Platform: Arcade
Region: NTSC-U
Country: United States of America
Developer(s): Universal Entertainment Corporation
Publishers(s): Universal U.S.A., Inc.
ReleaseDate: 1981-12-01
Players: 2
Co-op: No
Lady Bug
Lady Bug is a 1981 arcade maze chase video game developed by Universal Entertainment and released by Universal USA in the USA on December 1, 1981. The goal of Lady Bug is to eat all "flowers," hearts, and letters in the maze while avoiding other insects. The player is represented by a red, yellow, and green character resembling a ladybug while the enemy insects' appearance varies by level. The border of the maze acts as timer, with each circuit signaling the release of an enemy insect from the central area, up to (generally) a maximum of four. The speed of the circuit increases on stages 2 and 5. There are eight different enemy insects — a different insect is introduced on each of the first eight levels. Beginning on level 9, each level has four different enemies. Unlike Pac-Man, the player can alter the layout of the maze by shifting any of the twenty green gates. It is not possible to completely isolate a portion of the maze through gate-shifting. When the fourth enemy insect enters the maze, the central area will show a level-specific vegetable. Eating a vegetable gives the player bonus points and immobilizes the enemy insects for several seconds, though touching them is still lethal. The randomly placed skull icons are lethal to ladybugs and enemy insects. An enemy insect who dies returns to the central area. Once a vegetable is eaten, the central area will remain empty unless an enemy insect dies and is re-released, revealing a new vegetable. A ladybug who dies will shrink from view and be briefly replaced with icons resembling the stereotypical wings and halo of an angel. The colors of the hearts and letters cycle through a short red, a middling yellow, and a longer blue. The point values are as follows: Flower: 10 points (20, 30, or 50 points with appropriate multiplier) Blue letter/heart: 100 points (200, 300, or 500 points with appropriate multiplier) Yellow letter/heart: 300 points (600, 900, or 1500 points with appropriate multiplier) Red letter/heart: 800 points (1600, 2400, or 4000 points with appropriate multiplier) Vegetable: Starts at 1000 points, increases by 500 with each level to a maximum of 9500 points on level 18. Beyond this level, the vegetable's appearance (horseradish) and point value remain fixed. If a heart is consumed while it is blue, a point multiplier will come into effect, indicated by the blue section in the upper right corner of the screen. The first blue heart doubles all point values, the second triples them and the third quintuples them. This multiplier lasts until the level is complete. Eating hearts while they are yellow or red offers no benefit beyond the points collected. At each level, the maze will contain three letters. The first will be randomly selected from the set of {X, T, R} (which appear only in EXTRA), the second will be randomly selected from the set of {S, P, C, I, L} (which appear only in SPECIAL), and the third will be an A or an E (which appear in both words). A secondary goal of the player is to complete the words SPECIAL (indicated in red in the top left corner) and EXTRA (in yellow at top center). If, for example, a letter S is consumed while it is red, the corresponding letter in the word SPECIAL will change from grey to red. Eating an S while it is any other color (or if the S in SPECIAL is already red) offers no benefit beyond the points collected. Completing the word SPECIAL rewards the player with a free game, while completing EXTRA gives the player an extra life. Completing either word causes all its letters to return to normal and immediately advances the player to the next level. The melodies that play when a new Lady Bug enters the maze, and when the player is awarded an extra Lady Bug, are snippets of a Japanese pop song called "Ladybug Samba" (てんとう虫のサンバ, Tentōmushi no Sanba).
ESRB Rating: E - Everyone
Genre(s): Action
