ANTZ: PANIC IN THE ANTHILL!

An army of rebellious ants have invaded the anthill. You are Z, a hero in spite himself, who will have to save the inhabitants of the anthill from this terrible threat. To save it, you must place explosive mushrooms to destroy their underground bases...

• Up to 2 Players
• 50 levels
• Gold coins, mosquitoes, magic mushrooms... And many more surprises!

~ translated from the back of the Spanish box

When making a budget game, you can go one of two routes; spend all your money on a semi-popular licence or rip off another game wholesale. Antz: Panic in the Anthill! does both. It came out in 2001, three years after DreamWorks' first computer animated movie and just so happens to be an exact copy of Bomberman.

You play as Z, the neurotic middle child of a colony of warmongering ants, fighting back against the military by using exploding mushrooms. Rather than defeat all of the enemies to open up the exit to the next level, you have to destroy all of the block within the single-screen maze. There are 40 levels of this and none of them change from this formula. What does change is the graphics, though not by much. After 10 levels or so, the colour palate will change. You might also find that a cockroach or two has joined the ant army but as far as I can tell there's no real difference between them.

Controls for both players. They are bizarrely unchangeable (left)
Once all the rocks are gone, head to the exit to head to the next level (right).

The only real variety is with the power-ups. These will randomly crop up in the remains of an exploding rock or blown up mandibled marine. The Golden 'Shroom will add to your arsenal, allowing you to place more than one bomb at a time. The Lightning Bolt will increase its area of destruction. Mosquitos will put a spring in your step, while Poisons will hobble you to a crawl. Blue 'Shrooms proved to be the most useful by far, if you've gathered a few Lightning Bolts that is. Regular bombs will only destroy the first rock reached within its blast radius. Blue bombs will continue right up until its maximum distance meaning a whole line of rocks can be destroyed in one.

Once the map has been levelled the exit will randomly appear. The respawning enemies will have access to the whole place by now, so navigate safely past them to reach it and do it all again with a slightly different layout.

There is a 2-player mode, which is always welcome for time-wasters aimed at younger kids such as this, though it is rather limited. Player 1 will always be Z having the best control scheme with the arrow keys and space bar. Player 2 is always General Mandible, using the slightly awkward ESDF keys for movement and the shift key to plant bombs. These are strangely unchangeable but in keeping with the cheap lack of presentation skills characteristic of the whole game.

Uncover a Mosquito, and you'll speed up for a short amount of time (left).
Consume a Poison Bottle and you'll slow to a snail's crawl (right).

This is a shame considering how impressive the movie looked at the time. The graphics are limited to pixelated sprites that look like a knock-off Deviant Art interpretation of the CGI characters. We have no cut-scenes or movie clips to ease you into the game and there are only two Redbook audio tracks to provide the music; one for the main menu and another for gameplay. Neither come from the film's surprisingly decent soundtrack, and both are likely to send you loopy with how repetitive and annoying they are. At least you can turn it off in the options menu.

I always preferred Antz over its rival movie at Disney. It seemed more intelligent and angrily adult than the sweet-natured tale of A Bug's Life. It actually aimed to say something about the world we live in which was rare for an animated movie. I even prefer the more realistic nightmare fuel of its visual design, but there's no denying this low-budget, low-effort tie-in is the ultimate example of a cash grab. Hunt down any version Bomberman instead.
 

To download the PC game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses dgVoodoo and CDAudio Proxy (CDEmu) to run on modern systems. Spanish-language manual included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

File Size: 19.8 Mb.  Install Size: 26.2 Mb.  Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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Antz: Panic in the Anthill! is © Light and Shadow Production & DreamWorks LLC
Review, Cover Design and Installer created by me

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