Ludography
Buzz Bombers cover

1982 · Mattel Electronics · Arcade · Shoot 'em up

Buzz Bombers

Buzz Bombers is an arcade action game similar to Centipede. You control a can of bug spray at the bottom of the screen, and you need to defend yourself from the swarms of incoming bees. The bees start at the top of the screen, and fly their way back and forth, slowly heading towards the bottom of the screen. If they reach the ground, they will pollinate the flowers there which causes them to grow and will restrict movement of your spray can.

Released
1982
Platforms
Intellivision
Genres
ArcadeShoot 'em upShooter
Developers
Mattel Electronics
Publishers
Mattel Electronics
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Side view
Themes
Action
Country
United States

About

Buzz Bombers is a fixed shooter video game developed by Mattel Electronics for its Intellivision system and released in 1983. Mattel's reaction to Atari's popular Centipede, the player controls a can of bug spray trying to ward off swarms of bees.

Keywords

  • retro
  • shoot 'em up
  • bees

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

In Buzz Bombers, the player character takes the form of a can of bug spray, protecting a garden of flowers from bees. The player's spray can fires shots of bee repellent that will turn the bee into a piece of honeycomb. The standard worker bees will fly left and right above the garden, reversing direction whenever they reach the edge of the screen or a piece of honeycomb. At the edge of the screen, the bee will drop one level closer to the garden.

In later levels, killer bees will appear, which move much faster than the regular bees and are unaffected by honeycombs; killer bees turn into pieces of red honeycomb when shot. If a regular bee is trapped between two obstacles, it will form a beehive, which is worth bonus points at the completion of the level.

Development

During the game's development, a prototype was prepared where the spray can was branded as a can of Raid, a brand of insecticide produced by SC Johnson, in an attempt to get the company to partner on the game's promotion; SC Johnson declined the offer. As the game went into mass production, the information on the box indicated that Buzz Bombers allowed two players to play, an error which forced the incorrect information to be corrected by hand on every game box prior to shipment.

Legacy

Buzz Bombers was re-released as part of the Intellivision Lives! collection for computers and other game consoles. In May 2010, Buzz Bombers was made available on Microsoft's now-defunct Game Room service for its Xbox 360 console and for Games for Windows Live.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Intellivision31 December 1982North America · Brazil 1 November 1984

Editions and related releases

Included in
Intellivision Collection 1Intellivision Lives!Intellivision Flashback

Games like this

Collections1 collection

Platform libraries

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.