British studio Argonaut Games made a bunch of memorable games in the ’90s and early 2000s, chief among them the original Star Fox, a Super Nintendo game based on The Ren & Stimpy Show and—who can forget—Croc. It was thanks to the latter that Argonaut Games was reopened in 2024 after a 17 year absence by its founder Jez San, resulting in a remaster of the 1997 3D platformer Croc Legend of the Gobbos. People seem to like it.
Croc is pretty iconic: if you were alive in the ’90s and vaguely interested in videogames you’ll recognise his whimsical green snout and oddly plaintive eyes immediately. The same cannot be said however, for Buck Bumble. He was the star of a 1998 Nintendo 64 third-person shooter that I had completely forgotten about until, oh, about 45 minutes ago.
A cyborg bumblebee, Buck Bumble was tasked with eliminating evil in an unfortunately-not-very-true-to-life imagining of London life in 2010. It kinda looks like it could have been Argonaut’s pitch for a Star Fox game: it’s an airborne shooter with a kinda cutesy art style, and a then-typical abundance of collectibles in a series of freeranging fog-smattered levels.
I do faintly remember being interested in playing Buck Bumble despite the middling contemporary reviews, but I never did. Thankfully, it looks like the revitalisation we were vaguely promised last year is actually coming to fruition.
“Right about now Buck Bumble is officially your new wholesome 4/20 mascot, and we will not be taking further questions …at this time,” the official Argonaut Games Bluesky account posted. “But stay tuned and BEE sure to follow us for forthcoming news and announcements!”
Right about now Buck Bumble is officially your new wholesome 4/20 mascot, and we will not be taking further questions …at this time. But stay tuned and BEE sure to follow us for forthcoming news and announcements! 👀🐝 #BuckBumble
— @argonautgames.com (@argonautgames.com.bsky.social) 2026-04-21T04:55:02.659Z
I wonder what that could mean? Well, the accompanying video, which you can see in the embed above, does rock a very hi-res Buck Bumble, and a newly hi-res Buck Bumble logo. I would hazard a guess they’re going to remaster that baggy ‘ol 1998 shooter which, despite possibly not being groundbreaking, is a win for game preservation at the very least.
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