You’d think that after the serious amount of bloody noses you’ve dished out in yesterday’s gaming classic Renegade, that the Your Sinclair Top 100 would be ready to deliver us another game which rocked the home computer world, one with thrills, spills and that is etched into gaming lore. You’ll be rather surprised then to read that at No. #47 we find a game that involves you playing a Bumble Bee – called Barnabee – who needs to find his friend Boris and pollinate flowers along the way! How’s that for hardcore!?
Antics, or The Birds and the Bee 2, was published from Bug-Byte Software in 1984 and was created by Adrian Sherwin, Tim Lewis, Andrew Peckham. This labyrinth-style game sees you searching for your cousin Boris within an ants nest, with numerous enemies and a dwindling stamina to keep your flying rationed, time is short as you hunt through this huge nest for you cousin. Along the way plants are found caked in pollen which aid you on your journey.
Though our title may seem a bit of an anti-climax after Renegade, it does actual have element of fun to it – the graphics are pleasant, the flying with a penalty of losing stamina is a nice feature and the game is a decent size. However Antics does have it problems too, there are areas of the maze that fade away to help you in your progress, but there is no indication which parts of the wall do this so you end up bumping into all walls, losing valuable stamina; when you do manage to break through a wall these gaps are just the right size for you bee and nothing more and on occasion it is extremely difficult to get your hero through the gap; lastly I couldn’t find Boris so I ended up making the game more about pollinating flowers than finding my cousin.
Though it’s no Renegade, Antics has its charms but I don’t think it should be higher than a number of other games in this Top 100 that we’ve passed by already.
Originally published July 12, 2016. Updated June 30, 2023.
