video game bug blog

Hello, I post arthropods from video games. Feel free to submit some! Ran by @big-bee-png

[vgbugs]

Hello!

I post arthropods from video games. Feel free to submit some, if you like!

Please have a look at the archive!

I try to get my own screenshots from games I own, but a lot of them are also from wikis. Many posts may have a mix of the two!

I am not an entomologist, just a person who likes bugs. I may be wrong sometimes or make a comparison that isn't entirely right... I do my best though.

I hope you enjoy Bug!

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Fisherbug - FlyKnight

An old-looking bug person with what looks like a bushy mustache. Unsure what he is, but he's old enough that his wings are withered and atrophied instead of just not having any at all.

The first person you see who's not trying to kill you. Gives you a fishing rod and sends you on your way.

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Mole - Vectorman 2

A big, bulky, burrowing bug with digging claws, a drill on its back, with a pair of eyes that look closed, evoking a Dogu statue. It overall resembles the design of the Umber Hulk from DnD 3e and forward. Probably meant to be a mole cricket.

I'm always a big fan of a bulky earth-type monster, and this one does not disappoint. The art from the manual does it justice a lot more than it does some other enemies. Unsure how it really benefits from that drill though.

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Cable Jumper - Look Outside

Cricket-like monstrosities charged with electricity, likely infected by the Electrophage.

I like the jumper cable-like face tentacles, a feature inherited from the Electrophage itself. Since mutations gained from Looking Outside can be infectious, this one may have just been a regular cricket that lived in the basement before the Electrophage's arrival. Or maybe it was once human, who knows with these things!

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Nyx Assassin - Dota 2

A large creature resembling a mix between a spider and a beetle covered in red armour, covering whatever eyes it may have with a single-horned helmet. It has six legs and a pair of scythe-like arms.

In battle, it is able to cause spikes to erupt from the ground in order to impale enemies, as well as burrow underground. It can also turn invisible and do some kind of damage-link magic.

Wait a minute, it looks just like a Warcraft Spiderlord/Cryptlord and shares the same burrowing and spike abilities. The original DotA was a Warcraft 3 mod, so it stands to reason that a lot of the characters would essentially just be legally distinct versions of the originals, but this one feels barely any different.

The Nyx Assassin is a Zealot Scarab that metamorphosed into a special, deadly form, chosen to kill for the hive's queen-goddess. No need for a major backstory or anything, it's a chosen-one murderbug, go wild.

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Hi!

I am going to be without internet from the 8th until the 16th. I got enough queued posts to cover it but just letting you know.

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KO Kabuto - Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

"With a cannon for a horn and an ironclad frontal defense, this sharpshooting beetle battler will be tough to dent unless you can get behind it."

A Dream Eater resembling a Japanese rhino beetle with four legs and two arms. Also has a stick statche. It has both Spirit and Nightmare versions, which essentially means that it's available both as a party member and as an enemy, with different colour schemes for each.

It is worth noting that its horn is a cannon, and has access to various ranged attacks. Also a defensive support move but that's still something it shoots out of its cannon horn. It does unlock a variety of defensive abilities for Sora or Riku though!

Y'know, I always forget that male Japanese rhino beetles have that smaller, horn-like bit sticking out of their thorax. It has always been there but somehow it never sticks in my memory.

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why does every image have a frame now

this sucks

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Messenger Moth - Black Skylands

Round, roughly chicken-sized moths used to deliver messages between floating islands and airships. Most NPC ones have a nice black and yellow colouration, although Luma, the one the player gets, is pure white.

Gameplay-wise Luma can be used to grab items and resources from a distance, carrying big boxes of ore and scrap dropped by destroyed airships to yours. A very strong moth!

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Worker Ant - Caves of Qud

"Fragrant sour gas plumes from the tiny pores scattered across its broad gaster, and scalded feelers writhe and rub the thickened air."

Giant ants that dwell in the ruins on their own, or alongside a Fire Ant Queen. They emit gas from their abdomens instead of flames.

While it lacks any of the fire-related mutations and heat resistance of other ants, it can emit corrosive gas and has heightened hearing. But the gas is indiscriminate, and other ants don't have any acid resistance, so it can be a big threat to the swarm as a whole. I've seen a Fire Ant Queen die from the gas produced by the Worker Ant it spawned...

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Spider Grub - FlyKnight

A standard, non-anthropomorphic spider. Quite round and cute.

Also hostile, and maybe a little more aggressive than grubs or stinkbugs, but still not much of a threat.

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Megaspider - Rimworld

Belonging to one of those space bug swarms like the Zerg or Tyranids, the Megaspider is a large and heavily armoured insectoid, originally engineered by humanity as a combat and work beast. It's not actually a spider.

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Flying Flea - Vectorman 2

These large fleas have abandoned the ancient ways of their kind, and decided that flight is a better mode of transportation than hopping.

Real fleas do not have wings, of course, but they also don't drop explosives at things below them. And that is where this reality has failed us.

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Alice - Look Outside

"Look at my wings! Duh! And my magic fairy crown? AND my magic fairy wand? I think the evidence... speaks for itself."

A former human twisted into a new shape after Looking Outside, and one of David's students. She turned into a housefly person, and has a lot of fun flying around acting fairy-like.

She will offer to cast a fairy spell on the party, but will ask for $20 afterwards. Fairies gotta afford candy somehow too, it's tough out there.

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Scabaras - Old School RuneScape

An anthropomorphic scarab wearing a purple cape. Very stylish! He is the god of isolation, and it is said that the kalphites were born from his blood.

He was the one who saved Khepri, the last dawn scarab, who was later tricked into servitude by another, evil god. Scabaras arrived to help Khepri after she called out to him before being turned into a mindless thrall. Unfortunately, he got captured as a result. He deserved better.

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Bug Bunny from Omori? It looks like a mammal, but its Foe Facts! entry goes out of the way to confirm that it’s really an arthropod.

Bug Bunny - OMORI

"Actually an arthropod. It likes cold temperatures and rolls down steep hills for amusement. The hobby has gained so much traction that they now hold a yearly hill-rolling competition."

"BUG BUNNY happily scuttles around. It was really cute! BUG BUNNY feels HAPPY!"

A fluffy bunny with six bug legs. It looks mostly the same as the game's many other bunny enemies, but it's bio notes that it is an arthropod. Mimicry, perhaps?

Due to his crippling arachnophobia, Hero will start battles against them Afraid. They sometimes waste turns trying to stand on their heads, but they can also lunge at people, dealing more damage the happier the target is.

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Black Arachnia, the Broodmother - Dota 2

It's a big ol' black widow-derived spider queen sorta character. Black and red colour scheme, the works. Nothing wrong with it, although I'm personally a little bored of this archetype. She has a vertebrate maw surrounded by palps and spider fangs, but her older design actually lacked the monster teeth and was a lot more spiderlike. I like that old version a lot better, it's cute. Like pulling a cat's skin back a little when petting them.

Lorewise, she used to just chill under a volcano with her brood until some dweeb wizard built a lair on it, using her habitat as an added layer of security against adventurers and looters. Having her kids get killed by travelers annoyed her immensely, and apparently she set out to make a compromise with the wizard, eating him only after he refused. This only caused MORE adventurers to trample all over her home so she decided that she's just gonna go out there and kill people until the repeated home invasions stop.

Very reasonable, all things considered.

Her abilities seem to be what I'd expect from such a character. She can spawn spiderlings, put down webs and weaken foes with a venomous bite. Nothing groundbreaking here, but I suppose the classics are classics for a reason.