Super Bug Review – This Was a Popular Driving Game in 1977, but What’s It Like Today?

In the early years of gaming, developers were still trying to discover just what kinds of titles would be appealing to the public. This also had to be in accordance with the hardware limitations they were facing at the time. Many themes involved cars, such as racing or driving games. These were usually presented from an overhead perspective. One such example was Kee Games’ Super Bug.

Gameplay

Upon start up, you see your yellow Volkswagen near the center of the screen with both sides of the road visible on either side. You begin with 90 seconds on the clock and your car being in fourth gear. I don’t know why it isn’t in first! Since this is a DLC game for the Atari 50 Celebration, you use your right trigger to accelerate and the left trigger to break. The various face buttons on the controller are used to change gears between 1 through 4.

One cool thing about this is that you can always go from one to the other as needed based on the situation. You don’t have to change gears in sequential order. In fact, after wrecking, I would often go down to first gear while the wrecking animation would play out. More on that later.

During regular gameplay, you drive down the road while following the path as indicated by some arrows that are visible at times. Along the way you also have to avoid hazards such as parked cars, oil slicks, or piles of sand. The latter two are oddly indicated as such as you go along. I guess the developers wanted you to be sure of what you were driving over?

The game allows you to change your difficulty level before playing. Super Bug’s hard mode has at least twice as many hazards on the road at any one time. For instance, while playing this mode I saw oil and/or sand on the road at the same time, which I never saw happen in the normal mode. Typically, you’d have one hazard at a time, along with a change in the direction of the route. This more challenging mode also has the parked cars placed further away from the side of the street. Sometimes they were practically in the middle of where I was trying to go. Despite all that, the gameplay isn’t drastically different than the default mode. The actions I was performing remained similar.

The goal of the game is to travel as far as possible in the allotted time. If you earn 160 points you can play for longer. Once you run out of time, the game is over. Since this is an arcade title, you have the option to change how much time you have to play. Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to adjust the score requirement to play longer.

The first time I saw this I was excited to try it out. However, after some repeated play sessions I became frustrated with it. The reason being that the game’s perspective felt extremely zoomed in. Almost like I was playing a high-res Gameboy title! Because your car is in the center of the screen, and not further down, there was a very limited amount of time to react to hazards or turns as I approached them. Sometimes I would be able to perform four or five turns really well in the highest gear, but before too long I would mess up, and crash into the side of the road.

Graphics

Earlier I mentioned how Super Bug reminded me of a Gameboy title. This didn’t stem from just how zoomed in the game looked. It’s also because almost everything in it is black, white, or a shade of gray. On the game’s screen, the only objects that have color are the fuel and score text, and also your yellow VW Bug.

This may be a reason why the developers felt like they needed to tell you what you were driving over. Perhaps play testers gave them feedback about that during earlier builds of the game. In addition to the edge of the road and the hazards, there are also trees or shrubs on the side of the screen.

I personally find this to be a petty good-looking game. It scrolls smooth in all directions, and the resolution for the objects is detailed. The largely lack of color is surprising, though.

The game’s biggest change in graphics come when you crash into something. Doing so causes the screen to flash, the black and white colors invert repeatedly in a strong flashing pattern, and the word “CRUNCH” is shown in front of your vehicle. There’s also a colored star burst effect that emanates your car as well. This lasts for what feels like a long time, and can be aggravating when you barely smash into something. I expect this effect would be bad for those susceptible to seizures brought on by flashing lights.

While the artwork around the screen does a good job of showing off the VW Bug and a large amount of exhaust coming out of the two cars, I didn’t find it very compelling. I was more annoyed by it because it made the game look like a racing title, but it played more like a driving one instead.

Sound Effects

The game’s sound effects are similar to other titles from the mid to late 70’s. I consider them to be OK. The hum of your engine as you drive around can be kind of satisfying. Tire squeals and sounds of losing traction work well when you drive over sand or oil. However, the most pronounced is the big crunch sound after hitting the side of the road. I liked them to some extent, but consider them significantly less interesting than what was found in Atari’s own Destroyer (Review), which was released in the same year.

Like is typical of early titles, there isn’t any music.

Final Thoughts

Although I haven’t verbalized this aspect during thus far in the review, I appreciate Super Bug’s tone and its casual nature. If you just want to drive around city streets while avoiding hazards and pretending to drive a VW Bug, you could do a lot worse. It’s rather approachable, at least at first glance.

I also think of it as an early driving game that is distinct from racing titles that were beginning to come out around this time.

However, due to its zoomed in perspective, lack of a compelling goal, and the near-constant excessive crashing animation that dominates the game, I ended up not having too much fun with it.

As such, I feel like it deserves a Negative rating. That’s a shame because it was the fourth or fifth highest grossing arcade game in 1978, at least according to Wikipedia. You can find a link to that down below.

Title: Super Bug (Wikipedia)
Genre: Top-down Driving
Year Released: 1977
Developer: Kee Games, a subsidiary of Atari.
Available On: This arcade game is part of The Wider World of Atari DLC for the Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration. It’s available on all major systems such as the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 1 and 2, GOG, and Steam. The game is also included in the Expanded Edition of Atari 50 as well.
Price Paid: $0.34, or $12.92 for a double pack of the first two DLC for the Atari 50 collection.

Remember, we can have different opinions about the games we play. If you like something more (or less) than I do, both of our perspectives are valid. Please see my Review Rating Scale to know more of how I rate games.