies, with a giant one appearing as a Mini-Boss. They wear soldier helmets, attack by throwing bouncy grenades and drop via flower parachutes, making them literal army ants.
  • Arachnia, the final level of the game, has fire ants appear as enemies. Much like army ants, fire ants also feature a Visual Pun in their design; they use flamethrowers to breathe fire and wear fireman helmets.
• Apologetic Attacker: One of the enemies in Splot is a swamp bug that attacks by farting at Bug's face! It then apologizes to Bug, saying stuff like "Sorry, just ate".

• Ash Face: Happens to Bug if he is hit by a fire ant's fire breath, or if he touches lava.
• Asteroids Monster: Some of the starfish enemies in Quaria split when destroyed. One of the enemies in Arachnia is like this.
• Ax-Crazy: The mantis enemies from Insectia Scene 3 that attack in a mad frenzy with their claws. You know that they're mad when you see them drooling while moving around.
• Background Boss: Several bosses are of this kind or have an attack where they are in the background:
  • Reptilia's boss is a horned lizard that stays in the background, attacking the foreground with its tongue. Bug has to attack it via catapults at the sides of the arena.
  • Splot's boss is a swamp worm that will appear in the background often and spit at Bug on the platform. Bug can attack him via Spit Wads, however.
  • Quaria's boss is an octopus that initially stays in the background and throws dogfish at Bug, and Bug has to swat them back at its head a few times to end the phase.
  • Burrbs' boss is an abominable snowbug who will initially jump around in the background and throw snowballs at Bug. When the fight happens proper, one of its attack phases has it jump into the background to throw a Recursive Ammo snowball that explodes into a Spread Shot of five smaller snowballs.
  • Queen Cadavra usually hangs out in the background during most of the battle, dropping mooks or strafing the floor with eight machine guns. The opportune moment to attack her is when she does a Belly Flop Crushing attack onto the platform area Bug was on.
• Bee Afraid: Bee enemies in Insectia are incredibly annoying to defeat. Some of them even appear out of nowhere to ambush Bug!
• Belly Flop Crushing: Queen Cadavra attempts to use this on Bug after a round of attacks, and it's the only attack of hers that leaves her vulnerable on the platform for Bug to sting her in the butt. At the tail end of the fight she'll use this repeatedly with a far shorter vulnerable time and also throwing out two invulnerable minions each time she does so.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Used by the main character, as well as scorpion enemies.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Subverted, your character is a bug, so it's pretty normal for the enemy bugs to be around his size.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: The boss of the Burrubs, an abominable snowbug. Some of the scenes in Burrubs also have them as environmental hazards that try to squeeze Bug like a toy.
• Black Screen of Death: In the PC version, the screen blacks out when Bug dies, leaving only Bug's death animation.
• Block Puzzle: A number of areas, require Bug to push blocks into place so that he can use them as a platform to get to a higher elevation.
• Bond One-Liner: Bug sometimes says lines according to the enemy he's defeated:
  • Mantises — "Hiiii-yah!"
  • Snakes — "Shish Kebab!"
  • Weak crabs — "Howdy Crabcakes!"
  • Dogfish — "Fish bait!"
  • Sometimes, he also says "SWAT-TED!" or "SQU-ISH!" when he kills a Mook (usually an insect).
• Bonus Level: Two kinds-
  • The first kind can be accessed via collecting a coin power-up and then finding the friendly spider beside a tube. This bonus level allows Bug to gain lives.
  • The second kind can be accessed if Bug had collected at least 100 blue crystals in each stage of a level. This one helps Bug get extra continues.
• Boss-Arena Idiocy: The boss of Reptilia, a giant lizard, has an attack that made rocks fall onto the arena. The rocks then roll into catapults which Bug can then use to shoot at and damage the boss.
• Boss Arena Urgency: Splot. Once you damage the Splot boss enough, the platform you're on sinks, forcing you to jump on the boss' body in order to reach another smaller platform. The platform which you battle Queen Cadavra on sinks into the lava once you damage her enough.
• Boss Corridor: The Giant Ant Mini-Boss at the end of Reptilia Scene 2. Funnily enough, you see a sign stating "Beware! Giant Ants!" at the start of the corridor, then you run into three tiny ants that flee from Bug. Until you get to the end of the corridor...
• Boss-Only Level: Each world has a "Finale" level where Bug faces off against the boss of the world.
• Bottomless Pits: Each entire level is technically one- you're on a floating terrain, and any fall off it will kill you. Several "holes" in the terrain would thus function as this.
• Bullfight Mook: One of the enemies in Insectia is a Stag Beetle that tries to charge at Bug (see picture), changing directions if Bug jumps over.
• The Cameo: Sonic The Hedgehog appears in Reptilia, once in a bonus level, and the second in a secret hard-to-reach area. If you turn on the cheat that makes Bug able to move anywhere, you can actually move up to him and kill him for the lolz.
• Cartoon Creature: Bug himself. He doesn't seem to be based off any kind of real-life bug, having the head of a praying mantis but the stinger of a bee.
• Ceiling Cling: Bug can walk up vertical surfaces and walk on ceilings just fine. Then again, so can most bugs in real life.
• Character Title: In-game as well — the movie that Bug is starring in is called Bug!
• Checkpoint: Every level has a different kind- for example, Insectia uses a flower, while The Burr-ubs uses a snowman with a flag.
• Chekhov's Volcano: The volcano in Arachnia's background. Bug pushes the defeated Queen Cadavra into it. And yes, it erupts as soon as she falls in.
• Chest Monster / Poison Mushroom: Some of the "mystery" power ups (a purple ball with stars) may contain enemies or a trap instead of a Power-Up.
• Clam Trap: The clam enemies in Quaria attack by jumping at Bug and snapping at him.
• Climactic Volcano Backdrop: Arachnia.
• Clothing Damage / Comedic Underwear Exposure: When hit once, the stag beetle enemy gets stripped of his exoskeleton, all the way down to his Goofy Print Underwear. It starts shivering and dies after a short time.
• Cobweb Trampoline: Some of these are present in the spider-infested Arachnia.
• Combat Tentacles: Use by the octopus boss once it gets tired of playing fish tennis with Bug.
• Control Room Puzzle: Bur-r-ubs has a number of them, where switches will either move a platform in a certain direction, or move a group of staircase-like platforms to get to more switches to reveal a path. Thankfully, you're able to see the direct effects of the control switches you activated.
• Convection, Schmonvection: Played straight in Arachnia. Bug doesn't even feel hot at all even when he is dangerously close to a sea of lava.
• Cool Shades: Daddy-o-Longlegs sports a pair.
• Critical Existence Failure: Bug can be left at one hit point, and still look alright. The next hit however will (usually) make him swoon and faint.
• Crossover: In one of the games bonus rounds, you hold a footrace against Sonic The Hedgehog! See it here.
• Dancing Mook Credits: A small scene that shows a number of enemies doing a roll call appears after the credits ends.
• Death Course: SEVERAL of them, such as an area where a lot of indestructible rolling rocks would keep bouncing down a zig-zagging path.
• Death Throws: Both the yeti bug boss and the giant lizard boss fall off the screen/terrain when you beat them.
• Denial of Diagonal Attack: Bug had no reliable Anti-Air move, making the flying mooks a pain in the ass to beat.
• Difficulty by Region: The Japanese version not only does away with the Save-Game Limits (and resets the continues every time you reload a save), it also adds more health and lives to Bug himself, more checkpoints in the levels, gives him more ammo for his sub-weapons, and adjusts the camera to automatically move to where Bug is facing.
• Disconnected Side Area: Multiple, especially in Reptilia. Usually, you had to do a Leap of Faith off an otherwise hazardous-looking platform area, and hope that you land on the secret area.
• Disney Villain Death: Bug finishes off Queen Cadavra by pushing her off the edge of the platform into a volcano, causing her to fall a good ways into the lava and the volcano to erupt.
• Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud: Played straight in Reptilia, one of the hazards is a dust storm (that looks like a mini-tornado). It doesn't suck Bug in, and only does damage if Bug touches it.
• Dramatic Disappearing Display: The bonus levels. Granted, you do take one hit to die on them, so a life meter is useless. Also, when bug dies, everything else turns black (as the directors cut the scene).
• Dreadful Dragonfly: Bug's mount in the bonus levels is a dragonfly. A dragonfly with a dragon's head.
• Dreamworks Face: on the cover of the game.
• Drought Level of Doom: Reptilia, sort of. The instruction manual says that Bug Juice (heals all of Bug's hitpoints) is rare (and it unfortunately is). However, somewhat subverted as there are many "hearts" that restore 1hp around.
• Dung Fu: This is par the course for the dung beetle enemies. They roll balls of dung and kicks them, causing the dung to roll down the entire length of terrain area until it drops off the edge.
• Enemy Chatter: Some enemies will actually say stuff.
• Evil Laugh: Queen Cadavra, in the intro and also in the boss fight against her.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The fire-breathing ants in the final stage are aptly known as "Fire Ants" in the game's manual.
• Fartillery: One of the enemies in Splot will fart in Bug's face as an attack. It then apologises to Bug for doing so.
• Fat Bastard: Queen Cadavra.
  "With her insatiable appetite for bugs, this porky prima donna is intent on devouring all the denizens of Bug Island. She's brassy, loud, egotistical and obnoxious. When she's not eating her minions, she's chewing them out!"
• Flash of Pain: Only present in the Saturn version, where enemies flash red when damaged.
• Floating Platforms: Every single level is like this, although the platform is one large terrain and such.
• Flunky Boss: Queen Cadavra, who summons small invincible bug-things that run around.
• Four-Fingered Hands: The majority of the characters have four fingers.
• Four-Legged Insect: Played straight with Bug and his family, as well as some insect enemies. Most of the insect enemies actually have six. Arachnid enemies like scorpions and spiders have the correct amount of eight.
• Funny Animal: Bug himself. Oddly enough, many of the animal Mooks aren't.
• Funny Background Event: At the end of Quaria Scene 1, you'll see a diving bug chasing a small fish offscreen. Later he comes back in... being chased by a dogfish!
• Game-Over Man: Bug appears bruised and beaten in the continue screen, and in the Game Over screen he appears shaking his butt at the camera.
• Gas Mask Mooks: The stink bugs from Splot, who try to fart at Bug as an attack.
• Giant Enemy Crab: Subverted- while you do fight crab enemies in Quaria, they're about Bug's size.
• Giant Mook: The second stage of Reptilia has perhaps the only Mini-Boss in the game- a giant version of the Army Ants you fight in the stage. It fires out a ton of grenades at Bug as its main attack. (Hint: Kill it with the Zap Cap)
• Giant Spider: Queen Cadavra, the Big Bad and Final Boss.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: The Big Bad of the game is a Giant Spider named Queen Cadavra, who regularly berates and eats her minions.
• Goofy Print Underwear: Insectia has green beetle enemies that attempt to charge at Bug. If he hits them once, they get stripped of their exoskeleton, revealing a scrawny, shivering red bug wearing white boxers with red polka dot print.
• The Goomba: Yellow bugs in Insectia- they're the first enemy you face, move slowly, take one hit to die, and have no special abilities.
• Goomba Springboard: Required to get past certain areas, such as multiple flying enemies over a chasm.
• Goomba Stomp: Bug's main form of attack is jumping on enemies with his stinger (You have to sting them or bounce on them while spinning, falling on top of them will get you damaged).
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Used by the octopus boss- he grabs and throws dogfish at you. You counter by using a tennis racket to bat them back at his head.
• Guns Akimbo: Used by the snail boss if you get too far away from him. Taken up to eleven with Queen Cadavra and her machineguns in each leg!
• Hat of Power: The Zap Cap allows Bug to fry enemies in front of him.
• Healing Potion: Bug Juice, which restores all of Bug's health. Small Hearts will restore one hit point.
• Hearts Are Health: Picking up a heart object will restore one hit point to Bug.
• Helicopter Pack: The giant snail boss has a helicopter shell.
• Helpful Mook: The chameleons in Reptilia. They do't do any contact damage, and while they do try to catch Bug with their tongues, they spit him out onto a higher platform without harming him (in fact, they're the only way to get to certain places).
• Hit Points: You have five.
• Human Popsicle: Not really a human, but the Abominable Snowbug boss is first seen like this before he breaks out.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: Collecting a can of Bug Juice instantly refills all of Bug's health.
• Idle Animation: Bug tries to flex his muscles, only for him to become unable to inhale in any more air. Thus he gasps it out.
• Improbable Weapon User:
  • Dung beetles roll balls of dung, then kick it at you.
  • Caterpillar enemies fire out their segments at you.
  • Snakes throw their cowboy hat at Bug, which boomerangs back to them.
  • Swamp bugs fart at Bug's face.
  • Frogs attack Bug with a flyswatter held by their tongue.
  • Both the snow fleas and the Abominable Snowbug throw damaging snowballs at Bug.
  • Certain spiders in Arachnia roll what appears to be bowling balls down sloped inclines.
• Incredibly Durable Enemies: Some of the levels, most notably Splot, Quaria, The Burr-ubs and Arachnia. You know that there is a difficulty increase when the regular Mooks you fight take three hits instead of one. And especially the machine-gunning snails in Splot- they take nine, more than any other Mook in the game.
• Indy Escape: In the last level of Insectia.
• Invincibility Power-Up: Known as "Stunt Bug", Bug's invulnerable stunt double will come in and replace him for a short period of time.
• Invincible Minor Minion:
  • The spiky lizards in Reptilia cannot be killed via any means. Not even the invulnerability powerups that allow Bug to kill enemies via touching them do any good against them.
  • Queen Cadavra deploys small grey bugs that take no damage but don't hurt Bug if he jumps on them. Instead, they make a "twang" Sound of No Damage. They'll only keep walking until they fall off the platform and into the lava, but can more importantly be used as a Goomba Springboard to avoid the queen's machine gun attack.
• Kaizo Trap: It's possible to die during the swamp worm boss' death animation if the player gets Bug to drop in the water before the boss level ends and fades to black.
• Kill Streak: Every successful jump on enemies will give additional points (1 jump — 50, 2 jumps — 100, 3 jumps — 200, 4 jumps — 500, 5 or more — 1000)
• Kraken and Leviathan: The boss of Quaria is a giant octopus.
• Large Ham: Bug. About 50% of the time when he kills a Mook, he shouts stuff like "OW THAT'S GOTTA HURT!", "HE SHOOTS, HE SCORES!!!" or "SEE YA!". About 50% of the time when he gets damaged he says things like "AAAAH! GET AWAY FROM ME!", "I HATE THAT!" or "EY! WATCH IT, BUDDY!". At certain points in a level, he also says comments like "Wooooow, Trippy!" or "Buzz Off!" (when he faces a bee).
• Law of 100: Collecting 100 of the blue crystals in each stage of a level allows Bug to access the dragonfly bonus round after the boss fight.
• Leap of Faith: Some secret areas can only be accessed this way. Usually by doing a blind leap off a platform into the foreground, no less.
• Ledge Bats: Some enemies are placed in strategic locations (at the opposite side of a pit, of course), and will either attack or jump into you when you try to jump to the other side.

• Life Meter: A can of Bug Juice. It gets its sections greyed out as Bug's health depletes, and melts into a puddle when Bug dies.
• Make My Monster Grow: The abominable snowbug, who roars, beats his chest, and flexes all the muscles in his body to grow twice in size. Unfortunately for him, his hitbox stays the same, so Bug can still jump on him as easily.
• Make Some Noise: Certain grasshoppers in Insectia are capable of shooting sound waves from their legs, similar to how they make sounds in real life.
• The Many Deaths of You: Regular death (Bug swoons and faints), getting squashed (by falling into a Bottomless Pit or getting flattened), electrocuted (by a lightning bug), Drowning in swamp water, Frozen (by a bug with freezing breath), or burned (by lava or an ant's flamethrower). All of them come with the screen turning to black, leaving only Bug's death sequence.
• Mascot with Attitude: Bug himself, who spams quotes that show his attitude. Obviously trying to follow Sonic The Hedgehog.
  "Our hero is a razor-witted, irreverent mighty mite with feelers, who uses his derriere and deadly aim to trounce upon enemies. Despite his lack of manners, Bug is convinced he can turn this role into an award-winning performance."
• The Maze: There are three prominent ones. All three required Bug to activate a switch, and then find the now-unblocked exit:
  • Quaria Scene 2 has a 3D maze filled with confusing slopes.
  • Burrubs has a particularly irritating one that doesn't have enemies, however, most of it takes place behind Obstructive Foreground and the only indication of where you are is the camera's vertical and horizontal scroll.
  • The final part of Arachnia Scene 3 has a 2-D maze, filled with loads of annoying respawning Mooks. At least it is possible to see the paths due to the area being flat.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor: Of course, Bug's adventure is only a movie, so it's not that odd that several enemies - even the Abominable Snowbug - show up at the ending to cheer Bug's success.
• Mercy Invincibility: Found in this game, thankfully. It still doesn't save you if you touch the water in Splot or the lava in Arachnia, however.
• Misplaced Wildlife: One of the mooks found in the desert level Reptilia are green chameleons. Desert chameleons do exist, but they're not green.
• Monstrosity Equals Weakness: The second boss (and also the largest), a giant lizard. There's an easy way to avoid all his attacks, and he shouldn't be too hard once you know the strategy to beating him.
• More Dakka:
  • One of the powerups gives Bug a rapid fire spit attack.
  • Splot has snails that fire machine gun bullets at Bug.
  • The Final Boss, Queen Cadavra, has an attack where she takes out eight machine guns and fires all of them at the floor around her.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Queen Cadavra. Having "cadaver" or something similar in one's name generally doesn't sound like a good person's name.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The first boss, a snail. With a helicopter shell that drops bombs, and also dresses up as a cowboy to fire out bullets at you.
• Nintendo Hard: Definitely. After Insectia, you'll be seeing increasingly nasty enemies and obstacles. That fact that the Saturn version only allows to continue from the latest-unlocked world a limited number of times doesn't help. And let's not forget about that bubble jumping section in Splot Scene 1...
• Non-Mammal Mammaries: Bug's girlfriend (the one you rescue in Splot) is a clearly female bug with huge knockers. A sort of multi-armed amazon enemy from the sequel also has these.
• Orcus on His Throne: When you meet up with Queen Cadavra, she's looking at herself in the mirror. The only other time she does any action is at the start of the game where she kidnaps Bug's family.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Bug's ride is a dragonfly with the head (and fire breath) of a dragon! Rule of Cool, really. Unfortunately, you only get to use the dragonfly in the dragonfly express bonus rounds.
• Pass Through the Rings: The Bonus Level. Bump into the flaming rings, or miss even one, and the level ends.
• Playing Tennis with the Boss: A literal example in Quaria. The boss is an octopus who throws fish at you◊, so you take a tennis racket and swat them back at his head.
• Power-Up Motif: The Sega Saturn version plays a fast version of the title theme when Bug gets a Stunt Bug powerup.
• Protagonist Title: Both out of universe and in-universe. The main character's name is Bug, who stars in the movie called "Bug!"
• Pun-Based Creature:
  • Bug's mount is a dragonfly with the head of a dragon.
  • One enemy is a fish with a doglike head and collar. It's a dogfish.
  • Reptilia has army ants that wear soldier helmets, attack by throwing bouncy grenades, and drop via flower parachutes.
  • Arachnia has fire ants that use flamethrowers to breathe fire and wear fireman helmets.
• Punny Name: The bee enemies are called Bee-52s.
• Red Boxing Gloves: The Kamikaze Cicadas sport a pair.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The second level, "Reptilia", is a desert stage that contains spiny lizard enemies that Bug has to jump over or avoid. You can't kill them. The boss of Reptilia is a large lizard that tried to crush Bug with its tongue and falling rocks.
• Roar Before Beating: Used by the Abominable Snowbug, as soon as he breaks free from his icy prison.
• Rolling Attack:
  • When Bug somersaults on a springboard, he'll do a rolling action, and he's capable of Goomba Stomping enemies in this state.
  • The sea worms in Quaria and the ice worms in Bur-r-bs curl into a wheel shape and roll towards Bug to attack.
• Save the Princess: Bug's family is kidnapped by Queen Cadavra and he has to save them... and then kick her butt.
• Scary Scorpions: Loads of them abound in Reptilia. Thankfully, they're amongst the easiest enemies there- they take one hit to die, some don't attack, some will try to extend their claws to attack Bug (you can hit their claws to beat them) and some will try to sting him (the sting can be hit too).
• Sea Mine: Present in Quaria as an obstacle.
• Shock and Awe:
  • Bug can obtain the Zap Cap, which allows him to do a constant stream of damage to an enemy in front of him.
  • Lightning bugs in Splot are the literal kind- they fire out a stream of lightning at the floor, electrifying Bug if it hits.
• Slaying Mantis: The mantis enemies in Insectia are pretty much Ax-Crazy things that get into a slashing frenzy as soon as they see Bug. They also have a lot of hit points.
• Sliding Scale of Linearity vs. Openness: Type 2- there are many paths to take to the end of a level.
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: Definitely silly. If the sounds played when you hit an enemy isn't enough, there's also Bug's quotes when he kills an enemy or when he gets hit.
• Slippery as an Eel: Moray eels are one of the enemy types faced in Quaria. They pop out of terrain walls to attack and unsuspecting Bug, and others act as "turrets" and spit out fireballs. While underwater.
• Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom: One of the more deadly hazards. In Insectia, there are quite a few stompers, but getting squashed by those only take away one hit point. Later levels use terrain blocks to squash Bug, which are instantly fatal.
• Sound of No Damage: A rubber twang sound occurs when Bug tries to sting Queen Cadavra's Invincible Minor Minions that she deploys.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: In the PC version of Bug, different levels have different remixes of background music for them. Quaria has Arachnia's music, Burrubs has Quaria's and Arachnia has Burrubs'. Reptilia has the credits theme. However, the dissonance is subverted in a way as the remixed music really does fit their new environments.
• Spikes of Doom: Present. Thankfully, not a One-Hit Kill.
• Spinning Paper: The opening intro of the first game uses this to introduce the titular character and his rise to fame.
• Springs, Springs Everywhere: A different type of spring for each level! Sometimes, a level may have two kinds.
  • Insectia has mushrooms, and rather stiff-looking leaves that jut out off walls.
  • Reptilia has mini-geysers and bones that flip when jumped on.
  • Splot has swamp gas geysers.
  • Quaria uses beach balls.
  • The Burrubs has leaves (like Insectia), ice vents, and for some reason, mushrooms.
  • Arachnia has gas vents, Cobweb Trampolines, as well as mushrooms (don't ask)
• Springy Spores: One of the types of springs that Bug can bounce off are mushrooms. They even appear in some worlds where mushrooms shouldn't appear, such as The Burrubs and Arachnia.
• Squashed Flat: Happens to Bug if he gets hit by smashing traps, boulders, or if he falls off the terrain.
• Stealth Pun: Several of them;
  • The ants in Reptilia drop via flower parachutes, wear soldier hats, and fire out bouncy grenades. They're Army Ants.
  • Splot has insects◊ that fire out a stream of electricity from a plug-like butt. They're lightning bugs, aka fireflies.
  • Quaria has fishes that have the head of a bulldog and make growling noises. They're dogfishes.
  • Also in Quaria, there are swimming beetles◊ which sport scuba equipment. Diving beetles.
  • The Burrubs have annoying white fleas◊ that jump out of the snow and throw (or roll) snowballs at Bug. They're snow fleas. (then again, the manual does tell you that they're called by that name).
  • In Arachnia, you face flame-breathing ants. Fire Ants, indeed (the manual also calls them that).
• Stock Ness Monster: The boss◊ of Splot.
• Stronger Than They Look: Bug is capable of pushing movable blocks bigger than him, although some effort is needed. Indeed, since many insects are capable of lifting things heavier than them.
  Manual: Many insects can lift over 7 times their own body weight. Use that muscle!
• Studiopolis: Bug Too! is set in a film studio with an Excuse Plot to film six movies in one day. The levels are given Pun Based Titles based on different movies.
• Stunt Double: In-universe, this is how the "Stunt Bug" powerup works. The game pauses, Bug (who's acting in a movie) flies off the screen, and his stunt double who is invulnerable and destroys enemies on contact flies in to take his place for a short while.
• Summer Blockbuster: In-game. BUG! is the biggest film that Bug would be starring in, and is supposed to be a blockbuster.
• Super Drowning Skills: Played straight in the third level, Splot, where Bug dies if he even touches the water. And like lava in Arachnia, Mercy Invincibility does not save you. Completely subverted in the following level, Quaria.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: Quaria has the entire level underwater. Bug can still move in it properly.
• Super Spit:
  • The Spit Wad gives Bug a mid-range spitting move, and it comes in four different varieties: Green- regular, Red- Multishot, Blue- Rapid, Purple (Orange in the PC version)- Bouncy
  • The Boss of Splot also tries to spit at the player. What makes this deadly is that like all other attacks, it causes knockback — and Bug cannot afford to be knocked back in this Platform Battle or else he'll fall into the water.
• Swamps Are Evil: Played Straight with Splot, the third level. The stages contain swamp water that kill Bug instantly if he falls into it. Enemies includec1 machinegun-toting snails that are Made of Iron, swarms of mosquitoes, lightning bugs that fire a continuous stream of electricity (making it hard to jump on them), bee-making flowers, the above mentioned swamp bugs whose flatulence home in on Bug, and of course, tons of frog enemies that will piss you off after a while. The boss, a swamp worm, is That One Boss.
• Tactical Suicide Boss:
  • The giant lizard from Reptilia makes boulders fall from the sky in an attempt to crush you... which then roll into catapults at the sides of the arena, allowing you to launch them at him.
  • The octopus from Quaria throws fish at you, in which case you use a tennis racket to bat them back to his big head.
  • The main villain, Queen Cadavra, tries to squash Bug with her huge girth after every attack. Allowing Bug to sting her in her big fat butt.
• Taking You with Me: Sign in Reptilia: "Warning! Kamikaze Cicadas". They appear every time you walk on a wall, or when those signs appear, and are very annoying.
• Tentacle Rope: The octopus uses its tentacles to grab dogfish, and throws them at Bug.
• That's Gotta Hurt: One of the quotes that Bug may shout when he kills an enemy is "OW THAT'S GOTTA HURT!".
• Throw Down the Bomblet:
  • The first boss, a snail which grows a helicopter out of its shell, then starts to drop bombs on Bug in various patterns.
  • Army ants in Reptilia will fire out bouncy grenades, usually down a hill. The Mini-Boss version combines this with Grenade Spam.
• Toilet Humour:
  • An early game enemy happens to be a dung beetle that rolls up balls of dung and kicks them across the terrain.
  • Splot has an enemy that attacks by turning around and farting out a cloud in Bug's face.
• Underground Monkey: The snails from Insectia return in Splot, with the exact same palette... except that they are now faster, take nine hits instead of three, and can pull a machine gun out of their shell to fire at Bug.
• Unique Enemy: The ice bugs in Burrubs Scene 3, that have freezing breath. While there are other ice bugs, they only appear in an area where Bug has do a Goomba Springboard off them. It's the only enemy in the entire game that can freeze Bug.
• Use Your Head: The Abominable Snowbug has a move where it grabs Bug then uses his head to smash Bug's. It's also the only move in the game that bypasses the invincibility cheat.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: The snail boss from Insectia. New players will learn how to dodge the hard way, as the snail uses different (and sometimes hard-to-avoid) methods of attack for each phase. Furthermore, it gets faster after each phase and needs an extra hit before going on to the next.
• Waterfront Boss Battle: The boss of Splot!, a swamp worm. Bug rides a platform floating on the water while the boss lunges out of the water or takes potshots at him. Once the boss takes enough damage, the platform sinks, and Bug has to Goomba Springboard on the boss' body onto an even smaller platform. Notably, it's the toughest boss in the game since getting hit will cause knockback, resulting in Bug falling into the water and drowning instantly, Mercy Invincibility be damned.
• Weaponized Headgear:
  • The Zap Cap allows Bug to shock enemies with a close range attack.
  • Some of the rattlesnake enemies in Reptilia attack by throwing their hat forwards, when then boomerangs back to them.
• Wings Do Nothing: Bug has wings, but he never uses them except for flying off the Bug Stops.
• X-Ray Sparks: Subverted. When Bug is electrocuted by a lightning bug, he flashes black and white but no skeleton shows because he's an insect and doesn't have one. However, it could also mean that the trope is played straight with his entire exoskeleton.
• Zerg Rush: Kamikaze cicadas attack in swarms of three normally, but there's an area in Reptilia Scene 1 where you face off against a whole swarm, while on a floating platform. Funnily enough, it's scripted that none of them will be able to touch you (and you can't move off the platform).

Bug Too!

• Ascended Extra: Maggot Dog is this, both in- and out-of-universe. He acts the part of a distressed captive in Bug, and is one of the main characters of Bug Too! and a prominent role in the movies that the group have to film.
• Brutish Bulls: Bull enemies appear in Lawrence of Arachnia 4 and 5.
• Cranium Ride: You get to do this in Antennae Day 4 Scene 3. On an alien bug with super jumping skills. And dual Arm Cannons. And you get to control it while fighting other bugs like it. The music for that stage is awesome, if not already very fitting.
• Creepy Centipedes: Lawrence of Arachnia's quicksand areas contain centipedes that appear to be based on Saddam Hussein. They sport a mustache, wear a beret, call out "DIE WESTERN INSECT!" in an Iraqi accent, fire machinegun bullets at Bug if he's close, and if Bug is in the distance, they fire smaller bugs in Arab garb out of a bazooka.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The Knight mini-boss at the end of Weevil Dead 2 Scene 3 is extremely tiny, and he's instantly crushed by just walking over him.
• Dancing Mook Credits: After the final boss is beaten, a small scene that shows a number of enemies dancing, followed by Bug and his pals doing a thumbs up to the player.
• Degraded Boss: Remember the swamp worm boss from the first game? It makes a reappearance in Lawrence of Arachnia. If you fall into the water, it eats you.
• Expy: Swatterworld is obviously based on the previous game's Quaria.
• Fat and Skinny: The boss battle of Lawrence of Arachnia is a fat mummy that attacks with rushes and belly flops, followed by a skinny one that attacks with kung-fu maneuvers.
• Fat Bastard: The first mummy boss from Lawrence of Arachnia, in contrast to the second.
• Frankenstein's Monster: One enemy type encountered in Weevil Dead 2 Scene 3 is a "Frogenstein's Monster". Some of them are capable of using a lightning attack, while others can throw their heads on the ground which will then roll back and forth as a hazard.
• Giant Foot of Stomping: Bug's death animation has the scene cut to him trying to sing before a huge boot squashes him.
• Giant Space Flea From No Where: The first level is based on horror movies, complete with ghosts, zombies and traps. The final boss however is a huge dragon.
• Kaizo Trap: It's possible to die even after beating the Sea Monkey King boss, since the sea monkeys in the background can still pelt you with banana slugs during his death animation.
• Kiss of Death: One enemy from Flea Wee's Big Adventure is a female....snake-thing that will fling flying red kisses at you.
• Lean and Mean: The second mummy boss from Lawrence of Arachnia, in contrast to the first.
• Monster Clown: The Boss of Flea Wee's Big Adventure. Several of the regular mooks in the same world are these.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Many enemies, including the amazons or the zombies, justified since they're actually insects. Averted by other foes.

• Night of the Living Mooks: Zombie Beetles, Ghosts and Frankensteins from Weevil Dead 2.
• Not Quite Flight: Bug gains the ability to slow his descent speed... by flapping his arms like wings. Wings Do Nothing, indeed.
• Ominous Fog: Scenes 1 and 2 of Weevil Dead 2 contain a fog that appears from time to time, making visibility harder.
• Our Centaurs Are Different: There are centaur enemies in Lawrence of Arachnia.
• Our Dragons Are Different: The first boss, a fire-breathing dragon-fly. As in, a cross between a dragon and a dragonfly.
• Pie in the Face: The Monster Clown enemies in Flea Wee's Big Adventure throw pies as a ranged attack.
• Pun-Based Creature:
  • Flea-Wee's Big Adventure contain lions that are actually a cross between a bug with huge mandibles and a lion. In other words, they're Antlions.
  • Swatterworld is full of punny enemies — sea monkeys (cross between a monkey and a fish), hammerhead sharks (a shark with a hammer on its head), and saw-nosed sharks (sharks with a chainsaw attached to their face).
• Puzzle Boss: The Monster Clown. To defeat it, you have to jump on six springs and turn off six switches. Then the platform its on will fall down with it.
• Recurring Boss: One appears in the first world, at the end of each scene.

• The Spiny: Flaming slugs in Antennae Day IV, which cannot be jumped on due to the fact that they're on fire. Spit at them instead.
• Super Drowning Skills: Justified in Lawrence Of Arachnia — the water is infested with hungry swamp worms from the first game. Falling in will get you eaten.

• Tactical Suicide Boss:
  • The alien boss of Antennae Day 4. To defeat it, you have to make it shoot at the pillars, causing them to break and crush him.
  • The Sea Monkey King summons crabs, which allow you to Goomba Springboard off them and land on his head.
• Took a Level in Badass: Maggot Dog. Distressed captive in the first game, playable character in the second.
• Wackyland: Cicada Night Fever. The entire level is one big Mind Screw, culminating with the smoking caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland as the boss. Only there's three of them this time.
• White Gloves: Bug wears white gloves.
• Zero-Effort Boss: The knight fought at the end of Weevil Dead 2 Scene 3 is extremely tiny, around the size of Bug's shoe. You can literally beat him by walking over him, which crushes him instantly.

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