Broncos Win Super Bowl XLVIII 10 - 7 Over Seahawks

With both the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos having good seasons, it was exciting to see them battle it out at the Super Bowl this year. The Broncos seem to have the superior offense, but the Seahawks ranked better overall and had a stronger defense. It was sure to be a good match up.

The weather in Denver was unseasonably warm and sunny, making for the perfect day for a football game.

The Seahawks received the opening kickoff, but made little progress before being forced to punt. Both teams were evenly matched throughout the first quarter and neither was able to score.

It wasn't until late in the second quarter that the Broncos made the first score thanks to J. Elam's thirty-one yard field goal attempt. They were only prevented from a touchdown thanks to a holding penalty and the Seahawks' stellar defense.

The Seahawks made a swift recovery, with C. Warren easily catching the pass for a touchdown and extra point, bringing the score to 7 - 3. The Broncos struggled for the rest of the quarter as a result of penalties and sacks, but ended up with possession of the ball at the start of the second half.

The third quarter mirrored the first somewhat, with several turnovers and no points, but ended with the Broncos in position to score.

Denver was able to follow through early in the fourth quarter with a touchdown and extra point thanks to a successful pass from J. Elway to S. Sharpe bringing the score to Seahawks - 7, Broncos - 10 with 4:38 left in the game. From there, it was a gruesome stalemate and both teams faced injuries and substitutions.

Seattle's star player, L. Smith suffered a stubbed toe and had to be switched with the team's less stellar reserve Smith. On the Broncos' side, D. Clark fell victim to a near fatal paper cut and his place was taken by D. Carswell.

During the final minute, Seattle started making rapid progress down the field and seemed poised for a comeback until Denver's L. Washington intercepted a pass and sealed their fate with only 12 seconds to go. The final score remained low: Seattle 7 - Denver 10. Congratulations to both teams on another great season!

Game predictions were provided by computer controlled teams in Madden NFL '97 for Sega Saturn. See also, Wii U's TVii Sports functionality.

Bug Too! - Only Slightly More Fun Than Real Bugs

Source: mobygames.com

I've played a Sega Saturn probably less than five times in my life and as far as I can remember, I have never played Bug Too! before (though my neighbor across the street might've had it now that I think about it). Well in any case, I've played [some of] it now and I'm here to tell you what I think! I'll also refrain from using exclamation points from now on whenever possible, even though the game's title does unnecessarily contain one.

Basically, it's a 3D platformer akin to Crash Bandicoot. You play as a bug starring in a series of movies. Each movie makes up a world and contains a few levels with bosses at the end of them. As you progress through each level, you can collect diamonds and other trinkets to increase your score which determines how much money the movie earns. I've yet to discover why making a high grossing movie matters or, really, how the levels being movie sets really affects the gameplay at all.

The walkable path was hard enough to see as it was;
then they added fog.

As a kid, I might have been excited to explore any 3D game world, but playing this game now, I can't help but wonder at some of the design choices. Rather than being able to run around freely in the 3D environment, your character will often be confined to a 2D plane and can only change direction at specific junctions. On the one hand, this keeps you from falling off the sides, but on the other hand it severely limits your mobility and is not implemented well. You will frequently encounter areas where you'll want to jump down from a ledge but find that you can't due to an invisible wall. Seriously, there are invisible walls everywhere. In one early puzzle, you have to push a lever to rotate a cube further on. In any normal game, any surface of the cube would allow you to walk on it and get to any adjacent area, but in Bug Too! you'll only be able to walk on the parts that have a slightly different colored path. 

To make matters worse, you can walk up and down walls, which would be cool normally, but as with moving anywhere in this game, you'll only be able to do it if the game wants you to. The puzzles and platforming aren't exactly difficult; they just waste your time by making you run back and forth. Then there's the first boss which, unlike most enemies up to that point, hurts you when you jump on it and can only be damaged by a new move you only acquire for the first time during the fight (as far as I could tell).

When it comes to the graphics and audio, Bug Too! is hit or miss. The graphics aren't too bad as a whole, but the lack of visual cues for where you can and can't go is a huge oversight. The music also isn't bad, but it inexplicably fades out rather than smoothly looping like any other game's music. The characters also talk and say one-liners every now and then, which I guess you could count as a positive if you're feeling generous. 


In spite of all my criticisms, Bug Too! isn't a terrible game. It's just not a very good game. When it was new, I'm sure I would have enjoyed it as I would have any 3D platforming game. Even now, there's some fun to be had here. It's just that there are so many faults that you may as well play one of the many better alternatives.


Check out my partial Let's Play series below: